Brain to brawn: Training one leg strengthens both after stroke
To recover strength and ultimately perhaps the ability to walk, the best bet after a severe stroke might just be to forego working the weaker, more-affected side. It seems counter-intuitive, but high-intensity strength training on the less-affected side could have remarkable potential for helping recover mobility after a stroke, new UVic research indicates.
Cells of hope: Stephanie Willerth's stem cell research
When Stephanie Willerth was five years old she asked her parents for one of two things for Christmas—a chemistry set or a pair of tickets to a college bowl football game. “It wasn’t much of a choice since bowl tickets are pretty pricey, so they gave me the chemistry set,” says Willerth, who at 31 now has a much bigger “chemistry set”—a research lab at the University of Victoria.
Ted Grant photos take us behind the scenes with Island Medical Program students
His most famous photo is of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau sliding down a banister. But of all he’s shot in 60 years as a photographer, Ted Grant’s favourite work is the photo series he has done of doctors and nurses at work.
Joining the fight against cancer
Eric Tran has known since high school that he wanted to use science to improve people's lives. Now, as the first student to complete the doctoral program in cancer immunology at the BC Cancer Agency's Deeley Research Centre (DRC), he's in a position to do just that. Tran has recently begun postdoctoral work at the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, with Dr. Steven Rosenberg, an internationally recognized leader in T-cell therapy of cancer.
Convocation: Nuttida Chieosongkram
Nuttida Chieosongkram was an accredited nurse in Thailand, but when she moved to Canada, she did what many would find difficult; she redid her post-secondary education to continue working in her field.
Convocation: Dr. Mark Lipsett
Graduating in the third class of UVic’s Island Medical Program (IMP) leading to a UBC MD degree, Dr. Mark Lipsett has launched upon a career trajectory aimed at outer space.
Dr. Oscar Casiro: Appointed
Dr. Oscar Casiro, head of the Division of Medical Sciences, has been appointed regional associate dean, Vancouver Island, Faculty of Medicine, UBC. He has been associate dean of the Island Medical Program (IMP) based at the University of Victoria since January 2004 and helped to pioneer the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s distributed undergraduate medical education system on Vancouver Island, in collaboration with the University of Victoria and the Vancouver Island Health Authority. As regional associate dean, Casiro will assume strategic leadership of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education on Vancouver Island, including development and implementation of initiatives and policies that support continued integration of medical education opportunities.
Kathy Gaul: Awarded
UVic faculty member Kathy Gaul is this year’s winner of a national award for medical education, the CAME (Canadian Association for Medical Education) Certificate of Merit Award. Gaul, a member of UVic’s Island Medical Program and the School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education, was part of the original UVic team that helped expand the UBC medical program to Vancouver Island and northern BC. Chief among her many achievements and commitments, she is course director for the program’s foundations of medicine and teaches human anatomy and exercise physiology.
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