CanCURE activities, workshops and mentoring
Science Buddy program
CanCURE 1.0 & 2.0 has developed a “Science Buddy” program where trainees and community members learned from each other on a one-on-one basis. With CanCURE 3.0, we are pursuing the pairing up with Trainees and community members who were attending the same scientific conferences, attend talks together and then discuss the significance and impact of the presentations. Learning is achieved in both directions.
Training rotations program
After completion of their 2nd year of training, trainees have the opportunity to undertake a collaborative rotation (1-3 months) in other CanCURE laboratories to diversify their research experience. They can also visit other labs to learn new techniques.
Monthly meetings
Each month, trainees take turn sharing their research with the CanCURE team through an hour-long monthly call. They get direct feedback from investigators across Canada and are featured on CanCURE's social media through our trainee spotlight serie.
Annual Meeting
Held annually in Montreal, this meeting brings together CanCURE investigators, trainees and community members. Trainees have the chance to present their findings, take part in the discussions shaping the orientations of their research theme and interact with their mentors and peers.
Through our "buddy system", trainees engage in a reciprocal learning experience; they are taught to make science accessible to lay audiences, and community members convey their perspective and improve their own scientific literacy relevant to cure research.
In CanCURE 3.0, we aim to build on our established expertise to provide ongoing training and mentorship to students and trainees.
We are commited for trainees to:
-
Be exposed to cross-disciplinary expertise, including clinical and translational aspects of HIV research, molecular and cellular biology, virology and immunology;
-
Gain experience in working with risk group 2+/3 pathogens, viral vectors and oncolytic viruses in BSL-2 and -3 laboratories;
-
Use state-of-the-art technologies, such as flow virometry, multiphoton intravital microscopy, single cell transcriptomics and humanized mouse models.
-
Present their findings during the Monthly Scientific Calls meetings, where they are encouraged to discuss ideas, challenges, novel strategies and new developments.
In addition, they will develop expertise with the scientific, legal and ethical aspects related to working with animal models, human studies and bio-banking of tissue samples, and pairing it, if so, with the International Infectious Diseases and Global Health Training Program (which is a benchmark in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)), because Infectious diseases are not contained within national borders and affect everything from cell biology and genetics to social system band national security. To come up with effective prevention and treatment strategies, a global multi-disciplinary approach is needed.