Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminars - Student Requirements | Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto

The Graduate Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences offers exciting seminars featuring scientists from across Canada and around the world, with occasional seminars by our own faculty and members of other departments at U of T and surrounding hospitals/institutes. These seminars provide an opportunity for all to meet outstanding, world-renowned scientists. Seminar speakers also schedule additional time for informal discussions with faculty and students. Regular attendance at seminars is required of all graduate students.

Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series Requirement

All graduate students are required to attend the departmental seminars each year:

Full-time students: a minimum of eight (8) departmental seminars per academic year
Part-time/Flex-time students: a minimum of four (4) departmental seminars per academic year.

Students may fulfill up to 50% of their annual quota at sanctioned external seminars.

2024-2025 Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Schedule

Seminar Type	Date & Time	Speaker	Host	Title	LOCATION
PhD Public Seminar Series	Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 9:00am	Vishal Sangha, PhD Candidate	Dr. Reina Bendayan	Novel Approaches for Effective Folate Delivery in Cerebral Folate Deficiency Disorders	PB-850
PhD Public Seminar Series	Wednesday, September 25, 2024, 10:00am	Fule Jackie Liu, PhD Candidate	Dr. Shirley Wu	Development and Translation of Novel Glucose-Responsive Peptide Hormone Delivery Systems for Diabetes Treatments	PB-450
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Monday, September 30, 2024, 11:00am	Dr. Helen Palma (Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil) and Lucero Diaz Gomez (University of Toronto, Public Health and Global Health).	Dr. Jillian Kohler	Challenges surrounding vaccine accessibility and adherence among the Awajún indigenous population in the Peruvian Amazon	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Tuesday, October 15, 2024, 1:00pm	Dr. Jason Guertin (Laval University)	Dr. Mina Tadrous	Confounding and ICERs: An often ignored relationship	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, October 18, 2024, 11:00am	Professor Kazuhiko Nakatani (Osaka University)	Dr. Tigran Chalikian	Possibilities and Challenges of Small Molecule Organic Compounds for the Treatment of Repeat Diseases	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, November 1, 2024, 11:00am	Mark DiBiase (UN Development Programme)	Dr. Jillian Kohler	Advancing anti-corruption, transparency and accountability in health programmes: UNDP's approach to corruption risk management	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, November 15, 2024, 11:00am	Dr. Pedro Brugarolas	Dr. Lakshmi Kotra	Development and evaluation of PET tracers for K+ channels to image demyelinating diseases	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, November 29, 2024, 11:00am	Dr. Jack Antel (McGill University)	Dr. Lakshmi Kotra	Basis of Tissue injury and Potential for Repair in Multiple Sclerosis	PB-850
PhD Public Seminar Series	Tuesday, December 3, 2024, 2:00pm	Constantine Georgiou, PhD Candidate	Dr. Ray Reilly	Radiolabeled Gold Nanoparticles for the Treatment of Glioblastoma by Convection Enhanced Delivery	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Wednesday, December 4, 2024, 10:00am	Dr. Michael Zalutsky (Duke University)	Dr. Ray Reilly	Astatine-211 – The Kinder, Gentler Alpha Emitter for Targeted Radionuclide Therapy	Zoom
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Tuesday, December 10, 2024, 2:00pm	Dr. Laurent Salphati (Genentech)	Dr. Carolyn Cummins	Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics in drug development - From uncovering unusual PK profiles to supporting drug approval	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, January 31, 2025	Dr. Peter Roy (University of Toronto)	Dr. Carolyn Cummins	Yeast-Expressed P450s Reveal Novel Candidate Pro-Insecticides to Combat Mosquito Vectors of Malaria, West Nile, and Other Diseases	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, February 28, 2025, 11:00am	Dr. Yoon Yeo (Purdue University)	Dr. Tim Corson	Drug-eluting polymer systems for the control of local inflammation and ocular neovascularization	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, March 7, 2025, 11:00am	Dr. Scott Parnell (UNC-Chapel Hill)	Dr. Peter Wells	Genetic factors underlying susceptibility to prenatal alcohol exposure	Zoom
PhD Public Seminar Series	Tuesday, March 11, 2025 1:00pm	Ashley Cheng, PhD Candidate	Dr. Peter Wells	Investigating Oxidatively Damaged DNA in the Fetal Brain: Epigenetic Implications for Neurodevelopmental Disorders	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Tuesday, March 11, 2025 2:00pm	Dr. Frank Wuest (University of Alberta)	Dr. Ray Reilly	Imaging biomarkers in oncology: The role of radiopharmaceuticals in the era of precision oncology	PB-450
