April 12, 2013 Seminar

April 12, 2013 Seminar: Designing technologies that scaffold and assess students’ use of visual evidence during science inquiry.

 BMC and the Department of Biology welcome

Camillia Matuk
Postdoctoral Scholar, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley
A candidate for the research-stream position in Biomedical Communications/Biology.

Camillia’s curriculum platform: http://wise.berkeley.edu/

April 12, 2013
Council Chambers, DV 3130
11 am to 12 pm

Learning biology can be challenging because many phenomena are beyond students’ everyday experiences. Although well-designed visualizations can help, students must develop fluency with visual information, which involves creating informed expectations, noticing relevant details, and documenting observations. But how can we support the development of these complex skills? And how can we assess them? In this presentation, I describe two tools integrated into a web-based learning environment, and designed for middle school students to track and distinguish their understanding toward building evidence-based explanations of cell processes. Through classroom trials, I explore how features of these tools capture nuanced information on students’ learning that supports metacognition as well as instruction and assessment. Throughout, I demonstrate how an iterative approach to design as a participatory and reflective process not only informs design revisions, but also reveals more about how students learn and collaborate during science inquiry.

For more information, please contact:

Maeve Doyle
Tel 905 569 4849
maeve.doyle@utoronto.ca

BMC highlights patient education tools

BMC Director Nicholas Woolridge, graduate student Brendan Polley and Mayor Hazel McCallion. Photo by Keith Nablo

BMC showed work from their gallery Saturday, March 23 as part of “Health in the City“.

Health in the City showcased solutions to some of the health risks–diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers–experienced by residents of Peel as a result of sedentary lifestyles and poor nutrition.

BMC Director, Nick Woolridge, and graduate students Agnes Chan, Erin Kenzie, Brendan Polley and Andrew Tran answered questions about BMC from visitors to the event. Mayor Hazel McCallion even stopped by!

BMC provided iPads to interested guests to try some of the interactive education tools developed by BMC alumni including award-winning, “Learn About Biliary Atresia” by Lyndsay Stephenson, 1T2.

March 26, 2013 Seminar POSTPONED

March 26, 2013 Seminar: POSTPONED to a later, TBD, date.

Biomedical Communications welcomes:

Glen Oomen, 0T2, Anatomy Prosector
Education Program in Anatomy, McMaster University

After finishing up a degree in Biology and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Guelph in 2000, I bumped and scraped my way into BMC. I started freelancing right after graduating. In 2005, after almost four years of freelance I was offered a job, with what seemed like an enormous a change of direction, in McMaster University’s Education Program in Anatomy.  So I took it. Thinking the new job would be a very temporary arrangement, that I’d be back to being a lazy freelance illustrator in no time, I was surprised to experience those creative BMC skills were pushed and pulled in more directions than I ever anticipated.

Caitlin O’Connell, 0T9, Multimedia Developer
Education Program in Anatomy, McMaster University

I came to BMC after I had done my undergrad in Biology and a Minor in Fine Arts from the University of Guelph. After graduating in 2009 from the program, I was lucky enough to have found my way back to Hamilton to the Education Program in Anatomy at McMaster University. I started at the end of February in 2010 and became the Media Developer in the Lab. I’ve been there now for just a little over 3 years during which Glen and I also started teaching undergrads, a course Glen created, Biomedical Graphics.

March 26, 2013
Room 317, Health Sciences Complex
3 to 4 pm

For more information, please contact:

Melanie Burger
melanie.burger@mail.utoronto.ca

BMC alumni brain appears in Apple ad

Apple’s new ‘Together’ ad features interactive graphics developed by MScBMC alumni.

AXS Studio Inc., founded by MScBMC 2003 alumni Sonya Amin, Jason Sharpe and Eddy Xuan, co-developed the 3D Brain app with programmer Vivid Apps for their client DNA Learning Center.

“With half a million downloads already by September 2010, I expect the 3D Brain is probably one of the more prominent 3D neuroanatomy apps,” said Sharpe.

