January 14, 2020
It started with a shave and a conversation about the weather. That’s the moment Doug Oliver cites as the beginning of his career in health care. Now, he is focused on improving the health of older adults in his role as a respected physician researcher working in downtown Hamilton.
November 20, 2019
Hsien Seow was six when his mother, Suat-Tein, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died four years later. The close-knit family that included Seow’s father and older brother wasn’t prepared for her death, holding out hope as doctors had suggested until the last week of her life.
November 18, 2019
Clinical research trials on optimal radiation treatments for breast cancer often take years, and without any guarantee of meaningful outcomes. But Timothy Whelan perseveres, driven by a singular factor, and that is the patient. “All of my research derives from how we treat breast cancer patients, and what we could do better,” says Whelan, professor of oncology at McMaster University and radiation oncologist at the Juravinski Cancer Centre of Hamilton Health Sciences. “They are at the centre of everything I do.”
October 17, 2019
Elena Verdú has numerous titles, publications, grants and honours to her name. She holds the Canada Research Chair in Nutrition, Inflammation and Microbiota. She is a professor in the Department of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology at McMaster University. She is the director of the Axenic Gnotobiotic Unit in the Farncombe Family Digestive Health Research Institute, and she oversees her own lab.
August 9, 2019
Brian Coombes likes to ask the question: ‘Why?’ But he likes searching for the answer to the question even more. Growing up before you could ask your phone to show images of insects that live under rocks or a fish dissection, a young Coombes would go out and find the answers.
August 9, 2019
Those looking to speak with Bruce Wainman can find him in the anatomy lab at McMaster University. Tucked away down a corridor in the basement of the Health Sciences Centre, the anatomy lab is often bustling with students from different disciplines, from the Bachelor of Health Sciences program to Engineering.
August 9, 2019
It was in his mid-20s that Mohit Bhandari was asked what he wanted to do with his life. He was working on a master’s degree in health research methodology at McMaster University when the question was posed during his first meeting with his thesis supervisor.
August 9, 2019
Mark Larché was reading the magazine New Scientist while on the subway in London when he came across an article that caught his attention. He was 18, but had known since a young age that science was his calling. This particular piece on immunology research from Peter Doherty and Rolf Zinkernagel would change his life.
August 9, 2019
The name Dr. Salim Yusuf is synonymous with the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI). His leadership fostered the development of Canada’s premiere global health research institute, a world-leader in large clinical trials and population studies.
August 9, 2019
It was Brenda Vrkljan’s patients who inspired her to get into research. Working as an occupational therapist in a hospital serving a small Ontario community, Vrkljan noted the importance her patients put on returning to driving their car as soon as possible.
August 9, 2019
The transition from childhood to adulthood can be a difficult time for many. But for those with developmental disabilities and chronic health conditions, the transition can seem insurmountable. Jan Willem Gorter is a clinician and researcher at McMaster University working to make this transition easier.
August 9, 2019
A large international study led by a McMaster researcher has found a patient-centric treatment that works for people with mild asthma. People with mild asthma are often prescribed a daily treatment regimen, but up to 80 per cent do not follow the routine, using inhalers only when they have an asthma attack. Now the researchers have found an as-needed combined-drug inhaler is a viable treatment option.
August 9, 2019
Alfonso Iorio’s great-grandfather received his medical degree in 1898 when Italy still had a monarchy. Iorio’s grandfather was also a doctor, as was his father. His mother was a lab clinician, so his parents would talk cases over lunch and both loved their careers.
August 9, 2019
Charu Kaushic knows there are not enough women working as independent researchers in the field of immunology and infectious disease, and in health sciences research, in general. She is hoping to inspire more women to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics by blazing a trail for others to follow.
August 9, 2019
Be brave. Be humble. Stay humane. Lend a hand every day to your colleagues, to young people and to a worthy cause. Let your passion be your guide. These are the guiding principles that inspire Deborah Cook every day in both her professional and personal life.
August 9, 2019
A road bicycle, well-worn cycling shoes and a bike helmet are common fixtures of Gregory Steinberg’s office in McMaster University’s Health Sciences Centre. The Ironman triathlete cycles or runs to work most days as part of a fitness regimen that includes training in the three elements of the sport: swimming, cycling and running.
August 9, 2019
Mick Bhatia has been called the Wayne Gretzky of stem cell researchers. But for this “Great One”, who has built McMaster’s Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute (SCC-RI) from the ground up, it’s as much about teamwork as individual effort.
August 9, 2019
Living long is not the ultimate goal. Living well is the ultimate goal. That is the mantra of Parminder Raina, scientific director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging, more commonly known by its acronym, MIRA.
August 9, 2019
As a family physician in Hamilton, Gina Agarwal sees first-hand the impact of poverty on the health of her patients. Of her more than 1,000 patients, there are those who can’t afford healthy food, while others can’t afford food at all. Some do not have money for the bus fare to come to appointments, so she makes house calls, often to residents in social housing.
August 9, 2019
Harriet MacMillan’s career is dedicated to improving the lives of children, women and their families. The McMaster Distinguished University Professor, researcher and clinician is committed to the prevention of family violence, as well as understanding the epidemiology of child maltreatment and intimate partner violence.
March 9, 2019
The impact a doctor can have on patients inspired P.J. Devereaux from an early age. Growing up on Cape Breton Island, with a mother who was a nurse and Dr. C. Lamont MacMillan’s Memoirs of a Cape Breton Doctor on his bedside table, he was motivated by their stories and wanted to help others through medicine.
March 8, 2019
Medicine was a likely career calling for Sonia Anand. It was in her DNA, with a father who was a general surgeon and a mother who was an anesthetist. Her parents came to Canada from India for a better life and wanted the same for their children.
January 9, 2019
Several times throughout the year, Deborah Sloboda can be found in a classroom at Dundas Central Elementary School helping to give kids hands-on learning in science. Accompanied by those studying in her McMaster University lab, Sloboda and her team help students in Grades 4 to 8 undertake activities that range from extracting the DNA of kiwi fruit to dissecting animal organs like the lungs, heart and brain.
December 17, 2018
When Hertzel Gerstein was growing up, he loved two things: science and people. Over the years, those two elements have served as the drivers of his work as a clinician researcher. Today, he is a world-leading endocrinologist and researcher at McMaster University, leading impactful clinical trials on diabetes.
November 13, 2018
Academic scientist Dawn Bowdish has come full circle. Raised in Hamilton, Bowdish was inspired to pursue a career in science after a high school co-op placement at McMaster University. She moved away to complete undergraduate and doctorate degrees in microbiology, as well as a postdoc at Oxford, but returned home to Hamilton and McMaster in 2009.
August 8, 2018
The story of how Stephen Collins became a world leader in gastroenterology is one of hard work and a willingness to swim against the current. Growing up in London, England, his father encouraged him to be a doctor. The young athlete simply wanted to play soccer, known as football there.
March 9, 2018
Premysl Bercik had planned on becoming a cardiologist, but a chance research project altered the course of his career. As the Czech-native was finishing his medical studies in his home country, he accepted an offer to study at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. What was originally a one-year research project on the enteric nervous system evolved into a five-year stay, shifting his focus from cardiology to gastroenterology.
November 24, 2017
As a neurosurgery student, Sheila Singh was on a six-month rotation at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children when she met two little boys named Christopher. They were both just five years old and both very sick with medulloblastoma, a malignant brain tumour found in children. At five years old, the medulloblastoma survival rate is 60 per cent.