On Wednesday June 24th the University of Toronto held their Annual Ogryzlo Research Day to showcase new and innovative research from rheumatology residents, graduate students, post-doctoral trainees, and medical students from the Division of Rheumatology. Ogryzlo Day is named after Dr. Metro A. Ogryzlo (1915-1977) for his contributions to the field of rheumatology in Canada. The day included 6 podium presentations, 50 scientific poster presentations, a keynote address by Dr. Hani El-Gabalawy, and an awards presentation,
Podium presentations highlighted topics such as the relationship between osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disease, the development of a novel SI joint CT score for the diagnosis of axial spondylitis, and the relationship between inflammation and the development of diabetes mellitus in psoriatic arthritis, among others. Each presentation was 15 minutes in length and evaluated as part of the annual research competition. Scientific posters were displayed throughout the day, presented by researchers, and judged in the annual research competition.
Dr. Hani El-Gabalawy, Scientific Director of the Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and Professor of Medicine and Immunology at the University of Manitoba, provided the keynote address. His presentation titled “The Origins of RA Autoimmunity: Lessons from Studying Native American Populations” highlighted current knowledge of the autoimmune events preceding the onset of RA, gene-environment interactions contributing to RA in Native American populations, and the relationship between clinical and biological events in the period preceding the onset of RA.
Awards for best podium presentations were presented to Remy Pollock for her podium presentation “Germ Line DNA Methylation Profiling Provides Novel Insights into the Parent-of-Origin Effect in Psoriatic Disease” and Jonathan Chan for his podium presentation “Development of a Novel SI Joint CT Score for Diagnosis of Axial Spondylitis.” Awards for best scientific poster were presented to Husain Shakil for his presentation “Evaluation of Biomarkers of Disease Susceptibility in Psoriatic Arthritis” and Yuriy Baglaenko for the presentation “Expression of Signalling Lymphocyte Activating Molecules (SLAM) is Vital to the Function of Invariant Natural Killer T Cells.”
Thanks to everyone who make the day such a success!