Research Experience
Evaluating the Efficacy of the University of Toronto STEAM Design Program: A Pathway to Equity in Healthcare and STEM
University of Toronto, Office of Access and Outreach
Investigating the role of long-range projecting VIP-Expressing neurons of the Facial Motor Nucleus
Co-Investigator
Dr. Simon Chen's Laboratory
Technical skills acquired: Mouse models: Behavioural testing, stereotaxic injections, brain harvesting, brain slicing, tissue staining and Epifluorescence microscopy on several microscopes. Analysis and interpretation of data. Journal club presentations, seminar presentation, abstract publications, and poster presentation.
2020 - 2021
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Cellular Molecular Medicine
Honours Thesis
Cell-type dissection of long-range inputs to layer 2/3 of the motor cortex
Co-Investigator
Dr. Simon Chen's Laboratory
Technical skills acquired: Mouse models: Behavioural testing, stereotaxic injections, brain harvesting, brain slicing, tissue staining and Epifluorescence microscopy on several microscopes. Analysis and interpretation of data. Journal club presentations, seminar presentation, abstract publications, and poster presentation.
2019 - 2020
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Cellular Molecular Medicine
Research Assistant
Dr. Jing Wang's Laboratory
Technical skills acquired: Cell Models: Cell culture, immunocytochemistry, Epifluorescence microscopy. Analysis and interpretation of data acquired. Seminar presentation.
2020
Integration-free reprogramming of human monocytes to generate integration-free iPSCs to ultimately generate neurons.
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
The role tumour microenvironments play in the effectiveness of oncolytic viruses
Research Assistant
Dr. Carolina Ilkow's Laboratory
Technical skills acquired: Tissue culture models: BCA assays, western blot, qPCR, tittering viruses. Analysis and interpretation of data acquired. Poster presentation.
2020
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Cancer Centre
BezV: a bacteriophage of Microbacterium foliorum.
Lead Investigator
Dr. Adam Rudner's Laboratory
Technical skills acquired: Bacteriophage isolation, purification, amplification and genotyping. Basic aseptic technique including bacteria/virus cultures, basic molecular biology techniques including DNA extraction and restriction digestion. Transmission electron Microscopy. Analysis and interpretation of data acquired. Abstract writing, poster presentation and database publication.
2019 - 2020
Howard Hughes Medical Institute SEA-PHAGES Program
2019 - 2021
Dr. Simon Chen
Co-Investigator
Classifying the role of SufS protein mutations observed in inflammatory bowel disease patients from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario
Undergraduate Researcher
Dr. Jean-Francois Couture (TMM Course)
Technical skills acquired: Site directed mutagenesis, enzymatic assay, Pymol structural protein analysis, protein purification. Data analysis and interpretation. Report writing.
2019
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine
Testing telomeric heterochromatin regions in S.cerevisiae to assess potential clonal diversity through position-effect variegation
Undergraduate Researcher
Dr. Adam Rudner (TMM Course)
Technical skills acquired: : qPCR, ChIP, serial dilution plating (frogging), bacterial and yeast transformation, SDS-PAGE. Data analysis and interpretation. Report writing.
2019
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Medicine
*Please visit the desktop version of this site to learn more about each of these projects and the skills I learned.
Conferences
Poster
Virtual Poster
Seminar
“Evaluating the Efficacy of the University of Toronto STEAM Design Program: A Pathway to Equity in Healthcare and STEM”, International Congress on Academic Medicine. April 15, 2024. Vancouver, BC
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“Increasing interest and knowledge of STEAM careers in Marginalized Populations: An Evaluation of the STEAM-D Program”, International Congress on Academic Medicine. February 11, 2024. Toronto, ON
“Investigating the role of long-range projecting VIP-Expressing neurons of the Facial Motor Nucleus.”, University of Ottawa Honours Research Day. February 19, 2021. Ottawa, ON
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“Cell-type specific dissection of long-range inputs to layer 2/3 of the motor cortex.”, University of Ottawa Virtual Research Day. September 25, 2020. Ottawa, ON
“Integration free reprogramming of human monocytes to generate integration-free iPSCs to ultimately generate neurons.”, University of Ottawa Student Seminars. March 31, 2020. Ottawa, ON
“Cell-type specific inhibitory interneuron dissection of long-range inputs to the motor cortex.”, Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Symposium. February 18, 2020. Ottawa, ON
“Understanding the Role of Adipose Tissue in the Tumour Microenvironment and its Impact on Oncolytic Virus Therapy Responses”, TMM Poster Day University of Ottawa. February 14, 2020. Ottawa, ON
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“BezV: Microbacterium foliorum Bacteriophage”, Project Pulse Research Conference. February 9, 2020. Ottawa, ON
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“Dissection of long-range inputs to the motor cortex.”, Connecting Young Minds Research Conference. January 9, 2020. Ottawa, ON
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“BezV Bacteriophage”, Translational and Molecular Medicine Poster day. December 4, 2019. Ottawa, ON
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“Cell-type specific dissection of long-range inputs to the motor cortex”, uOttawa Faculty of Medicine Summer Student Program. July 3, 2019. Ottawa, ON
Publications
Abstract
B. Bezuidenhout, S. Balkaran, C. Edechi, C. Mcdonald2, I. Okafor. (2024). “Evaluating the Efficacy of the University of Toronto STEAM Design Program: A Pathway to Equity in Healthcare and STEM”, ICAM. Vancouver, BC
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Honours Thesis
Bezuidenhout B., Raman N., Chen S*. (2021). “Investigating the role of long-range projecting VIP-Expressing neurons of the Facial Motor Nucleus”. JBC. University of Ottawa: Ottawa, ON.
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Abstract
Bezuidenhout B., Lee C., Chen S*. (2020). “Cell-type specific dissection of long-range inputs to layer 2/3 of the motor cortex.” University of Ottawa Journal of Medicine. University of Ottawa: Ottawa, ON.
Abstract
Bezuidenhout B., Lee C., Chen S*. (2020). “Cell-type specific inhibitory interneuron dissection of long-range inputs to the motor cortex.” Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program Symposium. University of Ottawa: Ottawa, ON.
Abstract
Bezuidenhout B., Lee C., Chen S*. (2020). “Dissection of long-range inputs to the motor cortex.” Connecting young minds. University of Ottawa: Ottawa, ON.
Phage Database Entry
Bezuidenhout B. (2019). “BezV: a bacteriophage of Microbacterium foliorum.” The Actinobacteriophage database. https://phagesdb.org/phages/BezV/
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Abstract Booklet
Bezuidenhout B., Bojic D., Gill H. (2022). “2021-22 IgNITE Medical Case Competition: Immunity”. Undergraduate Research in Natural and Clinical Science and Technology Journal. https://doi.org/10.26685/urncst.353
Abstract Booklet
Bezuidenhout B., Bojic D., Gill H. (2021). “2020-21 IgNITE Medical Case Competition: Regenerative Medicine”. Undergraduate Research in Natural and Clinical Science and Technology Journal. https://urncst.com/index.php/urncst/article/view/241
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