Bringing researchers and the public together

By Sharon Gray | March 29, 2012

The NL Thrombosis, Blood and Immune Disorders Education and Research Project is working hard bring researchers, patients and interested members of the public together to share knowledge.

On Monday, April 2, there will be another public meeting, this time on the topic of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), with guest speakers Dr. Kuljit Grewal, chief of the Division of Adult Hematology/Oncology in the Faculty of Medicine, and Cheryl-Anne Siomoneau, president of the CML Society of Canada.

The March 2 public meeting of the NL Thrombosis, Blood and Immune Disorders Education and Research project featured Dr. Mani Larijani of the Division of Biomedical Sciences as one of the speakers. As a biomedical researcher specializing in the human immune system and molecular mechanisms leading to lymphmagenesis, Dr. Larijani is usually invited to give highly technical talks to more specialized scientific audiences.

“I really enjoyed this rare opportunity to explain my research to patients and families of patients affected by autoimmune diseases and malignancies such as leukemia and lymphoma,” said Dr. Larijani.

“I was happy to see how people at the meeting were really interested and participated by asking a lot of questions. I feel that it is part of my responsibility as a researcher to engage the community, and the feedback from this meeting was very positive. People walked away with a better sense of the research being done in this area.”

Following the public meeting, Dr. Larijani was interviewed by VOWR; news of his talk also prompted a request to present a more specialized talk March 29 to internal medicine residents at Memorial.

Dr. Larijani, who is cross-appointed to the Discipline of Oncology, said diseases like leukemia and lymphoma are more common in Newfoundland. “We don’t know why this is, but this is definitely one of the future directions that I hope to explore in collaboration with colleagues in the Faculty of Medicine.”

Dr. Larijani credits hematologist Dr. Mary-Frances Scully for founding the NL Thrombosis, Blood and Immune Disorders Education and Research Project and volunteers such as Charlie Cheeseman, who co-ordinates organizing public meeting. “It’s a very worthy cause and a shining example of how faculty members are going out and engaging the community.”

The Monday, April 2, meeting of the NL Thrombosis, Blood and Immune Disorders Education and Research Project will be held from 7-10 p.m. at the Johnson GEO CENTRE. For further information on this project, visit  www.med.mun.ca/NlBloodDisorders/.

 


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