Category: Uncategorized
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Oxford Department of Psychiatry Series 2025
On Nov. 11, 2025, Dr. Tomas Hajek presented at the Oxford Department of Psychiatry Series in Oxford, England! He delivered a presentation entitled “Beyond the scale: the neuropsychiatry weight of obesity in SMI”.
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Psychiatry Research Day 2025
On Nov. 7th, Sean and Julia presented their research at the Dalhousie University Department of Psychiatry Research Day. Sean discussed his research on “Weight gain predicts diffuse cortical thinning in bipolar disorder – A longitudinal study in 934 participants”. Julia presented her review on “Trace Lithium Levels in Drinking Water and Risk of Dementia:A Systematic…
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Around the world in 80 days: Symposia Talks in Japan and Netherlands
In September, Dr. Tomas Hajek presented at the International Society of Bipolar Disorders in Chiba, Japan. He spoke on his presentation entitled “Does Li Lower the Risk of Glaucoma – A Danish Nationwide Study”. The following month, our PI attended the 38th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress meeting, where he presented his talk on “Body…
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Congratulations Dr. Dietze!
We are excited to announce that our PhD candidate, Lorielle Dietze, successfully defended her thesis yesterday. She received glowing remarks from her committee members and passed with no revisions required. We are so proud of your incredible achievement!
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Hot off the press!
Congratulations to Sean, Maya, and Dr. Hajek for their recent contributions to psychiatry and obesity research. Your commitment to conducting thorough and high quality statistical analyses is very commendable! Click on this link here for Sean and Maya’s paper and this link here for Dr. Hajek’s article!
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CSBBCS 2025 in Scotland
This July, Lorielle represented our lab at the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science conference in Dundee, Scotland! She delivered her presentation entitled “White matter diffusion metrics are differentially sensitive to obesity and bipolar disorders: An ENIGMA bipolar disorders study in 2166 individuals”, which was well received. Keep up the great work!
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Jack of all trades, Master of Science!
A huge congratulations to Maya on successfully defending her Master’s thesis – without any revisions! Her committee gave many glowing praises and she is set to pass with distinction. We are incredibly proud of all her accomplishments and excited to see where her academic journey will take her next!
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SOBP 2025 in Toronto
Last week (April 24th-26th), our lab members Sean, Julia, Maya, and Linzhi were in Toronto to present their current projects at the Society of Biological Psychiatry conference! Check out our “Posters” tab to view everyone’s work.
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ICAM 2025 in Halifax
This past month, our lab members Lorielle Dietze and Julia Fraiha Pegado attended the ICAM 2025! Julia presented her poster where she also received an honourable mention!
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Recent publications!
A huge congratulations to Julia, Lorielle, and Maya for their recent publications in SpringerOpen, Molecular Psychiatry, and Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience! We are so proud of your diligence and perseverance. Come check out their publications here!
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Congratulations Lorielle!
We are proud to announce that our PhD candidate, Lorielle Dietze, is the recipient of the Best Presentation by a Graduate Student Award at the Department of Psychiatry’s 34th annual Research Day. We look forward to seeing where her determination and drive for outstanding performance leads her next!
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McNee Prize Recipient: Lorielle!
We are thrilled to announce that our PhD candidate, Lorielle Dietze, has won the 2024 McNee Prize in Medical Neuroscience at the annual Department Blitz! We are grateful for all her hard work and commitment to excellence.
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ISBD 2024 Conference in Iceland
During Sept. 29th – Oct. 1st, our lab members Tomas Hajek (PI), Lorielle Dietze (PhD candidate), and Julia Fraiha Pegado (PhD candidate) presented their research at the International Society for Bipolar Disorders 2024 Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland! A successful trip on multiple fronts – scientifically, collaboratively, and socially – as it provided the opportunity to…
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Passing her Master’s defence!
Congratulations to our graduate student, Julia, for passing her Master’s defence yesterday, August 8th. She will now be starting her PhD in our lab come September!
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Symposium at OHBM in Seoul, South Korea
On June 25th, our PI, Dr. Tomas Hajek, presented at the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) conference in Seoul, South Korea. Within the Symposium, he presented the project, Bipolar disorders, obesity and antipsychotic treatment share a common pattern of widespread cortical thickness alterations – ENIGMA study in 2 443 individuals.