Users downloaded the free app from Apple’s iTunes Store 30,000 times within the first 5 weeks of its Fall 2009 release. To date, the 3D Brain has been downloaded approximately 1,200,000 times.

DNA Learning Center first contacted AXS Studio in June 2010 with a request from Apple to use the 3D Brain in marketing materials but it wasn’t until February of this year that AXS Studio heard that it had been used.

“It’s nice to see Apple nod to a medical application,” said Sharpe. “There are a lot of medical apps available for the iPad and iPhone and it’s nice to see one featured in a mainstream commercial.”

DNA Learning Center intended the 3D Brain as a reference atlas for students and researchers to support their ‘Genes to Cognition’ website. The original browser-based 3D atlas, co-developed with MScBMC 2006 alumnus Michael Corrin, provided the inspiration for the app.

“All kinds of people have used it,” said Sharpe, “from undergrads to medical students to clinicians who use it to explain brain anatomy to patients.”

With client interest, AXS Studio could upgrade the nearly 4-year-old app to high-definition and potentially develop it further by adding more regions of the brain.

For now, AXS Studio continues to develop interactive projects for their pharma and health care clients, 3D animation, and a mobile application for Sunnybrook Hospital with BMC Director and 1992 alumnus, Nick Woolridge.

by Maeve Doyle

Vesalius Trust Awards 2013

BMC announces 2013 winners of the Vesalius Trust Awards

 Congratulations to the successful applicants and thanks to all the applicants for their fine efforts.

Biomedical Communications is proud home to Allan Cole Scholarship recipient Andrea Zariwny; this is the second year in a row that a BMC student has won the prestigious award (Cindy Lau won it in 2012).

A Vesalius Trust Research Scholarship was awarded to Inessa Stanishevskaya.

Seven BMC students were awarded Vesalius Trust Research Grants:

Melanie Burger
Melissa Cory
Laura Greenlee
Angelica Ortiz
Joy Qu
Olivia Shim
Erin Warkentin

In all Biomedical Communications brought home 9 awards out of a total of 15!

IMMPress Magazine January 2013 Cover illustrated by Inessa Stanishevskaya 1T3

Congratulations to Inessa Stanishevskaya on her IMMPress Magazine cover!

“This issue of the IMMPress Magazine focused on evolution – of the immune system, the department, and the field of immunology as a whole. The cover was designed to focus on the evolution of the immune system (the adaptive system in particular) through the representation of a phylogenetic tree and the immune systems of various classes of animals. It was meant to highlight some of the differences between the innate and adaptive immune systems and the key proteins and receptors that are responsible for each.

For example insects, echinoderms, and jawless vertebrates only have the innate immune system and depend on proteins and receptors such as DSCAM, spRAG1l and spRAG2l, and VLR, respectively (depicted as the green ribbon structures). Animals that also possess the adaptive immune system, such as cartilaginous fish, bony fish, birds, and mammals, rely on various immunoglobulin subtypes, which are shown in blue. In addition, the background cutouts display receptors that also play key roles within each of the immune systems, such as TLR for the innate system and TCR, MHCI, and MHCII for the adaptive system.

To visualize this topic, I wanted to highlight the variety of proteins that are specific to each class of animals by having the representative animal “interacting” with their respective protein structures. Additionally, by representing the innate immune system proteins in their raw ribbon conformations versus the more ordered structure of the immunoglobulins of the adaptive system (in blue) it would help to highlight the fact that the adaptive system is the more evolved of the two. I also wanted to incorporate some of the key molecules that are vital to each of the immune systems and chose to represent them as background cutouts because they are the essential elements in generating diversity in each of the systems.”

Stanishevskaya, a Year II Biomedical Communications graduate student, has a B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in tissue engineering.

March 5, 2013 Seminar

March 5, 2013 Seminar: Making a Career Out of Medical Illustration.

Biomedical Communications welcomes

Kevin Millar
Vice President of Production, InViVo Communications Inc.

