Mini Medical School 2017-18

Dr. Craig Jenne

Dr. Craig Jenne is the Scientific Director of the Snyder Translational Lab in Critical Care Medicine, a position that allows him to work directly with Clinicians and Researchers on human clinical studies. He also has a faculty appointment within the department of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary and is continuing his work using intravital microscopy to study the early innate immune response to viral and bacterial infections.

Dr. Samuel Lee

Dr. Lee is a Professor of Medicine in Hepatology, with research interests in cardiovascular complications of cirrhosis and viral hepatitis. He is currently the President of the International Association for the Study of Liver (IASL). He has won several awards for teaching and research including the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal in 2002, the Canadian Association of the Study of Liver (CASL) Distinguished Service Award in 2015, and has lectured in over 35 countries. He is also a past president of the Canadian Association of the Study of Liver (CASL) and the International Ascites Club, and he was the editor-in-chief of Liver International from 2008-2013.

Dr. Raylene A Reimer

Dr. Raylene A Reimer is a Professor with the Faculty of Kinesiology and Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the Cumming School of Medicine with the University of Calgary. She is also a full scientist at the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute, a Fellow of the Obesity Society and a Registered Dietitian. Her research focuses on the role of diet in regulating energy intake, and gut microbiota in the context of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other chronic diseases such as fatty liver disease. She has done extensive research in animal models to study how maternal diet during pregnancy influences their offspring's gut microbiota, satiety hormone production, and obesity risk. Her clinical studies in adults and children with obesity have identified prebiotic fibre as a promising dietary intervention to improve metabolic health.

Dr. Kathy McCoy

Dr. Kathy McCoy is a mucosal immunologist and microbiome researcher with the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases at the University of Calgary. She is also the Director of the germ-free program with the International Microbiome Centre (IMC). Her interests are in the dynamic interplay between the gut microbiota and the innate and adaptive immune systems. Using germ-free and gnotobiotic animal models, together with human translation studies, her research aims to understand how exposure to intestinal microbes early in life educates and regulates the developing immune system, and how this impacts susceptibility to immune-mediated diseases, such as allergies and autoimmunity, later in life. She has found that the gut microbiota has pervasive effects and can even exert its influence on immunity prior to birth.

Dr. Remo Panaccione

Dr. Panaccione is currently a Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinic at the University of Calgary and Director of Gastroenterology Research. He has been selected as the top post-graduate teacher in Gastroenterology by the gastroenterology fellows three times, and most recently, he was selected as one of the University of Calgary’s “greatest teachers”. His special interest lies in the fields of advanced immunomodulation, biological therapy, and delivery of care through the implementation of clinical trials. He is a recognized authority on the use of biologics and has co-authored numerous guidelines on the use of biologics for the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology.

Dr. Simon Hirota

Dr. Simon Hirota’s overall research program is focused on the regulation of innate immune signaling in the gastrointestinal tract in the context of acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. His research is interested in how the intestinal epithelium and resident mucosal immune cells contribute to inflammatory disease pathogenesis in the gastrointestinal tract. Dr. Hirota’s research examines how inflammatory signaling is initiated in the cells of the intestinal mucosa and how these event can be modulated by various immunomodulatory factors including antibiotics and environmental factors.

Dr. Dianne Mosher

Dr. Dianne Mosher is currently Professor of Medicine and the Chief of the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Calgary. She has practiced Rheumatology for the past twenty years having graduated from Dalhousie Medical School in 1983 where she also completed her Internal Medicine and Rheumatology residency training. Dr. Mosher is a past president of the Canadian Rheumatology. She was involved in the development of several national initiatives including the "Arthritis Bill of Rights" and was awarded the Canadian Rheumatology Association Distinguished Rheumatologist Award in 2008. In February 2013, she was awarded the Governor General of Canada's Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal to honor her significant work in the area of arthritis care in Canada. Dr. Mosher is past co-chair and current president of the Arthritis Alliance of Canada. Her research interests are primarily in clinical epidemiology with a focus on models of care for arthritis and outcome measures for patients with inflammatory arthritis.

