POSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER New

Volume 2, Issue 1
December 2015
Inside this issue: New PDA Execu,ve Team PDA Annual General Mee,ng PDF Seminars, Events and Talks CAPS Update PDA Exec’s in the Spotlight 1 1 PDF Achievements 3 Your Next Career Move PDF Health Insurance Vote Interview with a Postdoc 3 Welcome and Farewell 2 New PDA Execu,ve Team 4 5 6 7 7 Co-­‐Presidents Past Presidents Postdoctoral Association Newsletter!
!
The University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Medicine!
By Mireille Khacho This past fall a new PDA execu4ve team was elected. We are extremely excited to have Fiona McMurray and Christopher Klinger as the new Co-­‐Presidents. With a full associa4on of 12 execs and 6 members from mul4ple Fiona McMurray Christopher Klinger Lisa Julian
VP Academic Mireille Khacho
VP Communica,on departments and loca4ons at the Faculty of Medicine, we look forward to an exci4ng year of events, seminars and social gatherings. Don’t let that stop you from joining the PDA. As postdocs frequently come and go, we are always in need of new members. We welcome anyone interested in helping to organize FacMed PDA-­‐sponsored seminars and social events, edit or write ar4cles for our newsleMer, and keep our website up to date. These are only a few examples of how you can help make UOMawa a great place for postdocs and get the most out of your own experience. Please join our mailing list to receive news and find out how you can get involved! Contact us at [email protected] Henry Dunn
Bojan Shu4noski
Sophie Ziai
Nafisa Jadavji
Megan Rose-­‐Martel
VP Internal VP External Khaled Abdekrahman Jane Fenalon
VP Social Samantha Benton Ujval Anil Kumar
VP Finance Marc Avey
PDA members: Devon Svoboda Aswin Hari Dave PaMen Ali Ahmadi Melissa Snyder Jessy Livingston-­‐Thomas
PDA Annual General Mee,ng By Fiona McMurray Many thanks again to all of the Postdoctoral Fellows and Research Associates that aMended our AGM on November 17th 2015. We had an excellent turn out, and some great discussions. Dr. Mireille Khacho presented on behalf of herself and Dr. Lisa Julian, celebra4ng the success of the PDA in the last two years whilst they have been the Co-­‐Presidents. They have set up some fantas4c ini4a4ves such as this PDA newsleMer, the annual summer BBQ, as well as con4nuing the excellent annual Research Day and PDF seminar series. They have also enabled us to grow into the largest running PDF associa4on at UOMawa, increasing our visibility and ensuring that we are represented on as many commiMees as possible at the Faculty of Medicine and at UOMawa. Dr. Christopher Klinger and I, as the incoming Co-­‐Presidents, have a lot to live up to but we hope to con4nue the current momentum of the PDA, and hold some interes4ng workshops as well as another brilliant Research Day in 2016. Volume 2, issue 1
Page 2
PDF Seminars By Henry Dunn Meet us for our monthly Postdoc Talks!
A huge thank you to everyone that par4cipated in the FacMed PDF seminar series in 2015. We have had an amazing line-­‐up of talks. Thank you as well to our audience; with the variety of talks it is great that so many people have been aMending the seminars regardless of the topic. NEXT PDF SEMINAR
th
January 12
Dr. En Huang
(3:30 pm) RGN 2149
The seminar series will be restar4ng on Jan. 12th Everyone is welcome, so spread the word! They even include free coffee, tea and cookies, so come along and mingle, it’s a great chance to meet new people and poten4al col-­‐ laborators. We are always looking for speakers, so if you want to tell us all about your research, need to prac4ce a talk for an upcoming conference or job interview please email us to be added to the schedule. [email protected]
Events and Talks
Check out talks and events Jan 11th
Receptor Tyrosine Kinase and Rho GTPase signaling networks in
development and metastatic progression Dr. Côté (3:30pm) Sprott
5225 Institut de rescherches cliniques de Montréal.
Jan 12th
The role of PINK1 mediated-LETM1 phosphorylation in Parkinson
Disease models Dr Huang (3:30pm) RGN 2149 CMM, uOttawa.
