Waterloo Pharmacy's annual Graduate Research Day offers a platform for students to present their innovative research, receive meaningful feedback from peers and professors and to connect and collaborate. Hosted at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy and organized by the Pharmacy Graduate Student Association (PhGA), the event highlights and celebrates the achievements of graduate students. It plays a key role in supporting their professional development, honing their skills as effective their communicators to prepare them for future careers in science.
“PhGA is dedicated to hosting Pharmacy Research Day because we know how important community engagement is in strengthening our academic community and highlighting the work of our students,” says Katherine Chen, Vice President of Communications, PhGA. “Pharmacy Research Day is an annual celebration of the achievements of graduate students throughout their academic journey. It provides a valuable opportunity to showcase their research, exchange ideas and connect with fellow students.”
“It may be called pharmacy research day, but the memories we made will last for a pharmacy research lifetime,” adds William Le Boeuf, President, Pharmacy Graduate Student Association (PhGA).
This year, keynote speaker, Dr. Jean Martin Beaulieu from the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Toronto, presented Navigating Stress and Genetic Risk to Identify Psychiatric Drug Targets. The talk highlighted research on how psychoactive medications, stress and genetic risk factors influence cellular processes in mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia. These findings aim to guide the development of new drug targets that improve therapeutic effects while reducing side effects.
Poster presentations were hosted in the afternoon where graduate students discussed their work with fellow students and faculty. Kaidy Orellana is the 2026 Best Poster Presentation winner.
This year’s oral presentations by graduate students included:
- Henry Abanum: Bacteria-responsive liposomal coating for food packaging
- Winner of the 2026 Best Oral Presentation
- Jennifer Park: Soy protein isolate-based implant for dual-drug delivery in triple negative breast cancer
- Ghada Elba: Matching older adults age-related abilities to medication adherence technologies features: Development and evaluation of a digital decision aid
- Anna Kosiak: Optimization of intelligent phagemid assembled gene expression (iPhAGE) system as a platform for miniphagemid production
- Morgan Cardno: Scaling up miniphagemid synthesis for human gene delivery
The PhGA team is incredibly grateful for the support of the School, the staff who worked behind the scenes and all those who attended and presented.