The Bowdish lab welcomes summer students Danny, Mina, Joseph and Melodie and congratulates them on their scholarship successes.

The Bowdish lab is pleased to welcome a recent biochemistry graduate and IIDR summer scholarship winner, Joseph Chon, Mina Sadeghi a MIRA (McMaster Institute for Research on Aging) summer student,  Danny Ma a MIRA and NSERC-USRA winner and Melodie Kim, a BHSc summer studentship recipient. We’re thrilled to have such a talented group of students working with us this summer.

Summer students 2018, all of whom have summer studentships! (L-R) Joseph Chon (IIDR), Mina Sadeghi (MIRA), and Danny Ma (NSERC-USRA, MIRA) and not pictured Melodie Kim (BHSc). Welcome!

The Bowdish lab is the strongest lab at McMaster and we have the scholarship winners to prove it!

Who’s got the strongest lab at McMaster? I do! We’ve had a great run of success at the Bowdish lab with fully all of our students receiving prestigious scholarships! And that’s not to mention our other successes such as our summer scholarship winners (Jason Fan – IIDR), our students who got their degree and moved on to great things (Dr. Fan Fei – manager of Mass Spec facility, Dr. Mike Dorrington – PDF at the NIH), and our PDF, Dr. Chris Verschoor who got a faculty position!

Who's got the strongest lab at McMaster? I do! Bowdish lab scholarship winners 2015/2016: Netusha Thevaranjan (CIHR-PhD), Avee Naidoo (CIHR-PhD), Kyle Novakowski (NSERC-PhD), Pat Schenck (CIHR-PhD), Dessi Loukov (CIHR-PhD), Justin Boyle (NSERC-MSC).

Bowdish lab scholarship winners 2015/2016: Netusha Thevaranjan (CIHR-PhD), Avee Naidoo (CIHR-PhD), Kyle Novakowski (NSERC-PhD), Pat Schenck (CIHR-PhD), Dessi Loukov (CIHR-PhD), Justin Boyle (NSERC-MSC).

The Bowdish lab is no longer accepting applications for summer positions 2016/17 thesis positions.

We are in the enviable position of being a popular lab and have received a large number of applications for a very small number of positions. We thank you for your interest but I’m afraid that we are no longer accepting applications but wish all the undergraduates searching for summer/thesis positions the very best of luck in their search.

Avee Naidoo (PhD candidate) wins the Anne Martin-Matthews Doctoral Research Prize of Excellence in Research on Aging!

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!

Avee-med

 

Alumnus update: Prashant Bharadwaj accepted to John Hopkins University for graduate school.

Prashant Bharadwaj  (Summer 2013) was an undergraduate from the Indian Institute of Technology who won a MITACS summer studentship to work in the Bowdish lab discovering novel signalling motifs in macrophage scavenger receptors. He will be joining John Hopkins as a graduate student in September 2014. Way to go Prashant!

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

On Thursday May 21st, Bowdish Lab members were not only working hard as judges at the 53rd 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.

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!

 

Bowdish Lab Attends 53rd Annual BASEF Science Fair

Dr. Bowdish and members of the lab attended the 53rd annual Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair (BASEF) as merit and special award judges on Thursday March 21st. All members of the lab were blown away by the sheer volume of young scientists and the incredible effort these students put into their projects. Bowdish Lab members judged projects focused on Health & Life sciences. Dr. Bowdish and Dr.Mossman judged for the IIDR Summer studentship, a 6-week summer internship in the IIDR, which is one of the most sought after prizes at the science fair.vWe are all looking forward to the 54th BASEF fair.

 

Eisha Ahmed (Abbey Park High School, Oakville) presents her award winning poster "Ara h Proteins, Peanuts, and Parasites". Eisha was the winner of the IIDR summer studentship and will be back at McMaster learning bioinformatics this summer.

Eisha Ahmed (Abbey Park High School, Oakville) presents her award winning poster “Ara h Proteins, Peanuts, and Parasites”. Eisha was the winner of the IIDR summer studentship and will be back at McMaster learning bioinformatics this summer.

 

Sarah Wu won second place for the IIDR summer studentship for her very impressive project developing a novel diagnostic for malaria.

Sarah Wu won second place for the IIDR summer studentship for her very impressive project developing a novel diagnostic for malaria.

 

Changing of the undergraduate guards.

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.

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.

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

The Bowdish lab is now accepting applications for undergraduate summer/thesis students.

It may seem early, but the Bowdish lab is now looking for undergraduate students for summer 2013 and the 2013/2014 school year. Generally the model in our lab is to have a student apply for a summer studentship and work full time then continue on as a thesis student. See the FAQ page for requirments http://www.bowdish.ca/lab/faq/.

Previously we have had students in any of the Health Sciences, Biochemistry or Biology thesis programs and are open to accepting students from other programs. We will likely be taking 2, possibly 3 students. The project will be determined based on the successful student’s interests and aptitudes but Dr. Bowdish is especially interested in meeting with students with interest or experience in;

  • Statistics, Biostatistics, Bioinformatics or Computer Science, especially large data set analysis
  • Molecular & Cellular Biology, especially cloning and protein expression
  • Biochemistry, such as protein-protein interactions
  • Chemistry, specifically metabalomics and mass spec
  • Membrane Physics

and of course,

  • Immunology, especially animal models of infection.

Students will be expected to apply for external summer funding (e.g. NSERC-USRA, departmental summer studentships and other). For all other questions on qualifications see the FAQ page http://www.bowdish.ca/lab/faq.

Interested candidates should read the FAQ page and provide Dr. Bowdish with a c.v. and brief reason for why you would like to be part of the Bowdish lab.