GRIP 2020 Organizing Committee, from left: Professor Suzanne Cadarette, Michael Saikali, Samantha Sernoskie, Daniel Szames, Fatemah Molaei, Professor Micheline Piquette-Miller, Anh Nguyen, Max Regenold, Natalia Konstantelos, Tiffany Choi, Laura Bennett, and Eliza McColl. Not pictured: Ahmad Shakeri.

By Eliza McColl and Michael Saikali

Each year, graduate students and faculty from the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences get together to celebrate Graduate Research in Progress (GRIP), a day-long conference showcasing research conducted by graduate students over the past year. Traditionally, GRIP is kicked off by an invited keynote address, followed by presentations from PharmSci alumni, student research talks and a poster session. The day is broken up with a delicious meal and coffee breaks, and capped off with a reception, drinks, and an award ceremony. It truly is a memorable annual event that kicks off the summer in our Faculty.

The planning for GRIP starts in September by forming the student-led GRIP Committee. The committee co-chairs Eliza McColl and Michael Saikali led a highly dedicated team of graduate students (Ahmad Shakeri, Daniel Szames, Fatemeh Molaei, Laura Bennett, Max Regenold, Natalia Konstantelos, Samantha Sernoskie, and Tiffany Cho) along with our faculty advisors Dr. Piquette-Miller and Dr. Cadarette to plan for the coming June 2020 GRIP. Little did we know what 2020 would bring.  

By the time COVID-19 cases were rising in Ontario and a province-wide shutdown was looming, the venue for GRIP had been booked, keynote and alumni speakers had been invited, and many of the logistics of organizing the conference were well underway. Despite our efforts, we had to face the reality that GRIP 2020 was not going to take place as we originally envisioned it.

So, what do you do when a global pandemic threatens the cancellation of something you have worked for months to prepare? You broaden your sights.

Back in the fall of 2019, the GRIP Committee had agreed to the theme “2020: Broadening Our Sight”. In January we would welcome a new decade which we hoped would inspire many of us to reflect on our accomplishments and set goals for the future. Our original intention in choosing this theme was to encourage our faculty and students to challenge themselves while setting these goals to make them more diverse, inclusive, innovative, and creative.

COVID-19 and the subsequent closure of the university forced us all to “broaden our sights” considerably beyond the specifics of our research and professional lives. While our department rapidly shut down research and transitioned to working remotely, the GRIP Committee, along with the faculty administration, grappled with what GRIP could look like amid the pandemic.

During three months of working at home, students from our department continued to virtually present their research in student seminar series, advisory committee meetings, and even thesis defenses.

While the fancy venue, good food, and invited talks certainly add to GRIP, it is, at its core, a celebration of graduate student research. It was important to us that this central purpose – showcasing graduate research – be fulfilled in whatever form GRIP 2020 took. In a way, we had even more to celebrate this year given the remarkable resilience our students have exhibited during this pandemic. During three months of working at home, students from our department continued to virtually present their research in student seminar series, advisory committee meetings, and even thesis defenses. Some of our students even put their own research on hold to conduct critical COVID-19 research to actively fight the pandemic from the front lines.

After closure of the university, the GRIP Committee worked with the faculty administration over the next three months to pivot to a virtual GRIP. Thankfully for us, the GRIP Committee remained extremely, engaged, dedicated, and enthusiastic during this process. In the end, GRIP took place over two days via Zoom. Over 150 students and faculty from Pharmaceutical Sciences tuned in for research presentations given by graduate students. While GRIP 2020 did not look anything like what we had planned, it was a celebration, nonetheless.

GRIP 2020 Graduate Research Presentation Abstracts