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The Department of Surgery is a global leader in surgical research that has pioneered many breakthroughs in transplantation and organ preservation; islet cell biology and diabetes; nerve, skin, bone, and cartilage regeneration; and surgical simulation and education.

Learners can pursue MSc or PhD degrees in these and other fields of research in our Department. Our program is open to enrolment by learners holding undergraduate degrees and is not limited to those pursuing surgery as a career. Our program also offers an MSc degree with specialization in Surgical Education. This program was the first to be offered in Canada and provides a foundation to enhance the delivery of surgical training and practice.

The strength of the Graduate Program lies in its balance of clinical and fundamental research activities. This interaction between discovery-based scientists and clinical researchers provides an excellent foundation with unique perspectives to address the basic mechanisms of a clinically relevant problem.

Our goal is to provide the skills and experiences needed to train researchers and educators that can change and improve health outcomes and support the Department’s vision of “Improving lives together.” Graduate learners in the program have access to first-rate research facilities including the Ray Rajotte Surgical Medical Research Institute and the Alberta Diabetes Institute

In the 2023 – 2024 academic year, there were 26 learners enrolled in the Graduate Program (13 MSc, 13 PhD), of these, eight are from the Clinician Investigator Program. Our program attracts learners from around the globe and has nine international learners.

In this academic year, one MSc and two PhD learners graduated from our program:

Dr. Joshua Hefler (PhD; Supervisor: Dr James Shapiro)
Dr. Kevin Verhoeff (PhD; Supervisor: Dr James Shapiro)
Jordana Williams (MSc; Supervisor: Dr Vincent Biron)

Awards and Recognitions
Learners in our Graduate Program are highly competitive in scholarships and awards at the local, provincial, and national levels. In the last year, our learners over 60 awards for their academic and research achievements that collectively amount to over $430,000 in funding. Some major award recipients include:

Ryaan EL-Andari – Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship
Ji-Hoon (Jimmy) Kang – Canada Graduate Scholarship-Doctoral (CIHR)
Ivan Ma – Canada Graduate Scholarship-Masters (CIHR)
Alex Perry— Canada Graduate Scholarship-Masters (CIHR)
Zofia Prus – Czarnecka-Canada Graduate Scholarship-Masters (CIHR)

Pulkit Kumar (MSc Student, Supervisor: Dr. Andrew Pepper) was featured in Forbes magazine as a leader in healthcare and received an Edifier award from Edify Magazine for his work to promote global healthcare equity.
Amy Callaghan (MSc Student, Supervisor: Dr. Andre-Isaac) was a finalist in the Three Minute Thesis Competition.

Publications
Our learners published 53 peer-reviewed publications in the 2023-2024 academic year. Notable examples include:

Ma, Z., Li, D., Lan, X., Bubelenyi, A., Vyhlidal, M., Kunze, M., Adesida, AB (2024). Simulated microgravity recapitulates early molecular events and sex differences of knee osteoarthritis. Cell Communication and Signaling. doi: 10.1186/s12964-024-01684-w.

Verhoeff K, Marfil-Garza BA, Czarnecka Z, Cuesta-Gomez N, Tewari Jasra I, Dadheech N, Senior PA, Shapiro AMJ. (2023) Stem Cell-Derived Islet Transplantation in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: Can Diabetes Subtypes Guide Implementation? J Clin Endocrinol Metab.

Zhang Y., Wang O., Wang Y., Tavakoli M., and Zheng B., (2023) Enhancing Skill Learning with Dual-User Haptic Feedback: Insights from a Task-Specific Approach, Frontiers Robotics and AI, DOI: 10.3389/frobt.2023.1286282

Learners from our program are listed in bold