Dr. Naranjan Dhalla

Saturday evening about 1300 people gathered at the Winnipeg Convention Centre to pay tribute to Dr. Naranjan Dhalla - an extraordinary cardiovascular scientist. In the photo above, I am with Dr. Dhalla and with Mohinder Dhillon, one of the organizers of the event.

I first got to know Dr. Dhalla well when I was at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba and responsible for the B.Sc. Med program. Dr. Dhalla was one of the researchers who put a major emphasis on training students in the B.Sc. Med program. Year after year, Dr. Dhalla guided medical students during a summer research program, providing exposure, training and experience in doing a research project.

In the years since, Dr. Dhalla moved to the St. Boniface General Hospital Research Centre and became director of the Institute for Cardiovascular Sciences. He has contributed, through his research, to much new understanding of the physiology of the heart and to the changes which occur in disease states. In recent years, Dr. Dhalla has teamed up with Dr. Bert Friesen in the development of a new drug with considerable potential to reduce the amount of injury and cell death in the heart at the time of a heart attack.

Congratulations Dr. Dhalla on receiving the well deserved recognition Saturday evening.