PhD Public Seminar Series	Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 11:00am	Misaki Kondo, PhD Candidate	Dr. Ray Reilly	HER2-targeted Theranostic Radioimmunoconjugates for SPECT Imaging and α-particle Radioimmunotherapy of HER2-positive Breast Cancer	PB-850
PhD Public Seminar Series	Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 12:00pm	Maham Zain, PhD Candidate	Dr. Rob Bonin	Chronic Pain Mediated Changes in the Sensory and Affective Coding of Low Threshold Sensory Information	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, March 28, 2025, 11:00am	Dr. Christina Lamparter	Dr. Carolyn Cummins	Navigating the Unregulated Drug Market: The Challenge of Novel Psychoactive Substances and the Evolving Drug Landscape	PB-850
PhD Public Seminar Series	Monday, March 31, 2025, 1:00pm	Chukwunonso Nwabufo, PhD Candidate	Dr. Lisa Dolovich	Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Drug Processing and Therapeutic Outcomes	PB-450
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Wednesday, April 2, 11:00am	Dr. Ivy Bourgeault (University of Ottawa)	Dr. Paul Grootendorst	Sustaining the pharmacy workforce through the co-development of retention and planning tools	Zoom
PhD Public Seminar Series	Thursday, April 3, 2025, 2:00pm	Michael Saikali, PhD Candidate	Dr. Carolyn Cummins	The Development of a Targeted Parallel Reaction Monitoring Assay to Quantify all 49 Murine Nuclear Receptors and its Application in Mouse Liver	PB-1210
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, April 4, 2025, 11:00am	Dr. David Moore (UC Berkeley)	Dr. Carolyn Cummins	Control of Liver Energy Balance by Nutrient Sensing Nuclear Receptors	PB-850
PhD Public Seminar Series	Monday, April 7, 2025, 10:00am	Bassem Toeama, PhD Candidate	Dr. Manny Papadimitropoulos & Paul Grootendorst	Cost and Clinical Effectiveness of High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound versus Open Radical Prostatectomy, Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy, or External Beam Radiation Therapy in Men with Localized Low and Intermediate Risk Prostate Cancer: A Cost-Utility Analysis	PB-450
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Thursday, April 10, 2025, 2:00pm	Dr. S. Rahima Benhabbour (UNC-NCSU)	Dr. Hagar Labouta	Ultra-Long-Acting Delivery Systems: Engineering the Next-Generation Multi-Purpose Prevention Technologies (MPTs)	PB-850
PhD Public Seminar Series	Monday, April 14, 2025, 10:00am	Tiffany Ho, PhD Candidate	Dr. Gang Zheng	Potentiation of Porphysome Photodynamic Therapy via an Unconventional Membrane Fluidization Strategy	PB-850
PhD Public Seminar Series	Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 1:00pm	Chang (Shirley) Huang, PhD Candidate	Dr. Reina Bendayan	Investigating the Toxicity and Associated Mechanisms of Antiretroviral Drugs in the Central Nervous System	PB-450
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Thursday, April 24, 2025, 11:00am	Dr. David Smadja (INSERM)	Dr. Jillian Kohler	From Viral Outbreak to Infodemic: The Dual Pandemics of COVID-19	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, April 25, 2025, 11:00am	Dr. Thomas Durcan (McGill University)	Dr. Stephane Angers	Single cell phenotyping of midbrain organoids	Zoom
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Wednesday, May 7, 2025, 12:00PM	Dr. Ned Pojskic (LDFP Leader-in-Residence)	Dr. Mina Tadrous	Overview of Major Trends Impacting Private Plan in Canada: Insights from Green Shield Canada	PB-850
PhD Public Seminar Series	Monday, May 12, 2025, 1:00pm	De Hua (Andy) Yang, PhD Candidate	Dr. Stephane Angers	Leveraging FZD Receptor Antibodies to Understand and Precisely Activate Wnt/β-Catenin Signalling Pathway for Neural Patterning in hPSC	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Tuesday, May 13, 2025, 11:00AM	Dr. Emily Reeve Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Theme Lead of the Centre for Medicine use and Safety, Monash University	Dr. Lisa McCarthy	Evidence synthesis, clinical practice guidelines, and research implications for deprescribing safety	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Tuesday, May 20, 2025, 11:00AM	Dr. Chris Kay UBC	Dr. Rachel Harding	Do large somatic expansions of the HTT CAG repeat cause Huntington disease?	PB-850
PhD Public Seminar Series	Friday, May 30, 2025, 10:00am	Shaleesa Ledlie, PhD Candidate	Dr. Tara Gomes	The Pathways of Care Among People Hospitalized for a Non-Fatal Opioid Toxicity in Ontario	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Friday, June 13, 2025, 11:00am	Dr. Sarah Wootton (University of Guelph)	Dr. David Hampson	TBA	PB-850
PhD Public Seminar Series	Wednesday, June 18, 2025, 2:00pm	Fatemeh Molaei, PhD Candidate	Dr. Stephane Angers	Identification of subtype-specific determinants of cellular fitness in Glioblastoma stem cell	PB-850
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	Thursday, June 19, 2025, 11:00am	Dr. Arezu Jahani-Asl (University of Ottawa)	Dr. Stephane Angers	TBA	CCBR Red Room (160 College Street)
Innovations in Pharmaceutical Sciences Seminar Series	MONDAY, July 14, 2025	Dr. Naoki Sugimoto	Dr. Tigran Chalikian	All about “To B or not to B” in Nucleic Acids Chemistry	PB-255