Jan 15th
Angiogenin, tRNA and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Dr Anderson
(1:30pm) RGN 2149 Brigham and Women’s Hospital, MA
Jan 26th
High Expression of CD146-Regulating MicroRNAs in Late EPCs
Confirm Existence of “True” Pre-late EPCs Dr Hosid (3:30pm) RGN
2021 BMI, uOttawa
Jan 29th
Sex Differences in Pain from Both Sides of the Syringe Dr Mogil
(1:30pm) RGN 2149 Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain,
McGill
Feb 5th
TBD Dr Bergsage (1:30pm) RGN 2003 Comprehensive Cancer
Center, Mayo Clinic
Feb 26th
TBD Dr Uetrecht (1:30pm) RGN 2149 Leslie Dan Faculty of
Pharmacy, University of Toronto
March 4th
TBD Dr Moorehead (1:30pm) RGN 2149 Ottawa Veterinary
College, University of Guelph
March 11th
TBD Dr Scherer (3:00pm) RGN 1007 Hospital for Sick Children,
University of Toronto
March 18th
TBD Dr McGraw (3:00pm) RGN 2149 Weill Cornell Medical College
happening in lots of different departments!
Volume 2, issue 1
Page 3
Canadian Associa,on for Postdoctoral Scholars (CAPS) By Nafisa Jadavji My name is Nafisa Jadavji and I am the Vice Chair External for the Canadian Associa4on for Postdoctoral Scholars (CAPS-­‐ACSP). CAPS-­‐
ACSP exists as a na4onal commiMee of postdoctoral scholars and representa4ves who meet regularly (and virtually) to discuss issues arising across the country. I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of the latest news from CAPS. CAPS Membership Change
At our 2015 AGM in Calgary we decided modifying our membership structure to include "Individual Members" rather than representa4ves from each PDA. While this means that any Canadian postdoc or interna4onal scholar doing a postdoc in Canada, can now be a member of CAPS-­‐ACSP, former PDA representa4ves will not be automa4cally members. With the new structure, we invite you all to either become a member, or confirm your membership, in CAPS-­‐ACSP at this 4me. More informa4on about the new membership structure will come soon. Please take a minute to fill out this form: http://tinyurl.com/nlebkeu
2016 National Postdoctoral Survey
CAPS will be conduc4ng a Na4onal Postdoctoral survey in 2016, this will be similar to the one done in 2013 (The hMps://
www.mitacs.ca/sites/default/files/caps-­‐
mitacs_postdoc_report-­‐full_oct22013-­‐
final.pdf). The survey will be launched in March 2016! CAPS Advocacy Committee This was formed to contact members of parliament to increase awareness about postdocs and issues that face them (e.g. immigra4on). CAPS is looking for members, e-­‐
mail external@caps-­‐acsp.ca if you are interested in gelng involved. Our CAPS representaFve needs your feedback!
Postdoctoral Appreciation Week,
September 19th - 23rd 2016
New CAPS website will be launched in
January 2016!
PDA EXECS IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Dr. Khaled Abdelrahman,
VP External
My doctoral research focused on the
molecular mechanisms by which diabetes
alters the function of blood flow to the brain.
This research could explain the high
prevalence of stroke in diabetic as well as
provide insights on new therapeutic strategies
to delay diabetic cardiovascular complication. I
also entertain engaging with patients and
discussing drug-related problems as a clinical
pharmacist. As a postdoctoral fellow at the
University of Ottawa, I would like to make sure
that the voice of postdoctoral fellows is heard
within the University of Ottawa and across all
Canadian universities."
