Recipients of the inaugural MSFHR COVID-19 Research Response Fund were announced one year ago and since then, the awardees have made significant impacts and evidence-informed contributions to BC’s COVID-19 pandemic response, from investigating the effects of the pandemic on vulnerable populations to long-term health effects and geographic inequities. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, much was still unknown about…
Contaminants in generic medications used to treat conditions like diabetes, heart disease, stomachaches and heartburn may cause damage to DNA, affect basic cell functions and even increase a person’s risk of cancer, according to a new UBC study. “When we take these drugs, we do so knowing that they can come with side effects that are clearly described on the…
Every week, more Canadians are rolling up their sleeves to get the shot that will protect them against COVID-19. One of the breakout vaccine technologies of this pandemic are the mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna. Those were some of the earliest vaccines out of the gate because of how easy they are to create. They also work incredibly…
The BC Diabetes Research Network is delighted to release our fifth podcast from Season 2 of our official podcast: “Diabetes: From Beta Cells to Bicycles”. Podcast host Krista Lamb is joined by BC Diabetes Research Network researcher Dr Francis Lynn. Dr. Francis Lynn is an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery and the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of…
Bold Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, is announcing that the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has granted BOLD-100 an Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) in the treatment of gastric (stomach) cancer. BOLD-100 is a first-in-class ruthenium-based small molecule therapeutic that (1) alters the unfolded protein response (UPR) through selective GRP78 inhibition; and (2) induces reactive oxygen species (ROS) which causes…
The words “cancer” and “hypoxia” frequently come up in the same conversation (in some cases, literally). Defined by the National Cancer Institute as a “condition in which there is a decrease in the oxygen supply to a tissue,” hypoxia can be exhibited by certain cells within a tumour due to problematic blood vessels. Cell culture that reflects the 3D nature of tumours can…
Climate change represents potentially the biggest environmental threat to human kind since our existence. Still, our chemical industry relies mostly on the usage of fossil resources for the production of various products, such as plastics, chemicals, or fuels. In my work with microalgae, we describe an alternative process that sequesters CO2 from the atmosphere and allows a carbon-neutral production of all…
Dr. Stuart Turvey, Dr. Henry Lu, and their colleagues at BC Children’s and UBC were surprised to find that two unrelated children from Alberta carried the same previously unknown genetic variant that leads to a dangerously weakened immune system. Experts call this profound combined immunodeficiency, or CID — a condition that can result from a wide variety of genetic and environmental causes.
Scientists had previously noted that the presence of a large protein called MondoA was associated with worse outcomes in several pediatric cancers, but they didn’t understand why. That changed after Dr. Poul Sorensen, a distinguished scientist with BC Cancer and an investigator with the Michael Cuccione Childhood Cancer Research Program at BC Children’s Hospital, won an August-Wilhelm Scheer guest professorship award to work at the Technical…
The Life Sciences Institute congratulates Dr. Shernaz Bamji on becoming President of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN). Currently Associate Director at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health (DMCBH), Dr. Bamji has served as Vice President/President Elect of CAN, a thousand-member organization dedicated to advancing brain research. She succeeds immediate Past-President Dr. Charles Bourque of McGill University, who led…