Message from Norman Rosenblum, INMD Scientific Director
November 2019

At the end of October, the INMD Institute Advisory Board (IAB) amet at the University of Alberta (U of A). A major part of the meeting agenda was focused on continued development of a new INMD strategic plan. The meeting opened with a Poster Session and Meet and Greet, where we had the privilege of interacting with many trainees from the U of A who presented their impressive work. The IAB members were grateful for the warm reception we received from U of A staff and to Drs. Tanya Berry, Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, and Ayman El-Kadi, Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, for sharing their perspectives about CIHR over dinner with IAB members.

Professor Patrick MacDonald gave an invited lecture to the IAB. Dr. MacDonald’s research focuses on understanding the mechanisms that control hormone release from the endocrine pancreatic islets of Langerhans, and how this is disrupted in diabetes. He explained how he is collaborating with many other researchers to use multiple techniques, including patch-clamp electrophysiology, cell imaging, and gene expression analyses to study the functions and dysfunctions of islet cell sub-populations. Professor MacDonald also runs an in-house human islet isolation, banking and distribution program called IsletCore. Through this program, he provides human islets to approximately 100 research groups around the world, making this program one of the largest islet distribution programs in North America. The IAB was very appreciative of Dr. MacDonald’s inspiring and stimulating presentation.

On a personal note, I would like to thank the members of our IAB for the high level of expertise and commitment they bring to our work together. They link CIHR to the INMD research community and help to ensure that INMD-related issues are represented to CIHR.

Norman Rosenblum, MD, FRCPC
Scientific Director, CIHR-INMD

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