2025 Annual Biochemistry Retreat
On October 9-10, 2025, we built our community of 102 attendees by enjoying talks, posters, conversations over meals, drinks, hiking through the woods, and lots of laughter at Horseshoe Valley Resort. The beautiful, sunny Fall day embraced our group as Chair Dr. Lea Harrington launched our retreat with a welcome and a land acknowledgement. Inspiring science was shared by our keynote speaker, Dr. Roberto Botelho “21 Years Later: phagocytosis, lysosomes, and other stuff” along with Dr. Andrew Wilde, Dr. Michael Norris, Dr. Alex Palazzo, Dr. Haley Wyatt, David Van Ommen, Dr. Peter Liang, Simran Khroud, Yuchen Zheng, Cami Aprosoff, Aakash Natarajan, Caitlyn Xu, Grace Parish, and Nourhan Almasri. Our keynote panelists, Dr. Lea Harrington, Dr. Trevor Moraes, Dr. Jean-Philippe Julien, and Dr. Nana Lee, also showcased inspiration with their own career and life journeys in “Developing Your Scientific Thought Leadership: Perspectives on the Human Experience.”
Congratulations to our Award Winners who also presented their scientific excellence:
Connell Award for Best All-Around Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Trevor Morey
Outstanding PhD Thesis Dr. Quynh Hyuong Hguyen
Centennial Award in honour of Sela Cheifitz Ian Yung Yen
David A Scott Award for Best All-Around Graduate Student Nemo Liu
Connell Award for Top Graduate Student Publication Hanlin Wang
Congratulations to our Poster Winners!
MSc Posters: Tiana Lee, Nourhan Almasri, Julia Barbat, Lina Al Halabi.
PhD Posters: Nicholas SIlver, Benjamin Beavington, Amy Qian, Alyssa Vander Zee.
Schachter Award for Best PhD Poster: David Van Ommen
Our MCs kept the program on time and entertaining: Mithusha Peragerasingam, Nourhan Almasri, Nicholas Chan, Dr. Nana Lee, Dr. Jason De Melo. And all of the behind-the-scenes organization was made possible by Team Lead: Nourhan Almasri (program, speaker invites, venue scouting, guests' accommodations). Team: Katherine Matthew (venue coordination, catering, accommodations), Mithusha Peragerasingam (social, accommodations), Krishna Gandhi (bus, accommodation lists, program, speaker invites, photos, IG), Zachary Thow (bus booking), Nicholas Chan (BGSU rep, logistics), Benjamin Beavington (BGSU rep). Idea Contributors: Amrita Dhindsa, Dr. Anne Van der Meij. Faculty Advisors: Dr. Jason De Melo (ideas, logistics, poster session), Dr. Nana Lee (program, bus snacks, logistics, cards, legal, EDI, photos).
Specialty thanks for our finance and logistics team! Linna Wei, Lynette Anderson, Carrie Harber, Dr. Lea Harrington.
Find a copy of the 2025 Research Retreat Program here.
