Dear members of the Manitoba Neuroscience Community,
I am excited to announce that the 2024 MNN Annual Meeting is scheduled for
Tuesday, June 4, 2024. Please save the date in your calendars. Additional
information will be provided in due course.
For this year's meeting, Fuat Balci will serve as the Chair. Should you be
interested in assisting with the organization of the meeting, please do not
hesitate to contact him.
Best regards,
Tabrez Siddiqui
President, Manitoba Neuroscience Network
--------------------------
Tabrez J. Siddiqui, PhD
Associate Professor of Physiology and Pathophysiology,
Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of
Manitoba.
Principal Investigator, Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.
Principal Investigator, PrairieNeuro Research Centre,
Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine, Health Sciences Centre.
SR422-710 William Avenue, Winnipeg R3E 0Z3,
Manitoba, Canada.
Phone: 1. 204.318.2564
Dear Neuroscientist colleagues,
The Manitoba Neuroscience Network Outreach Committee will be organizing the
annual 2024 BrainBee competition together with activities for the 2024 Brain
Awareness Week.
We are looking for labs to help out with the following events. **** NOTE:
Graduate students and Postdocs who volunteer for any of the below calls will
receive recognition on their co-curricular experiences record (CCR)***:
Brain Bee competition: Saturday, March 9, 2024, 9-3pm
We need junior graduate students to help with the Brain Bee competition who
will serve as scorekeepers and photographers for the competition, and escort
the participants around the campus. Graduate students can also organize
and/or participate in the lab demonstrations if their PI decides to open the
lab up for lab tours and demonstrations for the competition's students.
We invite lab PIs and faculty members to organize lab tours and
demonstrations for the students and we also need judges. Judges are
responsible for leading the preliminary round of the competition, and this
will involve a two-hour time commitment in the morning. Lab tours and
demonstrations are held in the afternoon and are typically 30- 45 minutes in
length (for each group). Past Brain Bees have featured microscopy and
neurophysiology demonstrations, and we welcome any new ideas that you may
have.
KABAM ! during the first 2 weeks of March, daytime (about 2-3 hrs)
MNN is happy to announce the first ever "Kids Art for Brain Awareness
Manitoba! (KABAM!)". We are inviting Manitoba students in grades 4-6 to
create and share their best brain-themed artistic creations. We need
enthusiastic junior graduate students (with encouragement from their
supportive PIs) to be neuroscience ambassadors at 3-5 local schools. This
job will involve a brief visit to a local elementary school to talk to
students in grade 4-6 classes for 5-10 minutes about neuroscience and invite
the class to participate in KABAM.
Public Outreach Evenings - during the first 2 weeks of March, 6-7:30pm
We invite postdocs and senior graduate students (with their PI's approval)
to hone their scientific communication and public speaking skills by
delivering a 15-20 minute talk about their neuroscience research to a public
audience. The goal for these public lectures is for students and trainees to
use their growing expertise to engage with the public about neuroscience and
how it relates to some common health topics.
Potential neuroscience research themes for this year's talks include, but
are not limited to:
Head Games: The Complex World of Concussions and Brain Injuries MS in Focus:
A Manitoba Perspective on Multiple Sclerosis
Aging Brains: The Battle Against Neurodegenerative Diseases" Neurodivergent
Narratives: Celebrating Brain Diversity
If your lab has other ideas for a theme, let us know and we will work with
you. We want to recruit three presenters per topic(each presentation lasting
about 15 min), followed by
a round table discussion and Q&A for another 30-45 min, for 1.5 hour total.
MNN has been working on securing venues for these: public libraries and a
brewery. Exact dates and venues to be finalized with presenters' input.
Anyone who wishes to volunteer can contact me directly by e-mail and I will
be happy to answer any questions Katinka.Stecina(a)umanitoba.ca
<mailto:Katinka.Stecina@umanitoba.ca> .
Thank you for your ongoing support of the MNN Outreach program!
~on behalf of the MNN Outreach Committee~
******************************************
<http://www.manitobaneuroscience.ca/>
<https://www.facebook.com/manitobaneuroscience/?fref=ts>
<https://www.instagram.com/manitobaneuroscience/>
<https://twitter.com/manitobaneuro>
Dear Neuroscience Community,
As you may be aware, the UM Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics is planning to propose a new Master's degree in Neuroscience, starting in the Fall of 2025. Although by necessity, this is a Pharmacology initiative, the intent is to reach across department, college and faculty borders to involve and benefit as many faculty throughout the neuroscience community as possible.
