News & Media
Neuro News - November 2005
Director's Corner - With compliments from China
This month, Dr. Beth Kofron, MNI Associate Director with responsibility for international programs writes the Director’s Corner. During the fall Beth helped organize a neuroscience symposium in Shanghai and capped our trip to China by finalizing a detailed agreement on cooperation in Tianjin. We look forward to more reports on her work with other institutes in the months ahead.
A new logo will soon appear on our University Street building. In the next few months, the name of our Chinese sister, the Tianjin Neurological Institute (TNI), will be used to announce a partnership and our shared commitment to advance research and patient care in neurosciences. TNI, part of the Tianjin Huan Hu Hospital, is the research wing of a 500 bed dedicated neurological hospital at Tianjin Medical University and is affiliated with the Tianjin Chinese Traditional Medical College. In early November, after an FRSQ (Fonds de recherche en santé du Québec) sponsored workshop with neuroscientists from across China and Quebec, we visited TNI and made good friends and a surprisingly strong commitment to this interesting place. But why go to China for scientific collaboration?
Our relationship with TNI has deep roots. In 1934, a young neurosurgeon, Dr. Zhao Yi-Cheng, trained at the MNI with Wilder Penfield and returned to China to establish departments of neurosurgery in Tianjin and Beijing. Modeling these departments after the MNI, he built them into training centres that sent hundreds of neurosurgeons to hospitals cross China. Given Zhao’s significant impact, he is honoured in China as the father of neurosurgery. Connections like these in China and elsewhere will help us continue what Penfield and Zhao started – to expand our reach by attracting and training uniquely talented people. In this way, the contribution of the MNI will be magnified and the science will move more quickly.
In 2008, TNI will move into the second pavilion of a spectacular new hospital with more than 800 beds for neurology and neurosurgery. With a large number of patients, procedures, physicians, ORs and other services, and with some different treatment strategies, Tianjin will be a great resource for combined or comparative clinical studies with the MNI. In addition, the new medical and diagnostic equipment in Tianjin may become research tools in joint projects.
For 75 years, the MNI has trained clinicians who now work in many countries, and housed researchers who have colleagues around the world. Decades ago, physicians at the best hospital in New York sent a young woman (who would later be my mother-in-law) to the Neuro because it was THE centre in the world for treatment of epilepsy. Now years later, experts trained by MNI surgeons and neurologists, like André Olivier and Fred Andermann, have established excellent centres for the treatment for epilepsy in dozens of countries so very few patients from outside Quebec need to come here for care.
Many brilliant people in Tianjin want to work with experts at the MNI to find answers to questions in neuroscience and better ways to treat diseases of the nervous system. New faces and new ideas will keep us vital: refreshing our excitement for science, and leading to anticipated cures for patients everywhere.
Please send any comments about the Director's Corner to David Colman
Recent News
Neuroscience Workshop in China
In early November, David Colman and six MNI colleagues attended a
neuroscience workshop in Shanghai, China that was jointly sponsored by the
Fonds de recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ), Quebec’s research funding
agency, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Alain
Beaudet, FRSQ President and former MNI professor, is fostering increased
international collaboration by Quebec scientists via a series of scientific
symposia in China and his agency will provide financial support for joint
research and exchange of personnel. This goal is also supported by the
Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) which will soon establish a
joint funding program with NSFC for collaborative projects with Chinese
scientists.
A dozen neuroscientists each from across China and Quebec made presentations at the Shanghai symposium, including MNI scientists Phil Barker, Tim Kennedy, Peter McPherson, Philippe Séguéla, Weisong Shan and Dave Colman; Yves DeKoninck, Jean-Pierre Julien and Serge Rivest from Université Laval; Philippe Sarret from Université de Sherbrooke; and Gilles Lavigne and Richard Robitaille from Université de Montréal. MNI Associate Director Beth Kofron who planned the symposium for the FRSQ delegation also attended. The meeting outcomes included new friendships, several collaborative projects that are now being planned, and many students who want to pursue advanced training in Quebec. Thanks are due to Alain Beaudet and Chen Huai, Director, Bureau of International Cooperation at NSFC, for their vision in creating these opportunities.
Expanded agreement with Tianjin Neurological
Institute
The MNI delegation traveled onto Tianjin after the FRSQ-NSFC symposium to
meet the research team and clinical colleagues of Director Zhang Jian-ning
at the Tianjin Neurological Institute (TNI). Mark Angle, Director of the
Intensive Care Unit at the Montreal Neurological Hospital, joined the MNI
group (listed in the paragraph above) for research discussions and tours of
the Huan Hu and Tianjin General Hospitals at Tianjin Medical University.
All were impressed to see the most advanced medical diagnostic equipment
and highly trained staff, as well as surgical techniques and rehabilitation
protocols that are very similar to those used here.
Building on earlier agreements between the MNI, TNI and the Tianjin Municipal government (a key funder of TNI), a substantive agreement on cooperation focused primarily on the development of research and clinical personnel was signed. The MNI has agreed to host allied health professionals, nurses, physicians, researchers and trainees from TNI for fellowships of up to 2 years, and to send specialists to TNI. TNI will establish an MNI Laboratory in their new hospital complex so on-going research collaborations will be easily managed. The MNI will also host a neurosurgeon from TNI on the Bethune-Zhao Fellowship, established at the MNI in 1979 to honour Dr. Zhao Yi-Cheng. Dr. Zhao’s son, Ke-ming, who was awarded this fellowship in its inaugural year, met the delegation in Tianjin and shared photographs and monographs of his father’s work with the visiting group. This was first meeting with Ke-ming for those on the trip but it felt like a family reunion.
