Our highly anticipated Annual Scientific Meeting is coming soon, and we hope to see you there. The event will be in a hybrid format, with the in-person component in Montréal, QC, on December 5-7, 2023. We are delighted to announce that this year’s Meeting Co-Chairs are Dr. Siba Haykal and Dr. Vanessa Silva e Silva, supported by a planning committee of CDTRP researchers, trainees, and patient, family, and donor partners.
The Annual Scientific Meeting aims to promote interdisciplinary collaboration among CDTRP members, including investigators, trainees, and patient, family, and donor partners in all areas of donation and transplantation research. We seek to engage senior and junior researchers to share their ideas, work in progress, and research achievements and connect with CDTRP’s diverse, multi-disciplinary national community. The rich and varied program will feature presentations, panel discussions, interactive workshops, and networking sessions. It will also provide a venue for national research teams and working groups to collaborate and advance project planning, fostering collaboration and innovation.
Whether you’re a seasoned researcher, a trainee just starting, or someone with lived experience, this event provides a unique working space to explore the forefront of the art, science, and policy of donation and transplantation.
Our highly anticipated Annual Scientific Meeting is coming soon, and we hope to see you there. The event will be in a hybrid format, with the in-person component in Montréal, QC, on December 5-7, 2023. We are delighted to announce that this year’s Meeting Co-Chairs are Dr. Siba Haykal and Dr. Vanessa Silva e Silva, supported by a planning committee of CDTRP researchers, trainees, and patient, family, and donor partners.
The Annual Scientific Meeting aims to promote interdisciplinary collaboration among CDTRP members, including investigators, trainees, and patient, family, and donor partners in all areas of donation and transplantation research. We seek to engage senior and junior researchers to share their ideas, work in progress, and research achievements and connect with CDTRP’s diverse, multi-disciplinary national community. The rich and varied program will feature presentations, panel discussions, interactive workshops, and networking sessions. It will also provide a venue for national research teams and working groups to collaborate and advance project planning, fostering collaboration and innovation.
Whether you’re a seasoned researcher, a trainee just starting, or someone with lived experience, this event provides a unique working space to explore the forefront of the art, science, and policy of donation and transplantation.
BE PART OF THE PROGRAM
Bring us your problems: CDTRP’s Education and Career Development Platform will host pre-peer review workshops. These workshops will provide the opportunity to present ongoing or proposed work to receive feedback on specific issues. Have questions about the best methodology to use? Don’t know if your results should be combined into one manuscript or split between two? Looking for collaborating sites? Can’t figure out exactly how to involve a patient, family, or donor partner in your project? This is where you can bring all these questions and more. The goal is to help CDTRP members – trainees and researchers alike – address issues before submitting a grant or a manuscript to strengthen the submission. Researchers or trainees interested in participating should complete their respective forms below. Researchers with expertise relevant to common questions may be asked to participate as mentors in this event.
CALLING ALL RESEARCHERS & PFD PARTNERS
Bring us your ideas: We are currently seeking ideas for sessions. All CDTRP members are invited to propose their ideas for sessions of any format (e.g., panel discussions, debates, working groups, workshops). We welcome both sessions that would be part of the main program, open to all attendees, and smaller working sessions limited to specific collaborators. Your input will help us create an outstanding program that reflects the latest issues and developments in the field.
Submit your session and workshop ideas below!
CALLING ALL TRAINEES
Oral presentations: We invite trainees to submit their completed or near-completed projects for consideration to be selected for an oral presentation. The top submission from each CDTRP Theme will be selected and receive free registration plus a $150 cash prize.
To be considered, trainees must be registered members of the CDTRP Education and Career Development Platform at the time of submission.
ity of Alberta and has received training in patient-oriented research through the University of Calgary’s PACER (Patient and Community Engagement Research) Program. He is the Patient, Family, and Donor Partnerships & Education Manager with the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program. In this role, Manuel builds relationships patient partners with investigators and strengthens capacity among CDTRP patient partners.
Anders Billström 
Gareth Wiltshire
K
Sherrie is the Founder of Ashley’s Angels, a 3rd party fundraising initiative supporting The Hospital for Sick Children transplant program, which she formed following her daughter’s liver transplant in August 2009. She is responsible for overseeing and leading the organization’s strategies and overall direction.
born and raised in Edmonton, AB. With a degree in Music Performance (saxophone performance) and Education, Lindsey has taught for over a decade in the Edmonton Public School system. When she is not teaching, she is very involved in the music community, performing in the Edmonton Winds, conducting her own community ensemble (The Beer League Band) and on numerous musical boards across the province. For the past 5 years, Lindsey has had to take a break from teaching after having her amazing son, George. Maternity leave did not goes as expected as George was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy at 5 months old and required 2 heart transplants before the age of 4. During this time, Lindsey has also began to dedicate her time building and expanding her charity: Big Gifts for Little Lives, where they raise money to fund Pediatric Heart Transplant research at the Stollery.
