May 19th marked the UBC Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine’s Annual Research Day. Poster and platform presentations from the lab focused on efforts to increase purity of microglial cultures (David Hunt), characterize ARNT2 expression in astrocytes in response to inflammatory mediators (Heather Yong) and to localize and identify expressors of the lipid presenting molecule CD1 in MS lesions (Fraser Muir). Pathology Day as a whole was another tremendous success, with stellar presentations from several trainees in the program including posters and speed poster presentations for those that dared :).

Further south at the American Psychiatric Association meeting in San Diego, Dr. Gabrielle Chartier presented a translational study aimed to characterize the role of neuroprotective factors in influencing MS onset and progression stemming from our work in culture and disease models of MS. Dr. Chartier was awarded the APA Research Colloquium Award for her abstract – congratulations Gabrielle!