All proceeds from Affair of the Heart will go to basically babies.
From smiling, cooing, babbling and laughing, to batting at objects, rolling over, creeping and crawling--the first year of a child's life is marked with incredible developmental milestones.
While it isn't a rigid timeline, ensuring babies have the basic essentials they need to thrive is critical in the period leading up to their first birthday. Basically Babies fills that very specific need in our community, giving the gift of a complete first year's wardrobe with books and toys for infants born to families in extreme need.
This year Basically Babies is the charity of choice for the 2016 Affair of the Heart, an annual gala hosted by U of A medical students in support of a local children's charity.
"Basically Babies focuses on providing support in the first year of a child's life, which is so critical for development. The money that we raise will have a real impact," says second-year med student Aran Yukseloglu, one of the event organizers.
Shannon Stewart, President of Basically Babies, explains that when the organization began serving families in the Edmonton area in 1993, it was physicians who first referred families to them. By 2008, Basically Babies was providing more than 450 layettes filled with clean, gently-used baby clothing including snowsuits, summer hats, shoes, towels, books and blankets.
"It's nice to see it come full-circle and have future physicians supporting us now," says Stewart.
For the students, organizing Affair of the Heart is about more than planning a night of entertainment: it's about starting to contribute to their community while still in school.
"We will spend the rest of our careers giving back to our communities, Affair of the Heart is a great way to start doing that as a medical student," said Mahabba Smoka, another student organizer.
Over the past eight years, Affair of the Heart has raised tens of thousands of dollars for causes such as Little Warriors and the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation.
The evening will include the presentation of the Medical Students' Association teaching awards, as well as dinner, speakers, a silent auction, prizes and entertainment featuring medical students, faculty, external supporters and a professional comedian. For tickets and more information please visit www.affairoftheheart.ca/.
The 2016 Gairdner Symposium brings two top scientists in conversation with experts, science enthusiasts and Edmonton high school students
Feng Zhang and Philippe Horvath
After addressing the high school students and enjoying a casual conversation over a sandwich lunch with them, Feng Zhang, assistant professor in Biomedical Engineering at MIT and Philippe Horvath, senior scientist from Dupont, will deliver the 2016 Gairdner Symposium, Minds that Matter, focused on innovative CRISPR-Cas9 applications at 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in ECHA 2-190.
Everyone from the scientific community to the general public are welcome to attend this free symposium.
Zhang and Horvath are two of the five 2016 Canada Gairdner International Award winners, honoured by the Gairdner foundation for their tremendous contributions to medicine resulting in increased understanding of human biology and disease.
Both biomedical scientists are leading researchers working with CRISPR-Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic), a powerful genome-editing tool able to make precise cuts in DNA sequences and insert new custom DNA in their place. The cut-and-paste tool theoretically has the potential to contribute significantly to all kinds of scientific advances, from sterilizing mosquitoes that carry diseases like malaria to treating HIV, eliminating cancer cells and eradicating genetic diseases like muscular dystrophy.
Strangely enough, we've all been eating CRISPR-ized yogurt for years. For nearly a decade, yogurt and cheese producers at Dupont have been relying on CRISPR without knowing what it was exactly, to produce starter cultures better able to fend off phage infections.
"You can find some amazing things in science without necessarily knowing what you were looking for," says David Evans, vice-dean of research in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. "If we always knew what we have to find, we wouldn't need to discover it. That's the key message I hope the students take away from the Gairdner award winners' presentations."
During the earlier activity, Zhang will address high school students about "Harnessing nature's tools to advance biology and medicine," and Horvath will speak about "Research and industry: the best of both worlds."