Okonofua’s bio
Dr. Caigan Du is a scientist at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and an assistant professor in the Department of Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He received a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry in UK and postdoctoral training in Immunology in USA. He is interested in the pathogenesis of kidney ischemia-reperfusion injury and transplant rejection, and molecular control of urinary malignancies. He has been studying the impact of kidney donor-derived factors on renal allograft rejection, and the molecular pathways of kidney injury and regeneration in experimental models. He is also interested in developing medical solution including drugs made from natural compounds for all kinds of health problems, including immune disorders, organ preservation, kidney failure and urinary cancer. He is the PI of many grant supports from the Kidney Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Heather Badenoch is a non-directed living liver donor and communications strategist. As the president of Village PR, she provides strategic communications direction and training to not-for-profit clients in community and health. An active transplant volunteer, Heather helps transplant candidates find living donors by running their public appeals, small and large, pro-bono. She also mentors potential living donors on the path to living donation. Heather is a volunteer with the UHN Centre for Living Organ Donation and the Canadian Donation and Transplant Research Program. She and her spouse adopt rescue dogs and volunteer together with Community Veterinary Outreach, a group providing free veterinary care to the pets of people who are homeless.
Sean Dicks is a clinical psychologist who has 20 years’ experience supporting both families of organ donors and transplant recipients. While it is rare for him to have contact with a donor family and recipient linked to the same organ donation-transplantation event, his contact with families who have lived experience with organ donation on the one hand, and patients who have received transplants on the other hand has provided opportunities to explore how their journeys become linked when they attempt to make sense of and find meaning in their respective crises.
Terri Hansen-Gardiner is a Cree speaking Metis woman from Northern Saskatchewan as well as a 10 year Breast Cancer Survivor. Her tireless spirit and dedication to her community is undeniable. Terri is a cancer survivor who travels around the province to provide assistance, information, and support to Indigenous patients who are trying to access and navigate the cancer care system.
Dr. Golnaz Karoubi is Assistant Scientist at the Toronto General HospitalResearch Institute and principal investigator in the Latner Thoracic Research Labs. She currently holds an Assistant Professor appointment in the department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and a cross-appointment in the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Dr. Karoubi received her PhD in Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto and joined the Lung Regenerative Medicine Program in the Department of Clinical Research in Berne University, Switzerland for a post-doctoral research fellowship. She stayed on as a Group Leader in 2008 to direct the basic and transitional science as related to Cancer Stem Cell and Lung Regenerative Medicine in the Department of Biomedical Research at the University of Berne until 2012. In early 2012, she joined the team of Dr. Tom Waddell at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute as a Senior Scientific Associate and was appointed to Assistant Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (University Health Network) in November 2019 and to Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology in July 2020.
Dr. Haykal graduated from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine in2007 as class valedictorian and silver medalist, and subsequently completed her residency training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Toronto in 2016. During her residency, she completed a four-year Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and immunology with a focus on tracheal reconstruction. She obtained numerous grants and awards including a CIHR Vanier Scholarship. Dr. Haykal then pursued fellowship training in microsurgical reconstruction at the Albany Medical Centre in New York. Dr. Haykal joined the University Health Network and the Toronto General Hospital in 2018. Her clinical focus is on complex oncological reconstruction and microsurgical reconstruction of the breast, head and neck and extremity. She started a lymphedema program in 2019 where she offers microsurgical techniques for the treatment of lymphedema.
Dr. Ahmed is a Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. The recipient of the 2022 Hypertension Canada Senior Investigator Award, she is a nephrologist and clinician-scientist with a focus on sex and gender differences in human cardiovascular/kidney physiology and clinical outcomes. Dr. Ahmed is the Vice Chair (Research) for the Department of Medicine, Lead of the Libin Institute Women’s Cardiovascular Health Research Initiative at the University of Calgary and Lead of the Alberta Strategy for Patient Oriented Research Capacity Development Platform. Dr. Ahmed is an Advisory Board member for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Gender and Health, a member of the Canadian Medical Association Journal Governing Council and the President-Elect for the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences.
