“Kudos and Congratulations” recognizes achievements by faculty, residents and trainees in the Department of Surgery. Please send items to be included to alice.mui@ubc.ca
50. – Young Scientist Adopted
Congratulations to: 
Dr. Sheina Macadam, (Plastic Surgery)
who has won a Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VCHRI) Mentored Clinician Scientist Career Development Award. These salary awards, funded by the VCHRI and VGH/UBC Hospital Foundation through the Foundation’s their Adopt a Young Scientist Program and Best of Health Fund, are aimed at clinician-scientists located at VGH, UBC Hospital and GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre who want to reduce their clinical practice commitments in order to continue developing their research careers as independent investigators. Dr. Macadam, with mentorship from Dr. Andrea Pusic, will now have more time to pursue her studies into “Quality of life and patient-reported outcomes of reconstruction in breast cancer survivors”
posted : 2012-February-27
49. – from Benches to Bedsides
Congratulations to: 
Dr. Jan Ehses, (General Surgery)
one of the pioneers in describing the role of inflammation in type 2 diabetes, has been contracted by Servier Pharmaceuticals to investigate the role of toll-like receptors 2 and 4 in islet inflammation, pancreatic beta cell function and type 2 diabetes. Servier is the 2nd largest French pharmaceutical company worldwide. They are currently investigating the potential of targeting chronic inflammation treat type 2 diabetes. This includes elucidating whether the TLR2 and/or TLR4 receptors which are part of our normal innate immune response can be targeted to treat diabetes and its associated complications.
Congratulations to: 
Dr. Aziz Ghahary (Plastic Surgery) Director of BCPFFs’ Burn and Wound Healing Research Group)
who has received a CIHR proof of Principle (POP) grant entitled “Discovery of a Novel Anti-fibrogenic Factor and its Therapeutic Evaluation.” Fibrosis seen in different organs such as skin, liver, lung, kidney and arteries is a serious pathologic disorder in which the properties of normal tissue are disturbed due to an alteration in the extracellular matrix (ECM) composition and organization. Skin fibrosis such as hypertrophic scarring and keloid are frequently seen following trauma, thermal injuries and surgical incisions. They are clinically raised, firm, red, itchy, bulky and inelastic quality and limit the mobility of joints and extremities. Current treatment modalities for this devastating condition still remain unsatisfactory. For example, neither pressure garment therapy, intralesional injections of corticosteroids and interferon nor surgical revision is effective. In an attempt to solve this problem, we have screened many potential antifibrogenic factors and identified one small molecule with a potent antifibrogenic effect in an in vitro and in vivo model. The therapeutic use of this factor for treatment of fibroproliferative disorders has been patented. The CIHR POP grant thus will allow us to conduct a series of experiments to validate its safety, effective time and dose and formulate its slow release at the wound sites.
posted : 2012-February-20
48. – CIP, CIP, Hooray!
Congratulations to: 
Dr. Siham Zerhouni (General Surgery, PGY3)
who was awarded a UBC Clinical Investigator Program Fellowship, for work she is doing on viral gene therapy at the University of Toronto. She joins Dr. Zaheer Kanji and Dr. Connie Chiu as the third CIP recipient from the General Surgery program in the last 4 years.
posted : 2012-February-13