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Welcome.

This is an exciting time to consider a career in one of the many aspects of bio-medicine.  As technology advances and a variety of careers open up in healthcare, the training provided by the MSc and PhD programmes in the Gastrointestinal Research Group at the University of Calgary will help prepare you to pursue a number of challenging and fulfilling careers, such as, academic researcher, pharmaceutical researcher or representative, healthcare administrator, medicine and in the biotechnology industry.

The Gastrointestinal Research Group is the largest group of its kind in Canada and is at the forefront of gastroenterology-related research.  Current projects include aspects of physiology (neuronal control of gut function, regulation of intestinal motility), immunology (innate and adaptive immune responses, cytokine and growth factors that control gut function), parasitology (pathogenesis and vaccine development against Entamoeba histolytica, the use of helminth parasites to treat inflammation), molecular signal transduction (cytokine regulation of epithelial permeability, the inflamasome), and epidemiology (incidence and economic impact of IBD in Alberta), to name only a few. 

I invite you to explore this site and that of the Gastrointestinal Research Group (GIRG) at http://www.ucalgary.ca/~girg/.  There are many opportunities for motivated individuals (the site is aimed at potential graduate students and postdoctoral fellows but there are similar opportunities for undergraduate students project and summer student training) to get involved with wet and dry laboratory research.  The common goals of the faculty members within the GIRG are:

• To provide a world class research and training facility
• To train top-quality graduate students (giving them skills in basic and clinical science) with the aim of providing them a competitive edge in biomedial careers
• To provide a better understanding of intestinal function
• To define mechanisms of gut disease
• To advance knowledge in the search for cures for disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome and secretory/infection diarrhea.

These goals can be achieved with your help.

We look forward to hearing from you.

With Regards,

Donna-Marie McCaffery, Ph.D.
MDGI Graduate Director,
Professor, Department of Physiology & Pharmacology

For more information regarding the graduate program please contact:
Graduate Program Advisor:  Michelle Selman: Email:   gigrad [at] ucalgary [dot] ca
http://medicine.ucalgary.ca/graduate