Mini-Medical School 2025-2026
Can Medicine Come Alive? Discover the Medicinal Power of Your Microbiome!
Join us on October 6th for an eye-opening hybrid public lecture that explores the medicinal power of your microbiome. Learn how living cells and microbes are being harnessed to treat disease, from developing microbial therapies to boosting immune function.
This lecture features Dr. Kathy McCoy & Dr. Braedon McDonald, leading researchers from UCalgary’s International Microbiome Centre and Snyder Institute, unpacking the cutting-edge science of how microbes and live cell platforms are reshaping human medicine.
About Mini-Medical School
The Snyder Institute's Mini-Medical School is designed for anyone who is interested in learning about chronic, infectious and inflammatory diseases. Our interactive lecture series features topics such as chronic inflammation, HIV, kidney diseases, autoimmune diseases, cancer, the microbiome, lymphatics, diabetes, respiratory diseases and much more.
You won’t graduate with a medical degree after attending our Mini-Medical School series, but you will gain insight into healthy living and chronic diseases.
There are no pre-requisites to attend these lectures and they are open to the public from high school students to retirees. Each lecture will combine basic science with real life clinical situations in order to give Canadians a better understanding of the effects of chronic diseases on the body. Each presenter is highly knowledgeable and respected in their field of research, and most are current members of the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases at UCalgary's Cumming School of Medicine.
As one attendee commented: "While your clinical trials may still be years away, I know you are on to something huge that is going to transform many people's lives!"
Mini-Medical School will take place one Monday evening per month from 6:30-8:00pm and each lecture will be presented in a hybrid format: both in person and online via ZOOM.
To attend in person, please register first, then join us in Clara Christie in the Health Science (HSC) Building on Foothills Campus. Directions to Clara Christie can be found here. Doors open at 6:15 PM.
Mini-Medical School is proudly sponsored in part by AstraZeneca and UCalgary's Cumming School of Medicine.
Should you have any questions or concerns please contact Hannah Reilly, hannah.reilly@ucalgary.ca
Full 2025-2026 Program Details
October 6, 2025
Presenters: Dr. Kathy McCoy & Dr. Braedon McDonald
Topic: The Medicinal Power of Your Microbiome
Dr. Kathy McCoy
Dr. Kathy McCoy, PhD, obtained her PhD in Immunology from the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, Otago University, Wellington, New Zealand. She performed her postdoctoral studies and was a junior group leader at the Institute of Experimental Immunology in Zürich, Switzerland. In 2006 she joined McMaster University as an Assistant Professor where she held a Canada Research Chair in Mucosal Immunology. From 2010 – 2016 Kathy McCoy was an Assistant Professor in Mucosal Immunology in the Department of Clinical Research, University of Bern in Switzerland. In September 2016 she returned to Canada and is now a Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary where she continues her research on host-microbial interactions with a focus on early life.
Dr. Braedon McDonald
Dr. Braedon McDonald, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Critical Care Medicine and Department of Medicine in the Cumming School of Medicine. Originally from Crossfield, AB, Dr. McDonald trained in microbiology and immunology at McGill University in Montreal, followed by MD as well as PhD training in immunology at the University of Calgary. He completed Internal Medicine residency at the University of British Columbia, followed by a fellowship in adult Critical Care Medicine at the Cumming School of Medicine. Dr. McDonald completed a CIHR- and AIHS-funded postdoctoral fellowship in microbiome research at the University of Calgary’s International Microbiome Centre. Dr. McDonald is a clinician-scientist in the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases and International Microbiome Centre, where he leads a translational and basic science research program on microbiome-immune interactions in infection and critical illness. Dr. McDonald’s clinical practice focuses on multi-systems intensive care, and he is an attending intensivist in the ICU at FMC, RGH, and SHC.
November 3, 2025
Presenters: Drs. Cora Constantinescu and Craig Jenne
Topic: Health Misinformation
Dr. Cora Constantinescu
Dr. Cora Constantinescu, MD is a pediatric infectious disease specialist with the Vaccine Hesitancy Clinic at the Alberta Children’s Hospital and is a full member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute (ACHRI). From seeing vaccine hesitant patients in clinic, to her academic pursuits in vaccine acceptance and surveillance, she has a strong passion for vaccine research and promotion. She holds a masters in medical education and a medical educator appointment with the University of Calgary specializing in developing curricula and education programs rooted in psychosocial determinants of behavior change. She co-leads the 19tozero HCW education team and continues to be a vaccine advocate at the local and national levels.
Dr. Craig Jenne
Dr. Craig Jenne, PhD, is the Deputy Director of the Snyder Institute and the Scientific Director of the Snyder Institute Translational Lab in Critical Care Medicine, a position that allows him to work directly with clinicians and researchers on human clinical studies. He has a faculty appointment within the departments of Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases and Critical Care at UCalgary's Cumming School of Medicine. He also holds the Jessie Boden Lloyd Professorship in Immunlogy Research. Dr. Jenne is continuing his work using intravital microscopy to study the early innate immune response to viral and bacterial infections.