Besa Xhabija wins poster prize at the 10th Biannual Great Lakes Glia Meeting

The Vacratsis lab participated in the 10th Biannual Great Lakes Glia Meeting that took place on Sept 27-29th, 2015 in Traverse City, Michigan. Besa Xhabija was awarded the Best Poster Award, which carried a cash prize of $200.  Congratulations Besa!

Outstanding chemists and biochemists receive research and infrastructure grants

Congratulations to Otis Vacratsis and Rob Schurko, who are recipients of the new Golden Jubilee Research Excellence Awards announced by VP Research Michael Siu and Dean of Science Marlys Koschinsky.  Made possible through the research stimulus fund, the two-year awards come with $40,000 a year in research funding and one course release per year.

Dr. Vacratsis said the funding will help him hire graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who will utilize a variety of analytical and biological techniques to better understand the cellular processes involved in CMT, a neuromuscular disorder characterized by loss of muscle mass and touch sensation across various parts of the body. Currently incurable, the disease is one of the most common inherited neurological disorders and affects about one in 2,500 people.
“We do very basic, fundamental science in my lab, but hopefully people will be able to use our findings in a clinical setting,” Vacratsis said.

Congratulations also to Michael Boffa and Jichang Wang, who received infrastructure grants in support of their research programs.

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University honours outstanding researchers

Professors Siyaram Pandey, Rob Schurko and Otis Vacratsis (pictured L-R) were honoured by the University of Windsor on Feb. 12, 2009 for their outstanding research contributions. Drs. Pandey and Vacratsis have recently obtained funding for major health-related research grants, and Dr. Schurko was awarded a University of Windsor Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (mid-career). Click here for a full listing of honours, and visit their web pages by clicking their names above.

Otis Vacratsis receives CIHR funding for research on neuromuscular diseases

Posted Nov. 14, 2008: Professor Otis Vacratsis, an associate professor in Chemistry & Biochemistry who was born and raised in Windsor, has received a three-year $243,000 grant from the Canadian Institute of Health Research to study the molecular origins of myotubuluar myopathy and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Dr. Vacratsis' group will be attempting to isolate and sequence the proteins that are associated with these neuromuscular diseases, in the hopes that their work may lead to future successful pharmaceutical treatments or therapies. For more information, see the Windsor Star Article on Dr. Vacratsis, and click here to visit his webpage.