Scientists in Surgery
Approximately 15% of our surgical faculty are individuals who are non-MDs and work
as full time scientists. These individuals are significant contributors to the research
effort of our Department. This section will endeavour to profile excellence in research
among the scientists in our Department.
CARIN WITTNICH
Professor of Surgery & Physiology
The Hospital for Sick Children, UofT
Carin Wittnich
|
In 1971, Carin Wittnich received her Bachelor's Degree from McGill University and
in 1976, her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Guelph. Her
research career commenced with a Masters from McGill University (1985) where she
studied the protection of the myocardium through dietary and nutritional supplementation.
While squeezing in her Masters, Carin was also busy assisting in numerous research
projects such as cardiac assistance using skeletal muscle for cardiac repair and
studying elemental diets as protection against radiation injury which resulted in
17 published papers. She also found time to become an instructor of the Advanced
Trauma Life Support course for the American College of Surgeons and worked in an
emergency veterinary clinic performing emergency animal care. In 1987 Carin was
appointed as an Assistant Professor within this Department and since then she has
become a successful researcher, a valuable administrative asset and a tremendous
educator.
Her research interests initially focused on cardiovascular neonatal/maturational
differences in neonates with the goal of improving surgical outcomes. Her lab quickly
discovered that there was a sub-group of children who were at greater risk than
others and that they should be surgically managed in a different manner. Her team
discovered that in this subgroup of young children, cyanosis, their young age and
gender appeared to be risk factors. It was also discovered that the high levels
of oxygen used during cardiovascular surgery was a detrimental factor on neonates.
This important research helped to explain why neonates had higher postoperative
morbidity or mortality when compared to adults undergoing cardiac surgical procedures.
The results of her work were published in Circulation, Surgical Forum, and Annals
of Thoracic Surgery. As a result of this and other innovative research, in 1991
Carin was awarded the Department's George Armstrong-Peters Award as a young investigator
who had shown outstanding productivity as an independent investigator for her research
work. Continued work in this area produced many important discoveries in the area
of metabolic responses of the neonatal myocardium to hypoxia and functional recovery
following ischemia which were published in Critical Care Medicine, the Journal of
Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.
|
Her work also revealed the fact that female patients seemed to be at greater risk
than the male patients and led to an exciting new avenue of research -- the role
of gender and its effects on hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Her work in this
area revealed that gender does indeed play a role on the myocardial adaptation of
the hearts of normal and hypertensive rats to hypertension and this preliminary
data led to the first ever basic research gender grant handed out by the Heart &
Stroke Foundation and published in the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
She led her team to the discovery that gender and progressive pathology (hypertension
and myocardial hypertrophy) influenced the metabolic response to dietary manipulation
especially in females with a pathology (Journal of Nutrition). In 2000, for Carin's
continued success in research, she was awarded the Lister Prize for her outstanding
and continued productivity of an international stature.
Never one to sit back and relax, Carin became Head of Research (Senior Scientist)
of the Oceanographic Environmental Research Society (OERS) where she is investigating
the amount of pollutants in the marine environment and their effects on marine animals.
She co-authored a 70 page report looking at the world-wide concentration levels
of mercury in the tissue of various marine mammal species which revealed that mercury
levels were still high despite decades of regulatory enforcement. Her work in this
area has been presented at international and national meetings.
Carin has always had an inherent talent for teaching and since her arrival in the
Department has taught thousands of students ranging from medicine, dentistry, graduate
school, undergraduate and summer/ high school. She also created 5 graduate courses
and an equal number of undergraduate courses at the university which continue to
receive outstanding rankings by her students. She is the founding director of the
award winning Cardiovascular Sciences Collaborative Program which is a unique graduate
training program that brings together students from various departments who have
an interest in expanding their knowledge in the area of cardiovascular studies.
Her ability to make complicated topics easy to understand stems from her manner
of talking with her students and not to them in presenting the information in a
casual manner. Combining her teaching talent to promote research and make it interesting
has led to numerous awards including a Northrop Frye Award (Individual-1996), Order
of Ontario (2001), Queen's Jubilee Medal (2002), Northrop Frye Award (Divisional-
2004), and the Faculty of Medicine Graduate Teaching Award (2005).
It is very appropriate that Carin should be profiled in an issue of the Surgical
Spotlight as this is her 20th year within the Department. Carin's distinguished
career in research and teaching within the university has been a direct result of
her hard work, dedication and perseverance. That combined with the support that
she has received throughout the years from the various chairs, business officers,
administrative assistants and others within this Department; Carin therefore reflects
the research excellence that is promoted within a scientific community that is world
renown.
Michael Belanger
CVT Tech
Department of Surgery, UofT
|