What happens when you bring together researchers, health professionals, policymakers, patient partners, and trainees with diverse expertise to share information and ideas on tick-borne disease research? You get a scientific symposium that has become a keystone forum for interdisciplinary dialogue. The TickNet Canada Scientific Symposium, organized by members of the Canadian Lyme Disease Research Network (CLyDRN), bridges disciplines and communities with the purpose of sharing information, sparking new ideas, and shaping future research.

Organizing the symposium has been a collaborative endeavour since the inaugural event in 2023, bringing together CLyDRN network members from across Canada to plan and deliver the conference. Stefan Iwasawa, a researcher from Centre for Coastal Health and the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, reflected on his experience playing leadership roles in organizing the 2023 and 2024 conferences: “I was part of the planning committee for TickNet 2023 in Toronto, and then there was a lot of work in 2024, checking out venues, getting catering, audiovisual set up, and organizing travel for speakers for the symposium in Nanaimo. Just real nuts and bolts things.” Further reflecting on the value of these knowledge-sharing events, Stefan shared: “It’s about networking and relationships and it benefits everyone involved to get to know as many people as you can.”

Image: Group photo of attendees of TickNet Canada’s inaugural Scientific Symposium in 2023, Toronto, Ontario.

Making the symposium possible each year requires year-long planning by a dedicated team of over 20 planning committee members who facilitate sub-committees focused on logistics, scientific programming, trainee engagement, and patient and community initiatives. Maarten Voordouw, an associate professor at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, led the scientific program sub-committee for the 2023 Symposium in Toronto. In discussing the shared effort required to plan a scientific symposium, Maarten reflected: “It was really fun working with everyone. It felt like a lot of work because I wanted it to be a success, but it was exciting.”

The symposium is interdisciplinary, drawing participants from fields as diverse as ecology, entomology, medicine, veterinary medicine, and public health. It also intentionally creates space for voices often left out of scientific meetings, particularly patient partners and advocates. Speaking to the interdisciplinary quality of the symposium, Natasha Bowser, a PhD candidate in veterinary sciences at the Université de Montréal, who also organized past symposia, reflected on the benefit of diverse perspectives at these meetings: “It is fun to hear and see so many different people coming from different perspectives and disciplines. It gives you a real sense of the context and why the research is being done in the first place.”

Acknowledging the wide range of perspectives, a patient advocate, Nancy Garvey, who helped lead a panel on patient-oriented research at the 2023 symposium, reflected on the response received from attendees on a panel discussion that brought together clinical researcher and patient voices: “At one point I was wondering, is this going to make any difference? And then afterwards, so many people came up to me and thanked me, not just for the presentations and speakers but for the insights on the impact patient engagement can have on research and the research process. That positive feedback has strengthened the network’s commitment to patient engagement.”

Image: Group photo in Nanaimo, British Columbia of attendees at TickNet Canada’s 2024 Scientific Symposium.

With two successful scientific symposia completed and a third on the horizon, TickNet Canada continues to build a national forum that not only advances tick-borne disease research but fosters community, connection, and collaboration. If you are interested in being a part of the 2026 scientific meeting in Gatineau, Quebec (February 2 to 4) we invite you to learn more at the symposium webpage.