On August 13, 2014, the Centre for Blood Research celebrated the end of the Summer Studentship Program with the annual CBR Research Day. Over 20 summer students who worked in labs and clinics throughout the CBR, described their work with poster and powerpoint presentations. For many, this was their first public speaking engagement, and with a critical, scientific audience of over 150 – standing room only – stress levels were high. In spite of all the anxiety, their      performances were spectacular – informative and entertaining! The student talks were followed by a keynote presentation by UBC’s Dr. Jennifer Gardy who provided wonderful insights into how to better communicate science, and motivated everyone to enthusiastically follow their career passions.

The CBR Summer Studentship Program provides future generations of scientists and clinicians with valuable experiences that will help guide them into important career decisions. The program not only provides lab/clinic experiences, but also includes tours of various research and clinical facilities throughout UBC. Such opportunities are rare and it is a challenge to identify funding to support these students. We are fortunate to have strong support from our many academic, industry and private partners, who provide educational grants for this purpse. Our sponsors this year included Alexion, Bayer, CSL-Behring, Canadian Blood Services and Health Canada, Grifols, New England Biolabs, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer and the Sheldon Naiman-Linda Vickars Hematology Endowment Fund. Their support is key and greatly appreciated …. THANKS!!

The program could not be successful without support from CBR PIs, but even more so from those who supervise the students on a day-to-day basis, teaching them techniques, helping them to design experiments, guiding them through tough spots, encouraging them when experiments “fail”, and generally motivating them and instilling the excitement of working in the lab and clinic. To all those post-docs, research associates, research technicians, and graduate students….. many thanks!!

There are loads of photos of the day …. Check out CBR’s Facebook page.