[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/srddn1.jpg” caption=”Front row from left: Sara Rask, Diana Glennie, JianPing Lu, Isabella Mak. Back Row: Toran Sanli. “]On Wednesday June 24 the Department of Oncology held its sixth annual Student Research Day at the Juravinski Cancer Centre. This popular event continues to attract student hopefuls from across many disciplines as current students from medical physics, biology, medicine, pathology and molecular medicine, surgery and medical and radiation oncology showcase their research through oral and poster presentations.

This year's event was hosted by Sachi Voruganti, associate professor in the Division of Radiation Oncology and Anita Bane, assistant professor in the Departments of Oncology and Pathology and Molecular Medicine, was the keynote speaker. Bane spoke on “Molecular Profiling of Breast Cancer with Emphasis on the Basal-like Subtype”.

Eight oral presentations and fourteen poster presentations highlighted McMaster oncology students' innovative cancer research.

“I was overwhelmed by the quality of the presentations and the enthusiasm of the students,” said Mark Levine, Chair of the Department of Oncology.

Jian Ping Lu, a postdoctoral researcher supervised by Jehonathan Pinthus in the Department of Surgery, won for best poster in the Basic Science category. Sara Rask, a 4th year medical oncology resident under the supervision of Bindi Dhesy-Thind, won for best poster in the area of Clinical Research.

Oral presentation awards went to Toran Sanli, a PhD student for Basic Science under the supervision of Theos Tsakiridis in radiation oncology, for his project “Activators of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) enhance radiation responses in lung cancer cells”. The Clinical Research Award went to Dianna Glennie, a master's student in medical physics under the supervision of Tom Farrell, whose work was entitled “Patient specific integrating spheres for the improvement of dosimetry in skin PDT”.

Clinical Teaching Awards were presented to Hal Hirte, associate professor, division of medical oncology and Gordon Okawara, associate professor, division of radiation oncology.

Special Thank You awards were presented to the Residency Training program directors and program assistant, Dhesy-Thind, Ian Dayes (radiation oncology), and Karen Dougherty.

Eric Seidlitz from medical physics was recognized for his outstanding contributions over the past several years, which laid the groundwork for the event's success.

For a full list of details, event winners and their projects, please visit: the Student Research Day's website.