Heparin is a natural anticoagulant that derives its name from the tissue it was first isolated from: hepar in Greek means liver. Listed in the WHO Model List of Essential Medicines, heparin has stood the test of time as one of the oldest drugs still employed in clinical treatment to reduce clotting. However, heparin use is not without consequence as…
During pancreatic development, proliferating pancreatic progenitors activate the proendocrine transcription factor neurogenin 3 (NEUROG3), exit the cell cycle, and differentiate into islet cells. The mechanisms that direct robust NEUROG3 expression within a subset of progenitor cells control the size of the endocrine population. Here we demonstrate that NEUROG3 is phosphorylated within the nucleus on serine 183, which catalyzes its hyperphosphorylation…
The federal science minister says universities aren’t doing the heavy lifting to appoint more female research chairs, so she wants to force their hands. On her way to give a speech Wednesday to university presidents in Montreal, Kirsty Duncan was handed the latest statistics on the number of men and women among applicants for new Canada Research Chair positions. “They’re…
Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines were originally approved with 3-dose schedules. However, 2 doses of HPV vaccine have been recommended1 for girls younger than 15 years based on antibody response at 36 months,2,3although continued research on the duration of antibody persistence was advised. We report antibody response at 60 months after 2 doses of quadrivalent HPV vaccine. Read More
Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators at the University of British Columbia have created an innovative technique for studying how chlamydia interacts with the human immune system. Researchers used a combination of gene editing and stem cell technologies to make the model. The team identified two genes from our immune system, IRF5 and IL-10RA as key…
It was something like a flashback for Canadian scientists who gathered across the country Saturday to rally in support of their American counterparts, who say they’re facing mounting attacks against science. Science advocate Katie Gibbs said she felt like she was returning a favour. Nearly five years ago, she was in the same place, doing almost the same thing. In…
Working with a shared voice can be very effective for improving outcomes in the Movement Disorders clinic, finds Dr. Martin McKeown and Parkinson’s research coordinator Kristen Sundvick. For some people with Parkinson’s disease (PD), even optimal drug treatments simply aren’t as effective as they need to be. On conventional medication, people may fluctuate unpredictably between being unable to move, to…
My team focuses on development of novel innovative technology for cancer therapeutics and diagnostics. A major focus of the lab is on the identification of oncofetal proteins and secondary protein modifications such as glycosylation’s that can be potentially exploited as cancer targets in the clinic. We are more technology focused than disease focused in the sense that we are generally...
Dr. Leonard Foster – Winner of the Genome British Columbia Award for Scientific Excellence at the 2017 Life Science BC Awards. CIHR Funding Decisions Dr. Julio Montaner CIHR Gold Leaf Prize for Impact Read More Centre for Epigenome Mapping Technologies (CEMT) CEEHRC Phase II: Platform Centres Renewal Read More Dr. Winson Cheung Operating Grant: Analyses of Existing Canadian Cohorts and…
In Steven Soderbergh’s classy television show The Knick, set in a New York City hospital in the early 1900s, competitive and obsessively driven surgeon-scientists work on the burning medical issues of the day — identification of blood groups to allow blood transfusions, for example, and facial reconstruction surgery that returns dignity to those disfigured by syphilis. Would-be healers have been testing surgical…