Dr. Samantha Benton,
VP Social
My research interests focus on the
placenta's role in pregnancy complications
and understanding the molecular pathways
in the placenta that lead to these
complications. I completed my PhD at the
University of British Columbia where I had
the opportunity to get involved with various
student engagement and outreach groups. I
believe it is important for trainees, graduate
and postdoc alike, to get involved in
activities outside the lab - it develops
invaluable skills such as leadership and
communication that are just as important as
lab skills for future scientists! "
Volume 2, issue 1
Page 4
PDF Achievements…. publica,ons and beyond By Bojan ShuFnoski & Mireille Khacho Awards Many of the great
Carolina Cieniak: Crabtree Family Fellowship from the Parkinson’s Research ConsorFum Fiona McMurray: Endowed Research Fellowship from the University of OSawa Heart InsFtute Lisa Julian & Mireille Khacho : Postdoctoral Fellows Leadership Award from the University of OSawa Faculty of Medicine Achievements
Oral Presenta,on of the world were
accomplished by
tired and
discouraged
people who
kept on
Working!
-­‐Douglas MacArthur Jessica M. Livington-­‐Thomas "Assessing cogni4ve func4on following medial prefrontal stroke in the rat.” American Society for NeurorehabilitaFon Annual Conference Publica,ons Dumont NA, Wang YX, von Maltzahn J et al. (2015). Dystrophin expression in muscle stem cells regulates their polarity and asymmetric division. Nature Medicine. Dec;21(12):1455-­‐63. Livingston-­‐Thomas JM, Jeffers MS, Nguemeni C et al. (2015). Assessing cogni4ve func4on following medial prefrontal stroke in the rat. Behavioural Brain Research. 294, 102–10. Ramachandran P, Palidwor GA, & Perkins TJ. (2015). BIDCHIPS: bias decomposi4on and removal from ChIP-­‐seq data clarifies true binding signal and its func4onal correlates. EpigeneFcs & ChromaFn. 8(1), 33. Messaoudi S, He Y, Gutsol A, Wight A et al. (2015). Endothelial Gata5 transcrip4on factor regulates blood pressure. Nature CommunicaFons. Nov 30;6:8835. Karunakaran D, Richards L, Geoffrion M et al. (2015). Therapeu4c Inhibi4on of miR-­‐33 Promotes FaMy Acid Oxida4on but Does Not Ameliorate Metabolic Dysfunc4on in Diet-­‐Induced Obesity. Arteriosclerosis Thrombosis Vascular Biology. Dec; 35(12):2536-­‐43. Joassard OR, Bélanger G, Karmouch J et al. (2015). HuR Mediates Changes in the Stability of AChR β-­‐
Subunit mRNAs awer Skeletal Muscle Denerva4on. Journal of Neuroscience. Aug 5;35(31):10949-­‐62. Antoun G, McMurray F, Thrush AB, et al. (2015). Impaired mitochondrial oxida4ve phosphoryla4on and supercomplex assembly in rectus abdominis muscle of diabe4c obese individuals. Diabetologia. 58(12), 2861–6. Barbera L, Hwee J, Klinger C, et al. Iden4fica4on of the physician workforce providing pallia4ve care in Ontario using administra4ve claims data. CMAJ Open. 3(3), E292–8. Theoret JK, Jadavji NM, Zhang M, & Smith PD. (2015). Granulocyte macrophage colony s4mula4ng factor treatment results in recovery of motor func4on awer white maMer damage in mice. The European Journal of Neuroscience. PMID: 26474338. Jahani-­‐Asl A, Huang E, Irrcher I, et al. (2015). CDK5 phosphorylates DRP1 and drives mitochondrial defects in NMDA-­‐induced neuronal death. Human Molecular GeneFcs. Aug 15;24(16): 4573-­‐
83. Did we miss your publicaFon? Have you received an award? Keep us updated on your success! Email Anne-­‐Laure Nivet [email protected] for the next issue! Volume 2, issue 1
Page 5
The exit route for the other 82%: Your next career move By Marianne Ariganello I want to tell you about a recent, posi4ve experience that I shared with 23 other postdocs from OMawa. It took about a year for it all to fall into place, but it started when I began to look in earnest for a job outside of my “next” postdoc. Maybe some of this will resonate with you. Have you recently, cri4cally considered what is going to help you escape from Postdoc-­‐dom? Is it the “next” paper you publish? Will it be a beMer, more tailored resume? Will it be making a connec4on with someone at an event? Or will it come awer you have accepted a “stepping stone” posi4on (one that isn’t your “dream” job, but will give the experience you lack)? If you were like me, you have been preMy focused on Op4on 1: the next publica4on, and preMy certain the career trajectory would be linear. It’s