Island Medical Program Candidate Presentation

[Guest Novoulmi]

To those who would be interested in meeting a potential faculty member/teacher,

 

A candidate for the Island Medical Program faculty position in Anatomical Sciences is giving a presentation at UVic on Monday June 21 at 9:00am in the CIT room 105. His name is Dr. James Thliveris from the University of Manitoba and his lecture will be on the “Effect of valproic acid on fetal and maternal organs in the mouse: A morphological study”.

 

This is the first of a series of lectures that will be given by potential faculty/teachers of the IMP program. Not only will it be informative, but many of the "Big Wigs" organizing the IMP will be present. I think it will be a wonderful opportunity to meet the faculty in charge of our education and I urge all that can make it to do so. I will be there and would be interested to know if anyone else intends to go as well. I would like to meet all of you.

 

I will update all further lecture under this same thread.

 

Cheers,

Novo

[Guest Novoulmi]

I just got back from the presentation this morning.

Here is a summary for those who are interested:

 

Valproic acid (an effective drug for treatment of seizures) causes defects in developing fetuses.

 

Study design: 2*10 groups of pregnant mice received 500mg/kg and 600mg/kg injections over days 8-11 of gestation. A control group received saline injections over days 8-11. Fetuses were harvested after 18 days and maternal and fetal liver, lung, kidney, and placental tissues were analyzed for cell defects.

 

Results: maternal tissues liver, lung, kidney were normal

fetal tissues liver, lung, kidney were normal

placenta was normal

 

Conclusion: Valproic acid does its damage between days 8-17 and cells return to normal by day 18 where structural/developmental damage remains.

 

It was one of those "I did a lot, but found out very little" kind of studies. In my opinion, it was a bit of a flop for a candidate presentation.

 

Novo

[Guest Novoulmi]

Hi again,

 

The second candidate for the Island Medical Program faculty position in Anatomical Sciences is giving a presentation at UVic on Wednesday, June 23rd, 1:45pm in the CIT room 105. His name is Dr. Bruce Crawford from the University of British Columbia and his lecture will be on “The organization, development and regeneration of the hyaline layer of the asteroid, Pisaster ochraceus.”

 

Hope to see you there,

Novo

[Guest Ian Wong]

Dr. Crawford's a cool guy. He's been intimately involved with UBC's Anatomy department from a long ways back. Most of his interests are in Embryology if I'm not mistaken, but he's also one of the few anatomists out there; anatomists, particularly those interested in teaching, are unfortunately a dying breed and are becoming harder and harder for med schools to find.

 

Ian

[Guest Novoulmi]

Here is a summary of Dr Crawford's presentation for those who are interested:

 

A descriptive view of the developing hyline layer of the starfish, Pisater ochraceus, embryo.

 

Study design: Gametes/zygotes/embryos were observed from fertilization for several weeks, paying particular attention to the development of the hyline layer (the outermost layer surrounding the embryo). Monoclonal antibodies were used to disrupt the formation of the layer in specific experiments.

 

Results/conclusions: The layer is almost fully developed upon hatching.

The layer is highly organized.

The layer is capable of regeneration.

 

This presentation was much better than Dr. Thrivils's, and I expect that UVic will be stealing Dr. Crawford away from UBC to fill this position :evil

not to mention his ample experience teaching gross anatomy lectures and labs.

 

FYI,

Novo