Publication excellence awards: And the winners are…

The 2020 winner of the Publication Award of Excellence is Dr. Marie-Ève Lebel, Research Associate, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre.

The Committee on Scientific Activities of the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont (HMR) Research Centre presented the 13th HMR Foundation Publication excellence awards.

Each year, these awards recognize the best publications by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and research assistants from the HMR Research Centre.

Five shortlisted candidates

Candidates for the best scientific articles published in 2019-2020 by the Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont Research Centre were:

• Karina Pellei, master’s student, laboratory of Dr. Pascal-A Vendittoli
  Title of Presentation: Enhanced recovery short-stay hip and knee joint replacement program improves patient outcomes while reducing hospital costs.
• Fiona Simpson, postdoctoral Fellow, Laboratory of Dr. May Griffith
  Title of Presentation: LiQD Cornea: Pro-regeneration collagen mimetics as patches and alternatives to corneal transplantation.
• Claire Viallard, postdoctoral fellow, laboratory of Dr. Bruno Larrivée
  Title of Presentation: BMP9 signaling promotes the normalization of tumor blood vessels.
• Livia Odagiu, Ph.D. student, Laboratory of Dr. Nathalie Labrecque
  Title of Presentation: Early programming of CD8+ T cell response by the orphan nuclear receptor NR4A3.
• Marie-Ève Lebel, postdoctoral fellow, laboratory of Dr. Heather Melichar
  Title of Presentation: Differential expression of tissue-restricted antigens among mTEC is associated with distinct autoreactive T cell fates.

A prestigious scientific jury

The Committee on Scientific Activities, consisting of Drs. Laura Hulea, Frédérick A. Mallette and Casimiro Gerarduzzi, warmly thanks the members of the jury, all researchers who are clear of conflicts of interest with the candidates.

The jury was composed of:

• Martin Guimond, Professor and Assistant Researcher in the Department of Microbiology, Infectiology and Immunology of the Université de Montréal
• Christos Boutopoulos, PhD in Applied Physics, and a researcher in applied biophotonics at Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont.
• Laura Hulea, PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Head of the Regulation of Cellular Metabolism and RNA Translation research unit.

Presenting to the jury

Candidates were given 12 minutes to present their paper, highlighting their contribution and the impact of their work. Members of the jury then had eight minutes to interview them. The evaluation criteria were the following:

• Impact of the research
• The candidate’s contribution to the article
• The quality of the oral presentation (understanding of the subject and answers to questions)

After deliberation, the jury named the following winners:

1. Marie-Ève Lebel (she will receive a $1,000 grant)
2.  (in a tie) Livia Odagiu and Claire Viallard (each will receive a scholarship of $400)

The HMR Foundation, which is committed to maintaining and strengthening HMR’s excellence in patient care, research and teaching, congratulates all candidates on their outstanding work.