InViVo Communications Inc., a Toronto-based interactive medical agency, specializes in custom solutions for healthcare professionals, patients and sales teams. During the past 14 years at InViVo, Kevin has been involved in the development and direction of multiple animations, patient videos, interactive modules, medical games and mobile applications.

Kevin graduated with a Master of Science in Biomedical Communications from the University of Toronto in 1999. He decided to continue his work at the university by becoming the primary medical illustrator and animator for the development of a comprehensive interactive program on functional neuroanatomy.

Kevin became a professional member of the Association of Medical Illustrators (AMI) in 2002, and gained Certification as a Medical Illustrator in 2007.

March 5, 2013
Room 317, Health Sciences Complex
3 to 4 pm

For more information, please contact:

Melanie Burger
melanie.burger@mail.utoronto.ca

March 8, 2013 Seminar

March 8, 2013 Seminar: The Shadowy Side of Colour Perception: The Effect of Colour Interactions on Visual Design in Biomedical Communications.

BMC and the Department of Biology welcome

Michael Corrin
Lecturer, Biomedical Communications, University of Toronto
A candidate for the lecture-stream position in Biomedical Communications/Biology.

March 8, 2013
Room 335, Instructional Centre
11 am to 12 pm

For more information, please contact:

Maeve Doyle
Tel 905 569 4849
maeve.doyle@utoronto.ca

BMC alumna exhibits work at SONSI 2013

BMC alumna Kathryn Chorney’s work on exhibit at SONSI 2013

Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators 2013 Exhibit
Richview Public Library Art Gallery, 2nd Floor
1106 Islington Avenue (at Summitcrest Drive)
Toronto, Ontario
February 2 to 24, 2013

For more information: sonsigroup@gmail.com

http://sonsi.ca/exhibit-2013-catalogue/kathryn-chorney/

Battle of the Titans: BMC alum collaborates on major new exhibit

Kathryn Chorney (9T8) and Hall Train would like to announce the opening of Battle of the Titans, a major new exhibit, currently breaking attendance records at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington ON.

Having created signature pieces for major museum clients for over two decades, Hall Train Studios has now conceived, developed, and fabricated a complete exhibit — from writing, graphics, and videos, to dioramas, interactive displays and, of course, full size dinosaurs!

Battle of the Titans places our two most familiar dinosaurs – T. rex and Triceratops – within the context of the ecological forces that shaped them and their world. The audience is asked to ponder the question of which one would win in a direct confrontation – and the answers may be surprising. As people move through the exhibit, they find that not only were these two dinosaurs perfectly matched to fight each other, but actually depended on each other to survive as species. Clues are given throughout the exhibit to the answer of this strange paradox of interdependence. It lies in the environment — the plants, forest, and ecology that shaped their entire existence, and ultimately led to their extinction. The show is about the mingled destinies of plants, dinosaurs, and mankind. And it’s also a roaring good time!

Hall Train, as Creative Director, masterminded the entire show. Associates included Kathryn Chorney who collaborated with Hall on writing, editing, and graphics production; the hardworking crew comprised several Sheridan College alumni including two graduates of the Bachelor of Illustration program.

Several public events have been organized by the RBG. A debate scheduled for Sat Feb 16 will feature Dr. David Evans of the ROM, Dr. Donald Henderson of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, and Dr. Phil Manning of the University of Manchester, chief paleontology consultant on Battle of the Titans. Another appearance by Dr. Manning takes place Thurs Feb 21, in which he will discuss the research aspects of the exhibit including breaking news from the Mesozoic. Details on tickets and registration are on the RBG website at http://www.rbg.ca/dinos.

Lastly, the Southern Ontario Nature and Science Illustrators (SONSI) invite you to join a group tour to be led by Hall Train on Sat Mar 9, meeting at the admissions desk at 10am. To join in on this, please email <kathryn.chorney@sheridancollege.ca> by Tues Mar 5 so that we can give our group numbers to the RBG. For now, plan on the normal admission charge/person, and we will let everyone know if we can get a discount. Hope to see you there!

If you can’t join us on Mar 9, Battle of the Titans will be at the RBG until April 7, at which point it will depart on a tour to other venues.