News & Media

Director's Corner

Miniatures

Decades ago, on my first trip to London, my aunt took me to the Victoria and Albert Museum. As we were about to enter, she issued instructions: "Look at nothing until I tell you to." She had written out a precise itinerary, and the plan was for us to start deep within the Museum with the fabulous miniature portrait collection that she considered the high point of the place, and proceed from there to the Raphael cartoons, with only a few carefully selected stops along the way. Good advice, because otherwise I would have been mentally saturated by the time we got halfway to the miniatures.

I think of that first visit to the V&A each time I attend the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) annual meeting. This get together rotates between the few cities in the United States that can host 30,000 visitors for 5 days. Each of those 30,000 has something to say or present, but of course you cannot possibly engage with even a fraction of them. You plan carefully, selecting what you will see out of this impossibly large menu. Armed with our individual itineraries, neuroscientists navigate through a floor space that takes up several football fields, all jammed up with scientific posters, corporate exhibits, publisher's booths, symposia, minisymposia, and workshops. It is bewildering, and it dwarfs the V&A.

The meeting is at once exhilarating, exhausting, and frustrating. It is exhilarating to witness progress and to see the phenomenal growth of the field of neuroscience, and especially the numbers of young people who are now working in the field. It is exhausting because of the shear volume of information that is thrown at you, non-stop, and frustrating because you cannot possibly absorb it all, and you know that a lot of what you are missing is probably important.

Incredible advances are being made on all fronts, not just in the science but also in the tools we use to do the science. My favorite item this year was a new microscope system that uses dual lasers, and is no bigger than a 2 centimeter miniature portrait. This machine can visualize the distortion that individual red blood cells undergo as they squeeze through living capillaries deep inside the brain. It will revolutionize the way we study neurological diseases.

Please send any comments about the Director's Corner to David Colman

Recent News & Events

Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholar Eric Shoubridge's award as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Research Scholar has been renewed for 5 years. As one of only 40 awardees this year, he will receive funding for his research, and is recognized internationally for scientific achievement with this prestigious award. The US-based HHMI has distributed more than $100 M to scientists in 32 countries since 1991 when the International Research Scholars Program was founded. With these awards, HHMI seeks to strengthen biomedical research and scientific education by supporting current and future scientific leaders.

Genetic disease education and prevention
The MNI co-hosted a public lecture “Genetic Diseases: The power of prevention” with the Montreal Chapter of The Canadian Society for the Weizmann Institute of Science to help educate the public about the risks of genetic diseases such as Tay-Sachs, Canavan and Thalassemia. Dr. Charles Scriver (McGill University) revealed how testing programs had reduced the incidence of Tay-Sachs disease in the Montreal Jewish community and Quebec parent Mr. Denis Fiset emphasized the urgent need to educate a segment of the French Quebecois community about their increased risk for this fatal disease. Thanks to funding provided from several organizations in the Jewish community, Dr. John Mitchell (Montreal Children's Hospital, MUHC) announced that a new expanded panel of genetic tests for potential carriers of these diseases is now available in Montreal. This program builds on research on genetic diseases by MNI scientists Drs. Fred and Eva Andermann and Eric Shoubridge, and strengthens our connection to the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Stroke Awareness Day 2006
On Friday, September 29th Neuro nurses hosted the 2nd Annual Stroke Awareness Day at the Carrefour Angrignon in collaboration with the Quebec Heart and Stroke Foundation and the CSSS Dorval-Lachine-LaSalle. Their booth on managing hypertension provided public education and blood pressure monitoring, and was visited by over 200 people. Thanks go to the following individuals who contributed their time and effort in making the event the success that it was: Elizabeth Shore - Stroke Program; Kimberley Ah-Sen - Adm Tech; Michelle Bayard - Staff nurse 3 South; Gloria Embascado - Staff Nurse 3 South; Marie Belony - Staff Nurse 14th floor, MGH; Naomi Akazawa - Assistant Head Nurse 3NE; Martha Stewart - Nursing Practice Consultant; and Sylvie Lussier, Luce Dorais, and Pat Kerr for their support.

