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The 2010 annual meeting convened in Toronto, Ontario from February 25 to 27th. The meeting was a resounding success. Mentors, both new and old, students, lay members, industry representatives and special guests met to discuss issues relevant to each group.
This year's visiting professor was Dr. Chris Walker from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio. Dr. Walker gave a presentation entitled, "Can HCV Immunity be Restored?" Both students and mentors monopolized him with questions for the rest of the evening.
Another special guest was Dr. Wahid Doss from Egypt's state HCV council. The NCRTP-HepC is liaising with the HCV council to create stronger ties between researchers in our two countries. Dr. Doss gave a presentation on the difficulties that face Egypt in its fight against Hepatitis C.
Another activity that took place included the applicant interviews for the next student fellowships. The competition was fierce with a record 12 applications.
Other activities that took place included lectures for the trainees on the topics of finding post-doctoral positions, learning about CIHR common CVs, finding jobs in industry, and a 1 on 1 conversation about the psychological problems some HCV patients encounter. As usual the trainees also had to give poster presentations. Liang-Tzung Lin from Dalhousie University, and Julia Thorpe from McGill University won the basic and clinical science awards for their presentations. The final activity that took place was two ethical discussions led by Drs. Balfour, Mugford and Roberts. Trainees and mentors alike argued back and forth over the ethical dilemmas they were presented with.
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