Congratulations Poster Winners at the fourth Saskatchewan Cancer Research Conference

The fourth Saskatchewan Cancer Research Conference was held June 14, 2017 in Saskatoon, with 108 registered participants from a wide range of disciplines in attendance. This conference recognizes and promotes the excellent cancer research within the province and provides valuable learning and networking opportunities for the participants.

Conference Speakers

The conference featured Keynote Speakers.

  • Dr. Paul Rennie, from the Vancouver Prostate Centre, B.C.  The title of his seminar was “Discovery and Drug Targeting of Novel Sites on the Androgen Receptor to Inhibit Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer”. 

Additional presentations were made by local investigators, including Dr. S. Yadav (SCA, Medical Oncology), Dr. E. Price (Chemistry), Dr. S. Ahmed (SCA, Medical Oncology), Mr. F. Islam (student, Biochemistry), Dr. N. Venugopal (SCA, Clinical Medical Physics), Dr. T. Arnason (Anatomy and Cell Biology), Dr. S. Papagerakis (Surgery) and Sponsor MilliporeSIGMA rep Ms. A. Cartman.

 

Poster Presentation Winners

The conference also included poster presentations, and recognized several poster winners:

 

Graduate Student, tied First Place ($200):

Chelsea Cunningham (Supervisor: Dr. F. Vizeacoumar, Oncology)

Exploiting the synthetic dosage lethal interactions of polo-like kinase 1 for cancer therapeutics

 

Graduate Student, tied First Place ($200):

Ashley Sutherland (Supervisor: Dr. R. Geyer, Pathology)

Targeting tumour-associated antigen HER3 using car t cells: a platform for screening T cell potency

 

Graduate Student, Second Place ($100):

Emily McEwen (Supervisor: Dr. A. Freywald, Pathology and F. Vizeacoumar, Oncology)

Targeting the EphB6 receptor in Cancer: The role of EphB6 in the drug-resistance of T-ALL cells

 

Best Student Oral Presentation, Graduate Student ($100):

Md Fahmid Islam (Supervisor: Dr. R. Geyer, Pathology and F. Vizeacoumar, Oncology)

Study of the essentiality of circular RNAs in human cancer through a functional genomic approach

 

Post-Doctoral Fellow ($200):

Dr. Shari Smith (Supervisor: Dr. D. Anderson, Oncology and Cancer Cluster)

Targeting cancer progression genes upregulated in CREB3L1-deficient breast cancer cells

The success of the conference was in large part due to excellent job of organizers: Drs. Keith Bonham, Franco Vizeacoumar, and Erique Lukong. Invaluable assistance was provided by Sheila Ash and Lori Amson, as well as Frederick Vizeacoumar (website/technical) and Mark Boyd (logistics).  This conference was supported by funds from the Saskatchewan Cancer Agency, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, the College of Medicine – University of Saskatchewan, ThermoFisher Scientific and MilliporeSigma.