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Join CSMLS for a virtual symposium focused on Microbiology, featuring industry leaders from across the country!
We’ll broadcast expert-led sessions to you so you can earn continuing education hours from the comfort of your home or lab.
Day 1 - Wednesday October 27, 2021 - 11:00am - 2:30pm (Eastern)
Session 1 - SARS-CoV-2 Biosafety in the Laboratory
Description: The Public Health Agency of Canada regulates laboratories across the country working with hazardous pathogens and toxins. The Agency administers and enforces the Human Pathogens and Toxins Act and Regulations, overseeing biosafety and biosecurity on a national level. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought biosafety to the forefront, particularly in medical diagnostic facilities. In this session, the Public Health Agency of Canada will provide an overview of its regulatory authorities and their application to medical laboratories. In addition, a summary of the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen risk assessment will be presented, delving into the characteristics of the virus such as pathogenicity, communicability, and the availability of preventative and therapeutic treatments. Finally, biosafety requirements and recommendations for diagnostic facilities will be discussed.
Session 2 - Understanding Tuberculosis (TB) in the current context of Canada’s Indigenous Populations
Description: This session will describe the history of tuberculosis (TB) in Indigenous populations in Canada. It will look at the current epidemiology of TB and the various contexts on Indigenous Peoples that relate with the social determinants of health, along with on the ground information. Finally, it will give an overview of the different frameworks and targets for the elimination of TB among Indigenous populations and highlight Indigenous-specific TB resources and tools.
Session 3 - To kill a bacterium, you need to think like a bacterium
Description: History has recorded antibiotics as wonder drugs. These therapies, however, are uniquely susceptible to obsolescence through the inexorable development of drug-resistant microbes. Today, drug-resistant infections threaten sustainability of healthcare systems and the productivity of the global economy. Innovation efforts have not kept up with the growing danger of drug-resistant infections. Modern industrial drug discovery programs have failed to yield any truly new antibiotics for more than 30 years. There is a pressing need to reinvigorate the field of antibacterial research by re-imagining the way in which antibiotics are discovered, developed and commercialized in order to ward off a post-antibiotic era.
Day 2 - Thursday October 28, 2021 - 11:00am - 2:30pm (Eastern)
Session 1 - COVID & the NML: Out of the frying pan, into the fire
Session 2 - Microbiology Debugged: What’s new and exciting in the diagnosis of infectious diseases
Description: This session will describe recent findings and trends that are changing the practice of diagnostic microbiology including advances in rapid molecular testing, improved understanding of the impact of the microbiome on health, and diagnostic developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Session 3 - A Passion for Microbiology: How to Build a Career you Love
Description: I began my career later than most, having completed my training in medical laboratory technology 10 years after graduating from high school. I have spent almost my entire career the clinical Microbiology laboratory at the Saint John Regional Hospital. I will review my career progression, beginning in why I chose this career, how I developed the education and skills that helped me achieve my goal of advancing to my current position as manager and clinical specialist. I will also review some of the major changes in Microbiology and challenges along the way that have led up to the last year and a half managing the most impacted division during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Day 1 - October 27, 2021
Session 1 - SARS-CoV-2 Biosafety in the Laboratory
Learning Objectives:
Presented by: Brigitte Cadieux, PhD & Morgan Kafenzakis
Manager(s), Office of Biosafety Programs and Planning, Centre for Biosecurity, Public Health Agency of Canada
Brigitte and Morgan both work in the Centre for Biosecurity at the Public Health Agency of Canada. Brigitte holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology. She worked at the Centre for Biosecurity in 2005-2006 and returned in 2017. She manages the Biosafety Risk Assessment program responsible for conducting pathogen risk assessments, updating the ePATHogen database, and developing Pathogen Safety Data Sheets. With an academic background in biochemistry and chemical engineering, Morgan began her career in biosafety over 10 years ago. She has contributed extensively to the development and implementation of Canada’s biosafety oversight regime under the Human Pathogens and Toxins Act and Regulations. She currently manages the program responsible for the Canadian Biosafety Standard and Handbook, as well as a suite of subject specific Canadian Biosafety Guidelines.
Session 2 - Understanding Tuberculosis (TB) in the current context of Canada’s Indigenous Populations
Learning Outcomes:
Presented by: Dr. Justin Lys (MD)
Dr. Justin Lys received his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in 2014. He has worked for the University of Manitoba/Centre for Healthcare Innovation in the Knowledge Synthesis platform, Sessional Instructor in the ACCESS/Aboriginal Focus Program and departments of Internal Medicine/Critical Care, running the research program in the Intensive Care Units. Currently, he works as a Research Associate with the National Collaborating Centre for Indigenous Health at the University of Northern British Columbia. He looks forward to working with Indigenous populations on innovative ways health research can be of benefit. He is also a member of the Manitoba Metis Federation.
Session 3 - To kill a bacterium, you need to think like a bacterium
Learning Outcomes:
Presented by: Eric Brown, PhD
Dr. Eric Brown is a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences and member of the M.G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University. Brown is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and has received a number of other awards including the Canadian Society of Microbiologists Murray Award for career achievement. He currently holds a Killam Research Fellowship from the Canada Council for the Arts and a Canada Research Chair in Microbial Chemical Biology. Brown’s research aims to probe the complex biology that underlies bacterial survival strategies. The goal of these studies is to contribute to fresh directions for new antibacterial therapies.
Day 2 - October 28, 2021
Session 1 - COVID & the National Microbiology Lab (NML): Out of the frying pan, into the fire
Learning Outcomes:
Presented by: Dr. Guillaume Poliquin, MD, PhD
Senior Medical Advisor, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada
Dr. Poliquin completed his medical degree at Western University prior to pursuing a paediatrics residency at the University of Manitoba, followed by a fellowship in paediatric infectious diseases also at the University of Manitoba.
After residency, Dr. Poliquin joined the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory’s (NML) Special Pathogens Division for a Ph.D. focused on Ebola virus.
He has since assumed the role of Medical Advisor to the Scientific Director General at the NML, and is now acting Vice President. These roles are rounded out with a paediatric infectious diseases consultative practice in Winnipeg, as well as general paediatrics practice in remote communities in northern Manitoba and Nunavut.
Dr. Poliquin’s research portfolio is primarily focused on vaccine research and emerging pathogens, such as Ebola and, more recently, SARS-CoV-2.
Session 2 - Microbiology Debugged: What’s new and exciting in the diagnosis of infectious diseases
Learning Outcomes:
Presented by: David Goldfarb, MD, FRCPC
David Goldfarb MD FRCPC is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at University of British Columbia and Medical Microbiologist and Pediatric Infectious Disease Physician at BC Children’s Hospital. His research focuses on novel diagnostic, prevention, and management strategies for childhood infectious diseases particularly in remote and resource limited settings.
Session 3 - A Passion for Microbiology: How to Build a Career you Love
Learning Outcomes:
Presented by: Janet Reid, MLT, BMLS, ART
Janet Reid has been the manager of the Microbiology laboratory at the Saint John Regional Hospital in Saint John, NB since October 2007. She has been a medical laboratory technologist since 1990 and has spent her entire career in Microbiology. As a technologist, she was trained in the provincial service areas for Level 3 lab/TB and the enteric reference lab. She completed her Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Science from UNB post-diploma in 2007 and her ART in Microbiology in 2014. She has also been involved with her professional societies at the provincial and national level, having served as NBSMLT president in 2003 and on the Council on National Certification with the CSMLS for several years. She currently manages a busy clinical laboratory with a staff of 27 and oversight of three provincial services.
Download the printable attachment for session times and descriptions.
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