Dorothy J. Killam Lecture and Gairdner Foundation Program October 24, 2006 The Gairdner Foundation's 2006
Montreal program partnered with the MNI's Dorothy J. Killam Lecture. Lectures were presented by 2006 Gairdner Award laureates Thomas Pollard of Yale University (Molecular basis of cellular mobility & cytokinesis) and Ralph Brinster of University of Pennsylvania (Germline modification). Linda Buck, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2004 and Gairdner Laureate 2003 of the Howard Hughes Medical Research Institute in Seattle, WA, USA delivered the Dorothy J. Killam Lecture entitled "Odor and pheromone sensing in mammals".

Upcoming Events

Seeking singers for the season
Each year the Neuro Choir prepares holiday music for the enjoyment of hospital patients and as entertainment at the annual Reitman lunch. The 2006 Choir is now forming and new members are welcome. Rehearsals are every Wednesday at noon. If interested, please contact our fearless Director, Ken Hastings at ken.hastings@mcgill.ca or 514-398-1852. Don’t be shy -- you don’t have to read music to add your voice to the Choir.

21st Annual Wilder Penfield Lecture
On November 15, Phillip Crawley, CEO and publisher of The Globe and Mail, will deliver the prestigious Wilder Penfield Lecture. As a former resident of Great Britain, New Zealand and other countries, and as one propelled into the system by family illness, Mr. Crawley will present a provocative perspective on Canadian health care. His talk, entitled “The Impatient Patient: A consumer’s view of Canadian health care”, will be at 4:30 pm in the Jeanne Timmins Amphitheatre. All are welcome to attend the lecture and the reception that will follow.

McGill Neurology Conferences (Fridays from 8:30-9:30 am)
These conferences are planned and scheduled by Dr. Liam Durcan.

October 27 Montreal General Hospital
Can mild traumatic brain injury really cause persistent headache and other symptoms? A review of the literature on post traumatic headache and associated symptoms.
Dr. Stephen Faux, Director of Rehabilitation Medicine Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Service, Australia and Visiting Professor, McGill University

November 3 Montreal Children's Hospital
Dr. Bernard Rosenblatt

November 10 Jewish General Hospital
Emerging risk factors for stroke
Dr. Jeffrey Minuk
Associate Professor, McGill University

November 17 Montreal General Hospital
Treatment initiation in Parkinson’s disease: a time for reappraisal
Dr. Anthony Shapira, Chairman, University Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Royal Free and University College Medical School and Professor, Clinical Neurology at the Institute of Neurology Queen Square, London, UK.

November 24 Montreal General Hospital
Dr. Michael Sinnreich

The Neuro Family

Pedro Meijia, social worker in the Brain Tumour Program, joined the Neuro in 2000. Born in Honduras, Pedro's family moved to Mexico where his father worked with the UN World Food Agency. Pedro trained as a medical doctor in Mexico but had to retool his career in Canada with a BA in Social Work, a certificate in Bioethics and Masters in Hospital Administration.

In 2002 on a visit to Honduras, Pedro was invited to tour his home town hospital and was saddened and shocked by the desparate conditions and urgent medical needs he saw. Committed to helping the General Hospital of El Progreso, Pedro and a few Canadian friends, including Mary Cornell, Manager of the Neuro's Central Supply Room, have salvaged and shipped over 60 hospital beds, an OR table, anesthesia machine and other equipment that would have been discarded here. Pedro's efforts have been helped by Montreal-based clothing manufacturer, Gildan Activewear Inc, which ships the hospital equipment to Honduras for its new use.

Congratulations to …

Diane Lowden, Clinical Nurse Specialist, who has been invited to become an Honorary Life Member of the UKMSSNA, the United Kingdom Multiple Sclerosis Specialist Nurse Association in recognition of her contributions to MS nursing care.

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.