Message from Norman Rosenblum, INMD Scientific Director
August 2024

With over half of the summer months behind us, I hope that each of you who had planned a ‘change of pace’ achieved this. And yet, there is a bit more of summer to enjoy before we resume the full expanse of our professional activities. For me, summer is not just a time to take leave of work-related activities but also to participate in workshops that, while intense in their own ways, have a different feel in the context of ‘summer’ – perhaps summer provides more thinking space in the absence of the usual myriad of other tasks to be juggled outside of these workshops.

The first of these meetings was the EUREKA International Summer Course in Translational Medicine, a collaboration of the EUREKA Institute for Translational Medicine and University Medical Centre Utrecht. Here, MD-PhD, PhD students, and Postdoctoral Fellows engage in a challenging curriculum guided by EUREKA’s vision to ‘transform the current approach to translational medicine and address unmet medical needs by reducing the wastage of precious resources & time’ and featuring cutting-edge issues in translational medicine and the health research ecosystem, case-based learning, peer-mentoring, and professional development.

It is inspiring for me to work closely with these course participants from the USA, Canada, and numerous European countries as well as a gifted and diverse faculty. These early career researchers work towards their goal of impact for patients all the while problem-solving their way through the context in which they are being trained and the research ecosystem for their future work. My hope is that the more than 1000 individuals who have participated in EUREKA courses will, in their own fashion, challenge our research ecosystem to be more effective and become a more inviting place for them and their successors.

The second meeting in my summer menu was a workshop on the Lawson Foundation Child and Youth Diabetes Strategy, which is focused solely on Indigenous youth. INMD was honored to be invited to observe this workshop during which Lawson-funded teams presented their ongoing work engaging Indigenous youth in the many aspects of supporting identity development, community engagement, knowledge of traditional Indigenous ways of being, connection to land, healthy eating, and personal resilience. It was motivating to be a witness to this important work, which harnesses a health-focused approach to challenge disease and to reflect on the ways in which I can become an effective ally.

Norman Rosenblum, MD, FRCPC, FCAHS
Scientific Director
Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes

Date modified:

2024-08-21