Catherine Bowman cleans up at the 2014 Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair!

Posted on April 6, 2014 by Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

Catherine Bowman, a grade 10 student from St. Mary’s Catholic Secondary in Hamilton, joined the Bowdish lab under the mentorship of Avee Naidoo (MSc candidate) and Kyle Novakowski (MSc student) recently to work on a project entitled “The Effects of Apigenin, Diosmetin and Chicoric Acid on TNF-Alpha and COX-2 Levels of Stimulated RAW 264.7 Macrophages.”

She received a number of awards including a BASEF gold medal, Cancer Assistance Programme Award – First, Hillfield Strathallan College Awards of Excellence- Biological Sciences Award, Hamilton Association da Vinci Award, Drs. Ranjan Sur and Monalisa Sur Award, Pinnacle Best in Fair and the ArcelorMittal Dofasco Pinnacle best-in-fair award at the Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair for her project. She’ll be presenting her work at Canada-wide and the International Science Fair!

To read the article from the Hamilton Spectator, click here.

Catherine Bowman beside her award winning poster (BASEF, March 2014).

Funding from the province of Ontario supports two new graduate students!

Posted on March 28, 2014 by Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

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.

Congratulations to Mike Dorrington on passing his comprehensive exams with distinction!

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

Today Mike Dorrington officially became a PhD candidate as he passed his comprehensive exam with distinction. He wrote a very interesting proposal on developing new technologies to measure serotype replacement of non-vaccine strains of Streptococcus pneumoniae in the developping world, which stemmed from his interest in global health. Well done Mike!

The Bowdish lab cleans up at the IIDR trainee day!

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

The winning team!

Well it was an impressive show even for our over achieving lab! Bowdish lab undergraduates (Netusha Thevaranjan, Dessi Loukov, James Han), graduate students (Kyle Novakowski, Mike Dorrington, Fan Fei), post-docs (Dr. Chris Verschoor) and associates (Fiona Whelan, Dr. Jennifer Stearns, Michelle Pinto) all got selected to present posters at the IIDR trainee day. James Han won the IIDR Award of Excellence for best poster by an undergraduate and Dr. Jennifer Stearns brought home the award for best poster by a post-doc. Avee Naidoo was selected to give a talk only 6 weeks into her graduate degree and Dr. Chris Verschoor won the Gulliver award ($1000!) for the best oral presentation by a post-doc. What a great day!

For a complete album of photos, click here.

Avee Naidoo gives her first talk on her project – 6 weeks into grad school!

Dessi Loukov presents her poster and gets lots of compliments on her story.

Dr. Chris Verschoor wins the Gulliver award for best presentation by a PDF.

Dr. Jennifer Stearns and James Han win IIDR awards of excellence for their poster presentations.

Congratulations to Julie Kaiser on successfully defending her MSc!

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

Bowdish lab associate member (technically she’s supervised by Dr. Mike Surette but we think of her as one of our own), Julie Kaiser, successfully defended her MSc thesis “Host responses to the Strepotococcus Milleri Group”. To see a photo of Julie in her post exam bliss/haze click here. Julie is moving on to a PhD at UWO in Dr. Dave Heinrichs lab. We’re sending Dave on of our best & brightest – we expect a thank you card any day now.

Alumnus update: Former Bowdish lab undergraduate, Keith Lee, receives a CIHR MSC scholarship!

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

Keith Lee, who will be attending the University of Toronto for medical school starting August 2013 has received a very prestigious CIHR MSc graduate award. He has chosen to decline to pursue his medical studies and potentially re-apply as an MD/PhD student next year. Congratulations Keith!

Collaborator update: Fan Fei wins “Glasgow Polyomics & University of Strathclyde Young Scientist Award” at the 9th Annual Conference of the Metabolomics Society!

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

Fan Fei (PhD candidate), under the supervision of Dr. Brian McCarry, and in conjunction with Bowdish lab undergraduate Keith Lee, studies age related changes in the inflammatory response from a metabolomics perspective. Funded by the Russell Bell Travel Scholarship award, she attended the 9th Annual conference of the Metabolomics Society. July 1-4, 2013, SECC Glasgow. She won the “Glasgow Polyomics & University of Strathclyde Young Scientist Award” for outstanding poster presentation of research in the field of metabolomics at the Metabolomic Conference 2013 in Glasgow Scotland for her work “Comprehensive Metabolomic Analysis Reveals Major Differences in the Macrophage Inflammatory Response Between Young and Aged Mice”. Way to go Fan!

PhD candidates Alicja Puchta and Mike Dorrington win at the 2013 FHS Research Plenary

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

Congratulations to both Alicja Puchta and Mike Dorrington for winning at the 2013 FHS research Plenary! Mike was the recipient of the Best Poster Presented by a Doctoral Candidate award. Alicja was the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award, which recognizes graduate students in their final year of a Master’s or Doctoral program who have made outstanding achievements, based on the opinion of their graduate program. This award can be given to a maximum of 10-15% of all students in the final year of a Master’s or Doctoral program affiliated with the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Congratulations and keep up the awesome work!

Bowdish Lab Cleans Up at the 53rd Annual Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair (BASEF)!

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

On Thursday May 21^st, Bowdish Lab members were not only working hard as judges at the 53^rd Annual BASEF fair, but also actively participating in presenting our research. Our high school students Jason Fan, winner of the IIDR summer studentship in 2012, and Leonard Rivet, a high school co-op student, both created fantastic posters and engaged judges in discussing their projects. Jason Fan (Right) received a Gold Merit Award and $100 for his poster entitled “Saving the World — One Ligand at a Time: Novel Streptococcus pneumoniae Ligands for Macrophage Receptors”. Leonard Rivet (Left) received a Silver Merit Award and $80 for his poster entitled “Expression and Post-Translational Trimerization of MARCO in E.coli”.

Bowdish lab members Leonard Rivet & Jason Fan present their award winning posters at BASEF 2013.

Jason went on to win a silver award at the Canada wide Science Fair and to be accepted to McMaster’s prestigious Bachelor of Health Sciences program.

Congratulations to both our fantastic young scientists!

Changing of the undergraduate guards.

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Dr. Dawn M. E. Bowdish

The changing of the guards (or at least undergrads) happened this summer in the Bowdish Lab. We wish our departing undergraduates Keith Lee (onwards to medical school), Samanthy Balachandran (onwards to graduate school) and Peter Mu (radical that he is – onward to getting a job!) all the best in their future endeavors!

The Bowdish Lab is excited to welcome our new undergraduate students Prasant Bharadwaj, a MITACS summer student from India, James Han, an iSci student, and Dessi Loukouv, a co-op student working collaboratively with Qu Biologics. Netusha Thevaranjan will be staying on as a summer/thesis student.

Peter Mu, Samanthy Balachandran and Keith Lee – the 2012/13 crop of undergrads as they move on to their next adventure.

Nothing says “Thanks for all the hard work” like carrot cake.

Bowdish Lab

Macrophage Biology at McMaster University

Tag Archives: success!