The Doctors John and Elizabeth Beattie Student Research Fund was established to honour the Beatties and their contributions to medicine and science.

Doctors John and Elizabeth Beattie were both born in Belfast, Ireland and attended medical school at Queen's University, Belfast. As a Professor of Anatomy at McGill and later as Director of Research at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dr. John Beattie developed research in blood transfusions. This led to his involvement in innovative treatment of injured soldiers during the Second World War and organization of Britain's supervised infant welfare clinics and was an examiner for the Red Cross. In subsequent years they maintained strong ties with Canada through research interests in asbestosis. Dr. John Beattie brought the spirit of inquiry and the tools of research to everything he did.

The fund provides support for student research activity during undergraduate training. Because of the special interest of Drs. John and Elizabeth Beattie in the wellbeing of children, and the long-standing commitment of the founding benefactors, Ross and Margaret Guy of Halifax, to the study and prevention of disabilties in children, this fund will support research by students at the Atlantic Research Centre (housed at IWK Health Centre for Women, Children and Families).

Current Recipient:

Van V.C. Nguyen, to study genetic lipid storage disorders
Senior researchers at the Atlantic Research Centre unanimously nominated Van Nguyen for the Drs. John and Elizabeth Beattie Student Research Award, given annually to support promising undergraduate students’ summer research projects. With his award, Van worked with supervisor Dr. Aarnoud van der Spoel to investigate why the severity of certain types of lipid storage disorders—such as Niemann-Pick and Tay-Sach—vary so widely when patients have identical genetic mutations. Findings from this study will help identify new targets for intervention and improve clinicians’ ability to predict the course of disease in individual patients. Van is a biochemistry honours student with a stellar academic track record.

Previous Recipients:

Daniel Arsenault
Elias Fares
Julia Cottle
Marissa LeBlanc
Patricia Doyle
Ada Poranek
Amanda Crosby
Mary-Margaret Keating
Jeffery Chen
Sharan Goobie

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