Congratulations Sara for winning the Gerald T Simons award for her presentation at the Microscopical Society of Canada and Microscopical Society of America (M&M2018) in Baltimore.
To read her award winning abstract, click here.
Congratulations to former Bowdish lab undergraduate student Charles Yin on his week of accomplishments – publishing his paper on one of his undergraduate projects and winning a prestigious CIHR Vanier Scholarship for his MD/PhD work at UWO.
Congrats Charles!
As mentioned in an earlier post, Bowdish lab PhD student, Avee Naidoo, won the Fall 2014 CIHR Institute of Aging Anne Martin-Matthews Doctoral Research Prize of Excellence in Research on Aging and is mentioned in the CIHR’s Institute of Aging newsletter!
Congratulations to Avee Naidoo for winning the Anne Martin-Matthews Doctoral Research Prize of Excellence in Research on Aging! Avee’s work focuses on studying the role of the microenvironment on age and how this affects immune function in the elderly. Her research will help us to understand the mechanisms behind the impaired antibacterial function seen in the elderly, as well as lead to earlier prognosis of individuals at risk of chronic age related diseases.
Avee will be presented her award at this year’s Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting of the Canadian Association on Gerontology in Calgary, Alberta! She will also be a guest judge for the Student Poster Competition at the meeting so bring your A game!
Congratulations to Kyle Novakowski for receiving an OGS scholarship for his PhD research on macrophage phagocytic receptors. Way to go Kyle!
Kyle, getting twice as much work done in the tissue culture hood.
The Bowdish lab will support one applicant for a M.G. DeGroote Post-doctoral fellowship. Below is the information on the award but from past experience, applicants must have a strong publication record in high impact journals and have a clear track-record of accomplishments in a related research field. If you think you meet these criteria and would like Dr. Bowdish to consider putting you forward for this award, please contact her with a c.v.
The Michael G. DeGroote Fellowship Awards
The Michael G. DeGroote Fellowship Awards are an opportunity for excellent postdoctoral candidates to pursue top-level research training. First awarded in 2008, the awards provide funding to research-intensive individuals looking to further their academic career in the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University.
Each award provides non-renewable funding of $50,000 for one year for successful applicants. The funding is comprised of $40,000 from the Michael G. DeGroote Health Sciences Development Fund and $10,000 contributed by the applicant’s supervisor.
Awards are available in two categories: the *Michael G. DeGroote Fellowship Award in Basic Biomedical Science* and the *Michael G. DeGroote Fellowship Award in Clinical Research*. Candidates conducting basic science research are eligible for the Basic Biomedical Science Fellowship Award and those pursuing clinical research are eligible for the Clinical Research Fellowship Award. Applicants must identify in their application which award they are applying for. Separate selection committees will review the respective applicants for each award.
Visit http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/mgdfa/and apply online. The deadline for applications is *April 1, 2015* with an estimated start date of July 1, 2015.
Eligibility
*Only candidates who are (a) external to McMaster, or (b) internal students who have yet to begin postdoctoral or health professional degree studies at McMaster, or (c) internal students who began their postdoctoral or health professional degree studies at McMaster no earlier than July 1, 2014, will be eligible for the awards.
* For candidates who hold (or are completing) a PhD, the proposed supervisor(s) listed in your application must be different than your PhD supervisor.
* Priority will be given to those applicants whose graduate training has not been exclusively at McMaster.
Expectations
It is expected that winning applicants will seek out and attain external funding within their one-year award term. Supervisors are expected to assist their candidates in doing so.
Further Information
For more information on the awards, please visit the awards website or
send any questions to mgdfa@mcmaster.ca.
Bowdish lab trainees Avee Naidoo and Netusha Thevaranjan were recognized for their research excellence at the fourth annual Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) Trainee Research Day. The event was held at CIBC Hall on Friday, October 10th and featured a keynote address by Professor Quim Madrenas of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at McGill University. In addition to the keynote speach, the talented trainees at IIDR presented their latest research findings and accomplishments during the day.
A second-year Master’s student Avee Naidoo was awarded with the Michael Kamin Hart Memorial Scholarship at a reception held at the University Club at the end of the day. The $1,800 scholarphip is named in honour of a gifted Master’s student of IIDR who tragically passed away in 2011. Avee plans to use the scholarship to attend a Keystone meeting on inflammation and aging in Montreal next year. Another Master’s student in the Bowdish lab, Netusha Thevaranjan, was awarded with the IIDR Awards of Excellence for her poster presentation. Kyle Novakowski was the runner up for the PhD poster award.