only been over the last year that my mindset and career search strategies started to shiw, towards a more balanced, and I believe, more effec4ve approach. No maMer where you are in your post-­‐doctoral career, you have likely started from a similar place: you excelled in undergrad, you won scholarships throughout graduate school, and you likely won presenta4on, poster or journal prizes. You and all your PhD peers were superstars and now that you’re a post-­‐doc, you are preMy sure you are going to ace that too and then land your dream job. I mean, you are used to hard work and perseverance! That was how I felt in 2009, when I completed my PhD at Dalhousie University and turned down a job offer in the government in order to purse my first post-­‐doc. I didn’t want to “waste” my PhD training because I had grand research plans in the field of Biomedical Engineering, you see. Fast forward 3 postdocs and 6 years later, and I am realizing that when it comes to careers awer a PhD I am compe4ng against all of the other equally competent superstars for a dwindling number of posi4ons. In fact, only 18% of Canadian postdocs eventually land academic posi4ons (and if we are really being honest, those academic posi4ons are not necessarily the “dream jobs” they used to be given current research funding cycles.) “Only 18% of Canadian postdocs eventually land academic posi4ons.”
I could no longer ignore those odds, but I felt lost: how would I go about changing my job search strategy? How would I escape the “postdoc cycle” (you know, that awkward networking conversa4on: “Hello, I’m a postdoc” “Sorry, we don’t have any postdoc posi4ons”.. “Oh great, because you see, I don’t actually want ANOTHER postdoc”). All of this made me realize that “my next publica4on” was no longer what was going to get me that elusive job. I needed to reframe my skills and myself, and shiw my focus. I fortuitously heard Lisa Anna Palmer, a career and leadership coach and speaker, give a talk about the latest job search strategies and what employers really want to hear during interviews at a Women in Science and Engineering (WISE –
OMawa) event. While I had heard some of this informa4on before, with over 22 years of experience as a senior consultant and HR representa4ve, Lisa brought a fresh perspec4ve that was new and valuable to me. “I feel more confident now that I chose to invest some 4me and money into understanding how best to demonstrate…. I am much more than ‘just a postdoc’.”
I asked Lisa if she would be willing to tailor a program to help address the challenges faced by postdocs during their job searches, such as how to convert your 10 page CV to a 2 page resume and how to write tailored cover leMers. We wanted a program that would be relevant for postdocs regardless of their career goals (research, government, NGO or industry). Lisa worked with myself and another postdoc (Dr. Elyse Bernard) to develop a 4-­‐part series for PhDs. We delivered this to 22 other postdocs from Health Canada, the OMawa Heart Ins4tute, Carleton University and the University of OMawa as part of a four-­‐month pilot we called, “My Next Career Move Program for Scien4fic Professionals.” In the four month program delivered this Fall, Lisa worked with par4cipants to cover a range of topics, including personal branding, authen4c networking (“ditching the pitch”), targeted resume wri4ng and preparing for interviews, so that we could stand out to employers. The workshops were prac4cal, interac4ve and candid; our discussions provided useful insights from Lisa’s broad and in depth experiences. Since we’ve received such great feedback from par4cipants we are now planning the next offering for the Spring of 2016. I feel more confident in my job prospects now that I chose to invest some 4me and money into understanding how best to demonstrate to employers (universi4es, governments and industries) that I am much more than, “just a postdoc”, I’m an asset they would be wise to seriously consider. So what about you? Are you also ready to take your head out of your assays and plan for your next career move? If you are interested in learning more about a poten4al Winter/Spring 2016 workshop series, please feel free to email me ([email protected]) or Lisa AnnaPalmer, of CaMelan Palmer Consul4ng ([email protected]), or connect with us on LinkedIn. Be sure to join our LinkedIn Group: OMawa Science and Engineering PhDs ( a group formed to break down ins4tu4onal silos and share opportuni4es, events and knowledge between our individual ins4tu4ons (UOMawa, Carleton University, Health Canada and other government agencies). Volume 2, issue 1