This Master's degree will be different than anything offered now in the biomedical sciences. We are not in a strong position at this time to offer an interdisciplinary graduate program in neuroscience that is thesis based and could compete with our existing department-based programs. Instead, we intend to build a complementary program that attracts a broader cohort of potential applicants than our current MSc programs, and produces a pipeline of Master's graduates in neuroscience who are highly-qualified to enter our PhD programs.
The plan will leverage a burgeoning international partnership between the University of Manitoba and the University of Strasbourg. The degree will be a Dual International Master's in Neuroscience, with recognition from both institutions. The goal is to admit up to 12 Manitoba-based students and 12 Strasbourg-based student per year (24 total per year). The 2-year program of study will be highly course-based for the first 18-months and will not require a primary student-advisor relationship or financial support to qualify for admission; however, there will also be intensive focus on research skills, with a 1st year (terms 1 and 2) full lab course in experimental neuroscience, term 3 in-lab experimental neuroscience experiential learning, and a final 6-month final research project akin to a European-style MSc thesis project. The program will include international learner mobility and all the inherent benefits therein; MB-based students will complete their project in Strasbourg while Strasbourg-based students will complete their project in host labs in Manitoba.
Building a course-based advanced degree in our research-intensive model is challenging. Simply out, there is a lot of teaching required. Having a partner helps this cause immensely. Strasbourg faculty will cover at least 50% of the teaching required. Our contribution will be covered by leveraging existing courses and creating some new ones. I'm very thankful that there has been strong interdisciplinary collaboration within the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences over the past several months. Together, we will contribute 14 courses, spanning 46.5 credit hours and 5 departments or colleges. Manitoba-source course material will be taught in-person to local students in the mornings, while Strasbourg-based students participate live and remotely in the later afternoon, their time. Conversely, Strasbourg-based material will be taught to their students in the French afternoon, reaching our students remotely and live in the mornings Winnipeg time.
I emphasize that this will be a stronger program if we involve the broad neuroscience community in Manitoba. Although the initial courses have been set, there will always be opportunities to add new ideas to the curriculum. New ideas are thus always welcome for discussion. We will also need a lot of help training Manitoba-based students in experimental neuroscience - both in the first-year lab course and in term 3 experiential in-lab training - and hosting Strasbourg-based project students who have already completed extensive lab training in France. The following is a list of ways you could get involved if you so desire.
* Lead/develop the 6-credit hour laboratory course in experimental neuroscience (delivered in Rady teaching lab in BMSB)
* Lead a 3-hour laboratory module for experimental neuroscience students (with TA assistance)
* Accept MB-based students for in-lab experiential training
* Host well-trained France-based students for 6-month thesis projects
* Develop and teach new courses in neurosciences
If you have any questions about this program proposal or would like to be involved, please reach out to chris.anderson(a)umanitoba.ca<mailto:chris.anderson@umanitoba.ca>.
Thank you!
Job Opportunity
--
Hi everyone,
The University of Alberta, Cell Biology Department, is looking for strong candidates for a faculty position (tenure-track) in iPSC biology with a focus on diseases affecting children. This hire is part of the strategic plan to grown in iPSC and regenerative medicine research areas.
Could you please consider circulating this within your groups, institutes and universities. We hope to attract a diverse pool of candidates. Please encourage your senior PDFs to apply if they fir the search criteria.
https://www.careers.ualberta.ca/Competition/A100652250/-assistant_professor…
Happy to answer questions.
Sincerely,
Anastassia
Anastassia Voronova, Ph.D.
Canada Research Chair in Neural Stem Cell Biology Sloan Research Fellow in Neuroscience (’23-’25) Associate Professor, Department of Medical Genetics Associate Adjunct Professor, Department of Cell Biology College of Health Sciences Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry University of Alberta 8-43A Medical Sciences Building Edmonton, AB T6G2H7 <mailto:voronova@ualberta.ca> voronova(a)ualberta.ca <https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/voronova-lab-web-site/home> https://sites.google.com/ualberta.ca/voronova-lab-web-site/home
Neurosciences and Mental Health Institute (NMHI) member Women and Children’s Hospital Research Institute (WCHRI) member UAlberta MS Centre member