Both Avee and Netusha are currently working to elucidate the mechanisms underlying age-associated deterioration of the innate immune response.
Congratulations to both Avee and Netusha!
Netusha Thevarnjan wins best MSc poster presentation and Avee Naidoo wins the Michael Kamin Hart Memorial scholarship at the 2014 IIDR trainee day. Dawn beams with pride.
This past month has been very productive in the Bowdish laboratory, with many triumphs achieved by it’s industrious members.
Firstly, a big congratulation goes to Kyle Novakowski, the Bowdish 
lab’s newest PhD student. Following a lot of hard work, determination and great dedication to his Masters project, Kyle successfully passed his transfer exam on July 7 and has officially begun his seemingly endless exciting pursuit for a PhD. Good luck to Kyle in continuing his interesting investigation on the regulation and function of MARCO!
Dessi Loukov presents her undergraduate work in the Bowdish lab at the 1st annual Perey Symposium, convinces everyone she’s a senior PhD student and brings home the Faculty choice award for best speed poster presentation.
Next up is Dessi Loukov, who is currently an undergraduate but come September will be the Bowdish lab’s 4th PhD student. At the 1st annual MIRC Perey Symposium held on June 19, Dessi impressed faculty and trainees with her educational and enthusiastic speed poster presentation on modulating the immune system to potentially reverse age-associated inflammation. Dessi was awarded a travel award as a result of her superb presentation skills. Kudos also to Fan Fei (PhD candidate) and Avee Naidoo (MSc candidate) who gave excellent speed poster talks and Dr. Chris Verschoor who gave an excellent oral presentation. Who knew that research in inflammation could be so exciting? The Bowdish lab, that’s who!
One PhD candidate who deserves great recognition for his recent successes is Mike Dorrington. Not only was Mike awarded with a prestigious and well-deserved Canadian Lung Association & Canadian Thoracic Studentship, but he additionally achieved received The Ruth and Wilson Tafts Prize for Immunology for having the best paper published in a peer-reviewed journal in 2013. Geez Mike, save some awards for the rest of us. These awards will be used to further fund his fascinating work on the role of macrophages – clearly, the best cell around – in recognition and clearance of Streptococcus pneumoniae in the upper respiratory tract. Congratulations Mike!
At the celebration of Mike’s first first author publication. Although Dawn is mostly happy for Mike, she is also slightly nervous that she might be about to lose an eye when the champagne is opened.
Then, there’s Dr. Chris Verschoor, the lab’s most productive and well-rounded member. Chris’ paper entitled, “Alterations to the frequency and function of peripheral blood monocytes and associations with chronic disease in the advanced-age, frail elderly“, was recently accepted into the PLoS one. If you’re interested in changes in monocyte populations with age – I mean, who isn’t? – keep a look out for Chris’ article in the next issue of PLoS one . Way to go Chris on this well-deserved publication!
<- Manuscipt accepted = happy post-doc.
And last, but definitely not least, the lab takes great pleasure in congratulating our passionate leader, Dr. Dawn Bowdish, who has been awarded tenure and a promotion to Associate Professor effective as of July 1, 2014. This accomplishment is a fitting acknowledgement of Dawn’s exceptional work, devotion and academic contributions to research in the field of macrophage biology. In addition to her promotion and tenure, Dawn recently received a Best Teacher Award in the Department of Pathology for excellence in undergraduate teaching and graduate supervision. Well-done Dawn!
Dawn receives the Pathology & Molecular Medicine Department’s best teacher award for her undergraduate and graduate supervision. Dr. Murray Potter, the education co-ordinator and Dr. Fiona Smaill, the chair, present her with the award.
Congratulations Bowdish lab on our successes!
Way to kill it, like young macrophages on pneumo 😉
A long overdue congratulations to Avee Naidoo(MSc candidate) for receiving the Frederick Banting and Charles Best Master’s Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
The award funds Avee’s research examining age-associated inflammation, impaired macrophage function and disease susceptibility in the elderly.
Way to go Avee!
Bowdish lab receives funding from the province of Ontario to train two new graduate students! Avee Naidoo (MSc) and Dessi Loukov, who will be starting a PhD in Sept 2013, will be studying how age-associated inflammation predisposes older adults to pneumonia.
For full details on the award for Dawn’s proposal “Interplay between inflammation and impaired anti-bacterial immunity in the elderly.”
http://iidr.mcmaster.ca/IIDR-news/ERAs-2014.html#.UzXGj_ldWSo
Dessi Loukov, pictured here pushing back the boundaries of science.
Aveshni Naidoo, MSc sits beside the coolest jack-o’-lantern ever.