Researchers from the Kizhakkedathu Lab were recently honoured with two awards, for the impact of their work on advancing organ transplant technologies. Dr. Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu, Dr. Erika Siren and Daniel Luo received the Logan Boulet Humanitarian Award 2021, while the Organ Transplant Innovation and Research Team Award 2021 was presented to the Centre for Blood Research at UBC and accepted by Dr.…
Faculty of medicine doctoral students are among the UBC awardees of Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships (Vanier CGS). The Vanier CGS program awards up to $50,000 per year for three years, for students working in social sciences and humanities, natural sciences, engineering and health.
Congratulations to Dr Stephen Choi, a postdoctoral cancer researcher in the Urologic Sciences Department at the University of British Columbia, who is earning the Mitacs Award for Outstanding Innovation — Postdoctoral for his work to develop a groundbreaking treatment for prostate cancers. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, Choi discovered that suppressing lactic acid, a byproduct generated by cancer cells,…
Plasma circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) represents short fragments of tumor-derived DNA released into the bloodstream primarily from cancer cells undergoing apoptosis. In metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), characterizing genomic alterations in ctDNA identifies mutations, copy number alterations, and structural rearrangements with predictive and prognostic biomarker utility. These associations with clinical outcomes have resulted in ctDNA increasingly incorporated into routine clinical…
I previously completed my MSc at the University of Guelph (Ontario) and came to UBC for my PhD in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology under the supervision of Dr. Natalie Strynadka. My research focused on virulence machinery that bacteria use to help cause infections in humans. More specifically, I studied the proteins that make up the Type 3…
There’s a new branch on the tree of life and it’s made up of predators that nibble their prey to death. These microbial predators fall into two groups, one of which researchers have dubbed “nibblerids” because they, well, nibble chunks off their prey using tooth-like structures. The other group, nebulids, eat their prey whole. And both comprise a new ancient…
I was working towards an M.A.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering with Dr. Karen Cheung in the BioMEMS Lab. My research was focused on developing an organ-on-chip model of the small airways in the human lung and using it to study effects associated with aerosol exposure, as well as on applying the silicon photonics platform to the real-time molecular sensing of SARS-CoV-2…
A $33.8 million gift has been donated to the University of British Columbia and VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation for multiple sclerosis (MS) research and care—the largest known donation ever for MS research worldwide. The private donation was made by a B.C.-based philanthropist who believes comprehensive contributions to science and medicine can quickly advance solutions and treatments across diseases for…
Did you know there is a “rabbit line” located deep below the UBC campus? This underground pipeline runs 2.5 km from TRIUMF to the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health at the UBC Hospital and is used to transport radiopharmaceuticals used in research. TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre, has been producing medical isotopes for decades. Over the years, TRIUMF and…
A connection between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and early life antibiotic exposure has been found in some studies. However, research led by Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute investigator, Dr. Gillian Hanley, found no relationship between the development of ASD among children born to mothers who took antibiotics during labour and delivery of their infant. ASD is a brain-related condition that often…