MNI researchers are now working on scientific publications with researchers from TNI and are planning to receive trainees within the year. We look forward to many very productive years of collaboration with TNI and will be pleased to welcome our new colleagues to the MNI.
Name in Lights
Ed Ruthazer, one of the Neuro’s newest faculty members, was featured in an
article, Getting Wired: Pathway of a Neuroscientist in Science’s Next Wave,
a career resource for young scientists. As this excerpt shows, the article
describes Ed’s research and the path he took to the MNI:
... Edward Ruthazer is a mapmaker of sorts, but the maps he makes are not
of places in the world. Ruthazer studies brain development, charting
intricate neurocircuitries in the hope of advancing treatments for injuries
of the central nervous system and therapies for developmental disorders.
Like the neural connections he maps, Ruthazer's path has twisted and turned
from China to Japan and across North America, as he has investigated the
mechanisms that shape the wiring of the human brain. For this young
neuroscientist, working overseas in different cultures and acquiring new
personal and professional skills provided a sense of independence and ..
Upcoming Events
Polymicrogyria Syndromes and Epilepsy at MNI
On December 1, Fred and Eva Andermann will host an illustrious group of
international speakers at the MNI to discuss current research findings
related to Polymicrogyria Syndromes and Epilepsy. Presentations will cover
classification of malformations of cortical development, molecular genetics
of the developing brain, as well as genetics of the various polymicrogyria
(PMG) syndromes. The one day symposium will be held in the Jeanne Timmins
Amphitheatre at the MNI. There is no registration fee to attend the
symposium.
High School Students spend a Day Discovering the
Brain
High school students interested in neuroscience will gather at the MNI for
Discovery Day on December 2. Sponsored by Pfizer and organized by the
Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, Discovery Day programs which take place
across Canada are designed to teach, inspire and motivate students who
might be attracted to science. With an emphasis on neuroscience,
workshops will be offered by graduate students, faculty and health
professionals on topics such as growing nerve cells in a dish, electricity
and the brain, synapse formation, and interventional neuroradiology. Our
young guests will also question career panelists including neurosurgeon
Karen Johnston, MRI research technician Andre Cormier, ‘scientist turned
intellectual property expert’ Emma Saffman, and others. They will be
surprised to hear from Sami Obaid, a Montreal high school student who
conducted a research project under the supervision of MNI faculty Josephine
Nalbantaglu that won an award at the Intel Science Fair last year.
Choir sings for Reitman Lunch
The annual Reitman Lunch will be held on December 15. Lunch is
provided each year for all Neuro staff by the Reitman family in recognition
of the care Mrs. Sam Reitman received at the hospital many years ago. This
generous gift of thanks has become the traditional marker of the holiday
season at the Neuro and is an important time when the staff comes together
to hear the voices of the Neuro Choir. For almost thirty years the
Neuro Choir has prepared traditional holiday songs for a capella
performance in French and English. Under the direction of Ken Hastings, the
choir provides musical entertainment for the Reitman Lunch, and in late
December tours the Neuro’s wards to sing for the hospitalized patients. If
you attend the Reitman lunch, please remember to bring non-perishable food
that will be donated to a local food pantry.
Holiday Cheer
Everyone at the Neuro is invited to a Christmas party December 17 at
Holiday Inn Select (99 Viger Avenue, Montreal). Until December 12,
tickets are available from Darlene at extension 04558 or in room 176 at the
Neuro. For $40 per person, the party will include entertainment, cocktails
(at 6:30 pm) and dinner (at 8:00 pm). Please join in the fun!
Upcoming Lectures
McGill Neurology Conferences (Fridays from 8:30-9:30
am)
December 2 at the Montreal General Hospital
Understanding Vertigo: The physiology of vestibular compensation
Dr.Kathleen Cullen, Department of Physiology, McGill
Nystagmus: spontaneous or provoked as a clinical diagnostic sign
Dr. Athanassios Katsarkas, Department of Otolaryngology, McGill
December 9 at the Jewish General Hospital
The Guillaine Barré Syndrome That Wasn't Dr. Dubravka Dodig & Dr. Prem
Ponka, McGill University
December 16 at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital
A Holiday Neurology Contest
All Neurology Residents, Students and Staff
Congratulations to …
Fred Andermann, who was selected as the Richard L. and Mary Masland Lecturer at the XVIII World Congress of Neurology in Sydney, Australia.George Karpati, who was elected to the newly constituted Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS), Canada's first formal Academy of Sciences.
The Safety Committee of the Montreal Neurological Institute, that was selected for the inaugural Safety Award of Recognition by the University Laboratory Safety Committee at the Environmental Health and Safety Office at McGill.
Director - David R. Colman, PhD
Senior Management - Mark Angle, MD; Tom Gevas; Marilyn Kaplow; Elizabeth
Kofron, PhD; Patricia O'Connor; Catherine Rowe
MNI Bulletin Editors: Elizabeth Kofron, PhD & Sandra McPherson,
PhD
Please send any items for the MNI Bulletin to Sandra McPherson or Beth Kofron.