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Congratulations Lorielle for the Hebb Award!
During our time in Edmonton at CSBBCS, our PhD student, Lorielle won the Hebb student award for best oral presentation. Congratulations to Lorielle for your hard work in the field!
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CSBBCS in Edmonton, Alberta
From June 25 to 27th our lab members Maya, Julia, Lorielle, and Emily were in Edmonton, Alberta to present the research being done within the lab. This was at the Canadian Society of Brain, Behaviour, and Cognitive Science (CSBBCS) conference!
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SOBP in Texas
Two of our lab members, Maya and Sean, went all the way to Texas on May 9th to 11th to present some of our research topics. They both presented posters at the Society of Biological Psychiatry (SOBP) research conference and participated in the conference’s ENIGMA day.
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ENIGMA-BD Teleconference
Our graduate students, Lorielle Dietze and Julia Fraiha-Pegado, presented our ongoing projects at the ENIGMA-BD working group this afternoon, April 12th, 2024. A congratulations to them for such fantastic presentations!
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Presenting SIRS 2024 Symposium
Our Principal Investigator, Dr. Tomas Hajek, was just at the Schizophrenia International Research Society 2024 Conference in Florence, Italy. During his time there he presented in the symposium, Cardiometabolic Co-Morbidity in Schizophrenia SpectrumDisorders – Unraveling the Mind-Body Interaction, specifically on his article, Trajectories of Daily Antipsychotic Use and Weight Gain/Metabolic Changes in People Hospitalized for…
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Maya in Toronto
Our graduate student, Maya, attended the CYBD Youth Bipolar Day Research Symposium hosted at CAMH in Toronto on March 28th. She presented her current project, a meta-analysis on metabolic risk factors and BrainAGE.
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Acceptance to the PhD Program.
Congratulations to our current student, Julia Fraiha Pegado, who was just recently accepted into the Medical Neuroscience PhD program at Dalhousie. We are all very excited to see what opportunities and accomplishments come your way!
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Winning First Prize!
Congratulations to our PhD candidate, Kristyna Vochoskova, winning for first prize from the Czech Neuropsychopharmacological Society for original research in clinical psychopharmacology! Keep up the great work, we are all very proud!
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Featured Research in the news: Bipolar Network News Mention
Check out these articles published by the Bipolar Network News about our current lab members Lorielle Dietze (PhD student), Sean McWhinney (post-doc), and Tomas Hajek (PI). These articles highlighted our lab’s recent work on the effects of obesity and bipolar disorder on brain changes in gray and white matter, as well as the occurrence of…
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Psychiatry Day!
We will be heading to Dalhousie University’s Department of Psychiatry Research Day at the Atlantica Hotel Halifax on Friday, October 27th. Our post doc, Sean, and our graduate students, Lorielle and Julia will be presenting posters at the event. The event begins at 9 am and ends at 4pm. We hope to see you there!
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Heading to Toronto.
Our PhD student, Lorielle Dietze, and our post-doc, Sean McWhinney, will be heading to the CCNP conference starting today and ending on Sept. 23rd, 2023. Tomorrow, Sept. 22nd, both will be presenting posters at the event. Lorielle will be presenting in poster session 1, poster 6 from 15:00 to 16:00. Sean will be presenting in…
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Welcome Tariq!
Welcome Tariq! He is joining our lab for his post-doctorate clinical fellowship. His previous background includes getting his M.D. from Taif University, Saudi Arabia. Some of his interests are playing soccer and chess. We are looking forward to having him in our lab!
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Catch us in Denmark.
Our principal investigator, Dr. Tomas Hajek, will be presenting his research, “Neuroprotective Effects of Lithium Treatment” this Friday in Denmark. The event is organized by the Danish Society of Affective Disorders (DSAL) and the International Group for the Study of Lithium (IGSLi) to present current research and application of Lithium treatment for psychiatry conditions. Date:…
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Welcome Maya!
Welcome Maya! She is one of the students joining our lab this September. With a previous biology and psychology degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, she will currently be perusing her master’s in medical neuroscience at Dalhousie University. Some of her interests are snowboarding, hiking, surfing, camping, and exploring the outdoors. We are looking forward to…
Hajek Lab 