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Volume 2, issue 1
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Interview with a Post-­‐doc “Taking both
big and
small risks will
…teach you
about
yourself and
being a
scientist”
By Jessy Livingston-­‐Thomas Dr Melissa Snyder 5th Year Postdoc Neuroscience [Dr. Richard Bergeron] JLT: If you weren't a scienFst right now, what would you be? MS: I absolutely love baking and would likely be a baker if not a scien4st. I plan to someday open a bakery that specializes in giant baked goods because who doesn't need a cookie as big as their head?!? Alterna4vely, I would like to find a career that pays extremely well where I get to tell people what to do all day. JLT: When not in the lab, where are you most likely to be found? MS: When not in the lab you can find me amongst chaos with my three children. JLT: Who was your most influenFal teacher/mentor (Kindergarten-­‐PhD)? MS: There have been mul4ple teachers throughout who have impacted me in some way. I had a physics teacher in high school who was just excited about science and teaching us science. I try to remember to hold onto the excitement. However if I had to choose one person, I would choose my PhD advisor. She was an amazing story teller and a very careful scien4st. She has impacted the most how I do science in terms of planning experiments and presen4ng data. She had very high standards and I try to maintain those today. JLT: What's the best and/or scariest thing about postdoc life? MS: I am most grateful for the flexibility that science can provide. It is helpful that if the kids are sick, I can come in the evenings to work or analyze data. The scariest thing about being a postdoc is trying to figure out what comes next. JLT: What's the best piece of advice you have for new post-­‐docs? MS: Be willing to make yourself uncomfortable. Taking both big and small risks will not only help your career but will teach you about yourself and being a scien4st. Ask the ques4on in seminar. Work on a project that may or may not work out. Talk to the person at the mee4ng. [email protected] Annual summer BBQ and Academic workshop By Mireille Khacho This summer’s PDA Annual BBQ was a great success. The day started off with an Academic workshop featuring Dr. JP Chaput from CHEO, who shared with us his journey to an academic posi4on, all the way from being a student, to his postdoc years and finally as a new PI. He shared with us his struggles and his successes and gave us plenty of advice and 4ps that will no doubt be useful to all who aMended. We look forward to having more of these Academic Workshops n the future! Please send us your recommenda4on for topics or guest speakers for future workshops. [email protected] UOttawa Faculty of Medicine PDA newsletter
Volume 2, Issue 1, December 2015
Chief Editor: Mireille Khacho
Assistant Editor: Jessy Livingston-Thomas
Contributors: Marianne Ariganello, Henry Dunn,
Nafisa Jadavji, Mireille Khacho, Jessy LivingstonThomas, Fiona McMurray and Bojan Shutinoski
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.med.uottawa.ca/grad/eng/
Join us on Facebook: ‘Faculty of Medicine
Postdoctoral Association University of Ottawa’
Welcome and Farewell By Jessy Livingston-­‐Thomas The PDA would like to wish a warm welcome to all incoming postdoctoral fellows to join the Faculty of Medicine in recent months. Drs Devon Svoboda, David PaMen, Nafisa Jadavji, Jane Fenelon, and Henry Dunn have all joined our ranks; be sure to aMend any postdoc talks and social events for a chance to meet them and find out more about their research. We bid adieu this month to Dr Megan Rose-­‐Martel, who is beginning a posi4on with the Na4onal Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and to Dr Baohua Zhang who is moving on from her posi4on at the OHRI. Best of luck to Megan and Baohua, as well as any other outgoing postdocs, on behalf of the PDA! Have a new postdoc joining your group, or saying goodbye to a postdoc who’s leaving? Email Jessy Livingston-­‐Thomas [email protected] to be included in the next issue!