Dr. Marvin Fritzler (University of Calgary Alumni PHD’71, MD’74)

Dr. Marvin Fritzler (University of Calgary Alumni PHD’71, MD’74) received his PhD in 1971 and MD in 1974 from the University of Calgary. In 1976, he went to The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA in and then to the University of Colorado as a research fellow under the mentorship of Dr. Eng M. Tan. After the post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado, he joined the University of Calgary in 1978 where he is currently Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine. His clinical and research activity is devoted to biomarker identification and autoantibody testing. From 2001 to 2015, he served as Chair of the Alberta Research and Innovation Authority, a strategic policy advisory board of the Government of Alberta and is the Director of Mitogen International Advanced Diagnostics at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Christopher Doig, (University of Calgary Alumni MSc’96)

Dr. Christopher Doig is Head of the Department of Critical Care Medicine (November 1, 2013) and the immediate past Head of the Department of Community Health Sciences. He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1988 (MD with distinction), trained in Vancouver and Calgary with specialization in Internal Medicine and Critical Care Medicine. He has additional training in clinical epidemiology and health care ethics. Dr. Doig is a Professor in the Departments of Critical Care Medicine, Medicine and Community Health Sciences in the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. He was the Medical Director of the Multisystem ICU at the Foothills Medical Centre from 2004-10. He was the President of the Alberta Medical Association 2009-10.

Dr. Paul Kubes

Dr. Paul Kubes is a Professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine and Founding Director of the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases. He also holds a Canada Research Chair in Leukocyte Recruitment in inflammatory disease. Dr. Kubes has received numerous awards including the CIHR Investigator of the Year in 2011 for his basic science work on how the brain affects immunity. He has been the recipient of many awards including the Alberta Science and Technology Award and has been published in many prestigious academic journals including Cell, Science and the Nature. His latest work has uncovered a key role for peritoneal cavity macrophage in healing visceral organs.

Dr. Kelly Burak (University of Calgary Alumni MSc’05)

Dr. Kelly Burak is currently a Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary where he serves as the Director of the Southern Alberta Liver Transplant Clinic. He received his BSc (Biology), MD and Internal Medicine training at the University of Saskatchewan before completing training in Gastroenterology in Calgary. He completed a CASL/MRC Research Fellowship in Hepatology at the University of Calgary followed by a Clinical Fellowship in Hepatology and Liver Transplantation at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In 2005, he was awarded a Master of Science in Epidemiology and he obtained a Graduate Certificate in Clinical Education from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia in 2012.

Dr. Andreas Kramer

Dr. Andreas Kramer is a Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Calgary at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. As a neurointensivist, Dr. Kramer is especially concerned with the detection, prevention and treatment of secondary brain injury. He has a particular interest in understanding and treating delayed neurological deficits that commonly ensue after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. In addition, he is studying the use of multimodal neurological monitoring, including brain tissue oxygen tension probes, microdialysis catheters and continuous electroencephalography

Dr. Gilaad Kaplan, (University of Calgary Alumni - MD’00)

Dr. Gilaad Kaplan is a gastroenterologist and epidemiologist who has devoted his clinical and research career to study the burden of the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), and to improve the care of patients living with IBD. Dr. Kaplan’s research has defined the global evolution of IBD over the past century. He also studies environmental exposures that influence the development of IBD. In 2016 he was named by Healio Gastroenterology as one of the top 200 leading innovators in the field of gastroenterology.

Dr. Judit Smits

Dr. Judit Smits is Professor at the University of Calgary in the Veterinary Medicine in Ecosystem & Public Health. She is also an Adjunct Professor, School of Environment & Sustainability, at the University of Saskatchewan. Her research group focuses on developing novel, non-invasive techniques in wildlife to monitor impacts of anthropogenic contamination and disruption of the environment. Dr. Smits investigates naturally exposed, native wildlife (bioindicators), in combination with controlled experimental studies to determine the most sensitive biomarkers, to study health effects of air and water borne contaminants using a variety of physiological and toxicological responses. Her work is currently working to reverse chronic arsenic poisoning through dietary intervention. Dr. Smits started her research with laboratory animals, and now is conducting human clinical trials in affected areas of the world.

Mini Medical School 2017-18

May 7, 2018