Trip to the New Elora Dairy Research and Innovation Centre

Posted July 13, 2016

I had the opportunity to tour the newly built Elora Dairy Research and Innovation Centre this week as part of the Summer CORE program. The Elora Dairy Research and Innovation Centre is a research facility supported by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario, the University of Guelph and the Ontario dairy industry. At the Elora Dairy Research Centre, different experiments on dairy cows are performed, samples are collected and data and results are analyzed.

Thinking Outside the Box

Posted June 16, 2016

West Nile, SARS, H1N1 influenza, Ebola, Zika … “catching” the trend yet? In the past 20 years, the world has been witness to a slew of emerging pathogens. The majority of these threats are zoonotic in origin. Recent trends in population growth, urbanization, antimicrobial use, climate change and population mobility have contributed to the increasing rates of global disease spread. Luckily for us, certain individuals such as Dr. Kamran Khan, of St.

My post about why cancer sucks (and how much I enjoyed my experience attending the ICCI Cancer Symposium)

Posted June 3, 2016

Cancer sucks. Period. I don’t think there is any other way to say it. Everyone is affected by cancer; either through personally being diagnosed with the disease or knowing someone who has. With 200, 000 new cases each year in Canada and a 45% chance of developing the disease in your lifetime, it is nearly impossible to not be affected by cancer’s wrath. Coming from a family of cancer victims and survivors, I can tell you that it is exceptionally important for members of the cancer research community to come together and discuss ideas on how to battle this disease.

Choosing the Best Vaccine for the Job - CAVEPM

Posted May 27, 2016

On May 16th the OVC hosted the Canadian Association of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine conference or CAVEPM. It was a great conference with thought provoking key note speakers, vast array of topics and lots of food and fun activities.  The portion of the conference I was particularly excited about was the section on Prioritizing Public and Animal Health Decisions. In this section, Dr. Melissa McLaws discussed the importance of developing a model to help countries determine which vaccines they should store to combat Foot-and-Mouth disease (FMD).

A day at the 2016 CAVEPM Conference

Posted May 26, 2016

Last Monday, I had the pleasure of attending the Canadian Association of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine annual conference, held at the OVC in Guelph! It was a jammed packed day filled with speakers discussing many disciplines of veterinary epidemiology, and it was fascinating! As a veterinary student and an aspiring epidemiologist, this conference was the perfect place for me to be!

No More Tick-ing Around

Posted May 24, 2016

ICCI 9th Annual Cancer Research Symposium - To Know the Unknown

Posted May 24, 2016

Benign or malignant, cancer is a devastating disease that affects more than just the diagnosed patient. One of the most appealing topics for scientific research revolves around cancer, and this may be due to the fact that modern day scientific research strives to divulge more and more about what is unknown. Conducting research is not cheap, nor is it easy.

Rediscovering Epidemiological Tools

Posted May 23, 2016

Before going to this conference, I thought I had a good idea of what was in the so called “epidemiological tool box”.  I had taken a few epidemiology courses in the past and I left those courses thinking that while I may not be able to perform the techniques, I knew about the existence of most of them. I always used to look at epidemiology as the more "predictable" or “certain” science since it was heavily imbued with math. I thought “how much uncertainty can exist there?”. I was proven very wrong. This experience really showed me how important it is to attend conferences.

New perspectives at CAVEPM 2016

Posted May 23, 2016

As one of many activities offered to summer students participating in the Summer CORE program, I was invited to attend the 2016 conference of the Canadian Association of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine.  As a soon-to-be third-year Microbiology undergraduate student, I have a strong interest in all things biological, especially those that relate to disease.

CAVEPM 2016 - Welcome to Epidemiology!

Posted May 23, 2016

On May 16th I had the opportunity to attend the CAVEPM (Canadian Association of Veterinary Epidemiology and Preventative Medicine) 2016 conference hosted by the University of Guelph. Monday’s topics covered foodborne pathogens, zoonoses, food safety, health regulations and many more emerging epidemiological breakthroughs ready to be shared and discussed with the leaders of the epidemiological world.