And the winner of the first Canadian Blood Services Dana Devine Award is…

Dr. Melika Loriamini! 

This new award, in honour of Dr. Dana Devine, supports early career scientists in a field related to transfusion science and medicine, blood banking and blood biotherapies. It is awarded in collaboration with the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine’s at their annual conference. 

“I truly appreciate the Committee for the recognition and I'm so proud that I'm the first person to win the Dana Devine Award,” Dr. Loriamini says. “When I walked into the conference, I felt like I was famous because everyone knew who I was. It was a great feeling that all the work, all the hard work, during these years that I did, it's now acknowledged, and everyone knows it.” 

Dr. Loriamini began her career in medical laboratory science in Iran, obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree before immigrating to Canada. She completed a second Bachelor’s degree, this time in biomedical science from York University, and went on to enroll in the laboratory medicine and pathobiology PhD program at the University of Toronto. While completing her education, Dr. Loriamini worked as a Medical Laboratory Technologist at LifeLabs and the William Osler Hospital. 

As part of her PhD, Dr. Loriamini worked with Canadian Blood Services Senior Scientist Dr. Donald Branch which she says allowed her to “acquire expertise in the fields of transfusion medicine and immunology and we were able to publish various articles.” 

In fact, it was Dr. Branch who first sent her the application for the award and told her he thought she was a strong candidate. 

“I want to say thanks to Dr. Branch, who was my supervisor. Actually, thank you is not enough,” Dr. Loriamini says. “He taught me how to think as a scientist and how to become a scientist. I truly appreciate him. He always trusted me.” 

Dr. Loriamini’s research focused on developing a new drug to help people who have autoimmune cytopenias — a cluster of conditions which causes your immune system to attack your own healthy blood cells. She was able to identify a potential drug which is expected to undergo clinical trials in the future.

In addition to receiving the Canadian Blood Services Dana Devine Award, Dr. Loriamini has also been recognized with the Canadian Blood Services Graduate Fellowship Program award in 2019 and 2021, the AABB Outstanding Abstract Award for Trainees as a Fellow/Post-Doctoral Student in 2022, the SGS travel award from the University of Toronto in 2022, the Best Poster for Translation/Basic research award from Hematology Academic Day in 2023, and the Best Poster for Infectious Diseases, Inflammation, and Immunology award from the 2023-Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology Research Conference. 

Dr. Loriamini is now a Clinical Practice Leader at Humber River Health in Toronto which allows her to bring her research to a clinical setting. Congratulations Dr. Melika Loriamini! 

Canadian Blood Services – Driving world-class innovation

Through discovery, development and applied research, Canadian Blood Services drives world-class innovation in blood transfusion, cellular therapy and transplantation—bringing clarity and insight to an increasingly complex healthcare future. Our dedicated research team and extended network of partners engage in exploratory and applied research to create new knowledge, inform and enhance best practices, contribute to the development of new services and technologies, and build capacity through training and collaboration. Find out more about our research impact.  

The opinions reflected in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Canadian Blood Services nor do they reflect the views of Health Canada or any other funding agency.