2023 IIDR Trainee Day Recap - Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research’s (IIDR)

Celebrating Trainee-led Research

Hundreds of McMaster University faculty, staff, students, and trainees gathered on November 10, 2023 at CIBC Hall for our annual capstone research symposium. The event, organized and executed by a committee of IIDR trainees, recognized and celebrated the innovative work being done by our students and postdoctoral fellows. More than 80 trainees from across the institute presented research during the showcase, each one exploring infectious diseases from a unique perspective. We learned about vaccines, artificial intelligence, antimicrobial resistance, HIV, tuberculosis, and so much more.

Keynote Andrew Goodman

Dr. Andrew L. Goodman, Director of the Yale University Microbial Sciences Institute, flew in to spend the day with IIDR trainees. He delivered our keynote lecture, which focused on dietary xenobiotics — fascinating research that explores how the foods we eat can impact our risk of disease.

Award-Winning Research

The following trainees were presented with the IIDR’s highest honours at the event: Jarrod Johnson (Magolan Lab), Michael Kamin Hart Staff Award; Autumn Arnold (Stokes Lab), Michael Kamin Hart Undergraduate Award; Victoria Lee (Gillgrass Lab), Michael Kamin Hart MSc Award; Michael D’Agostino (Miller Lab), Michael Kamin Hart PhD Award; Luke Yaeger (Burrows Lab), Michael Kiley Award; Manoj Jangra (Wright Lab), Mildred Gulliver Postdoctoral Award; Jessica Breznik (Bowdish Lab), Gerard Wright & Teresa Gubala Postdoctoral Award; Nathan Bullen (Whitney Lab), Mildred Gulliver Best Graduate Oral Talk Award; Nathan Yuen (Burrows Lab), Fisher Scientific Undergraduate Poster Award; Manpreet Kaur (Wright Lab), IIDR Award of Excellence — Postdoctoral; Haley Zubyk (Wright Lab), IIDR Award of Excellence — PhD; Jeremie Alexander (Stokes Lab), Global Nexus MSc Poster Award

Poster Session

The event featured a two-hour open house-style poster session, at which students and trainees presented their latest research to a hall-full of guests.

Talk Competition

Six graduate students squared off in an oral presentation competition, each focusing on different aspects of infectious disease. The talks were ranked by competition judges, who declared Nathan Bullen the winner of the Mildred Gulliver Best Graduate Oral Talk Award.

Amna Abbas, Wright Lab

A Novel Glycosyltransferase Confers Resistance to Novobiocin in the Environment

Nathan Bullen, Whitney Lab

Evolution of an Phage Protein Supports Antiphage Escape

Thy Nguyen, Kalan Lab

Mining Antimicrobials in the Human Skin Microbiome

Dominique Tertigas, Surette Lab

Leveraging Culture-dependent Metagenomics to Identify Enterobacteriaceae Genes Enriched in Active Ulcerative Colitis

Megan Tu, Brown Lab

Exploiting the Fitness Cost of Carbapenem Resistance

Gary Liu, Stokes Lab

Generative AI for designing and validating easily synthesizable and structurally novel antibiotics

After Party

All participants and guests were invited to The Phoenix at McMaster for dinner and a show. More awards were presented over dinner, and The Null Hypothesis — led by IIDR members Gerry Wright and Fred Capretta — performed a soundtrack of cover songs to cap off an amazing day of science.