Author Archives: Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

Dawn speaks on “Undergraduate Research Opportunities” for the McMaster Undergraduate Research S

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Dawn was delighted to be invited to speak at an information night organized by the McMaster Undergraduate Research in Science Association (MURSA). She presented her perspectives on what she might be looking for in an undergraduate student, why PIs/Professors take on undergraduates and once an undergraduate gets a position, what they need to do to be successful. For her presentation, click here. To learn more about the MURSA see their webpage or Facebook page

Dawn presents her perspectives on why a PI might take an undergraduate researcher and what an undergraduate might do to obtain a research position and be successful in research.

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Congratulations to Zhongyuan Tu on successfully defending his MSc thesis!

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Zhongyuan Tu successfully defended his MSc thesis entitled “Characterization of MARCO mediated endocytosis”, making him the Bowdish lab’s second graduate student to graduate. Longtime followers of bowdish.ca will know that Zhongyuan was the very first student to join the Bowdish lab as an undergraduate thesis and then MSc student. Zhongyuan’s thesis involved tackling how the phagocytic receptor MARCO sends signals through the cell.  Zhongyuan will work until January in the Bowdish lab to finish up important parts of his project and he is currently looking at labs in the U.K. or possibly Canada to do a PhD. Congratulations and good luck Zhongyuan!

Bowdish lab attends the yearly “State-of-the-Lab” chat at Quatrefoil restaurant.

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Once a year Dawn has an ego trip and performs her “State-of-the-lab” address. September (the beginning of the year for anyone who has been in academia as long as we all have) is a time to reflect on the year’s successes, challenges for the upcoming year and bottlenecks to productivity. This year’s chat focussed heavily on opportunities for trainees and career development. Every year Dawn issues a “Grand Challenge” which the lab may or may not take and this years was a challenge to become better science citizens and communicators. Stay posted as there may be some very interesting follow up if this year’s challenge is accepted by the team!

The team at Quatrefoil Restaurant in Dundas Ontario. Back row: Mike Dorrington, Kyle Novakowski, Dr. Chris Verschoor. Middle row: Zhongyuan Tu, Julie Kaiser, Mark McDermott, Keith Lee. Front row: Netusha Thevaranjan, Dawn Bowdish, Charles Yin, Dr. Preethi Jayanth, Michelle Pinto

Fiona Whelan successfully defends her MSc thesis!

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Fiona Whelan is the first Bowdish student to defend her thesis. Fiona’s defended her thesis entitled ” “Discovery of conserved motifs in MARCO through evolutionary analyses and molecular biology”. Her work on the evolution of the class A scavenger receptors has resulted in a better understanding of their relationship and grouping as a family and has lead to interesting hints as to which regions are conserved (and are presumably important functionally) within MARCO and across all the class A scavenger receptors. She defended exceptionally well. Congratulations Fiona!

Fiona Whelan & Dr. Dawn Bowdish at her party celebrating her successful MSc defence.

Dr. Bowdish receives a CIHR Operating Grant from the Institute of Aging.

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Dr. Bowdish’s grant, titled Macrophage function changes and contributes to susceptibility to infectious disease, was awarded $730,124 from the CIHR Institute of Aging.  This new grant will examine age-related changes in monocytes and macrophages to better understand aspects of aging that increase suceptibility to Streptococcus pneumoniae infection. This grant will likely allow Dr. Bowdish to hire a new post-doctoral fellow and graduate student. Interested applicants should consult the FAQ page.

MIRC scientists were highly successful in this recent round of CIHR funding (especially considering the low rates of funding!). To see who else got funded, click here.

 

 

Dr. Chris Verschoor wins prestigious fellowship from the Canadian Thoracic Society!

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A big congratulations to Dr. Chris Verschoor on winning a competitive fellowship from the Canadian Thoracic Society. Dr. Verschoor’s winning proposal consisted of an innovative assessment of how changes in immune function that occur with age will predispose the elderly to disease. This research proposal capitalizes on the ability of the McMaster Immunology Research Centre‘s to perform clinical grade research using the Human Immunology Suite and Dr. Verschoor’s expertise in human immune phenotyping. We look forward to all the exciting research this will allow Dr. Verschoor to perform.

Alicja Puchta recognized for teaching excellence.

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Alicja Puchta (PhD candidate) was recognized for her excellence in graduate teaching at the Faculty of Health Sciences Research Plenary. Alicja has been a dedicated and passionate teaching assistant for both anatomy and immunology courses during the course of her MSc and PhD degrees. She has been asked for by name by multiple instructors and is a clear favourite with her students. Congratulations Alicja!

Alicja Puchta recognized for her excellent TAing

Alicja Puchta recognized for her contributions to teaching. D. Bowdish, Alicja Puchta and Catherine Hayward, Dean of Graduate Studies.

Fiona Whelan wins prestigious Google Anita Borg scholarship!

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We in the Bowdish lab are beaming with pride that Fiona Whelan (MSc candidate) has won an extremely prestigious scholarship from Google. The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship honors the memory of Dr. Anita Borg, who devoted her life to encouraging the presence of women in computing and founded the Institute for Women in Technology in 1997. Anita passed away in 2003, and we created the Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship in 2004 to honor her memory. Anita’s legacy lives on today through this scholarship and the organization she created, which has since been re-named the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology. This is especially inspiring since Anita Borg was a driving force to attract and retain young women in computer science. According to the scholarship committe -“Her capacity to mix technical expertise and a relentless vision inspired, motivated and moved women to embrace technology instead of avoiding or ignoring it. She has touched and changed the lives of countless women in the computing fields and beyond.”

To read the press release from Google, click here.

To read the McMaster Daily News article, click here.

To read the CBC article, click here.

As part of her award Fiona will be travelling to Google HQ to network, participate in workshops learn about new Google products. Way to go Fiona!

Congratulations to Keith Lee on winning an undergraduate summer studentship from the Canadian Society of Microbiology!

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Congratulations to the Bowdish lab’s newest summer/thesis student, Keith Lee on winning a summer studentship from the Canadian Society of Immunology. These competitions are increasingly competitive and it is an honour to be recognized. Well done, Keith!

May 2nd update – Keith also won a BHSc summer scholarship. Great start, Keith!