Six Faculty Positions at UBC in Biological Resilience
Multi Career-stage, Diversity Cluster Hire The Life Sciences Institute’s (LSI) recent designation as a Global Research Excellence Institute at the University of British Columbia (UBC), prompted the launch of the Biological Resilience Initiative. This initiative signals a moment of renewal, a push into the future, and a chance to change the lens by which we […]
Sex Differences in Islet Stress Responses Support Female β Cell Resilience
This week Science in Vancouver profiled a recent publication in Molecular Metabolism from the labs of Drs. Elizabeth Rideout and James Johnson at UBC, with first author George Brownrigg. This article is an exact replication with minor changes. Can you provide a brief overview of your lab’s current research focus? In the Rideout lab we are […]
Eight LSI researchers awarded funding through Fall 2022 CIHR project grant competition
Congratulations to the successful applicants in the CIHR Fall 2022 Project Grant competition! Listed below are the LSI-based PIs on the six funded projects. These include one bridge grant and one Priority Announcement Grant. This amounts to 21.4% of submitted applications receiving funds to a total of $3.77 million from this competition, where overall funding rate […]
Av-Gay Lab identifies infection-halting compound, broadly effective from COVID-19 to the common cold
Researchers at UBC’s Life Sciences Institute have identified a compound that shows early promise at halting infections from a range of coronaviruses, including all variants of SARS-CoV-2 and the common cold. The findings, published this week in Molecular Biomedicine, reveal a potential path toward antiviral treatments that could be used against many different pathogens. “Beyond COVID-19, […]
Three LSI Cores receive UBC Research Facilities Support Grants
LSI’s Proteomics Core Facility, UBCcytof and the LSI Imaging Facility were notified today that funding proposals seeking support for Core operations and services provided to LSI researchers, the UBC community and beyond. A proposal on behalf of the Proteomics Core, submitted by Dr. Leonard Foster, a proposal on behalf of UBCcytof, submitted by Dr. Pauline […]
2022 Michael Smith Health Research BC awardees announced
Health Research BC announced the results of its 2022 Scholar and Research Trainee competitions, conferring a Scholar award and four Research Trainee awards on an LSI researcher and four trainees. Congratulations to Dr. Maria Tokuyama on receiving a Scholar Award, and congratulations to postdoctoral Trainee Award recipients Drs. Marek Budzynski, Howard Cen, Jia Zhao, and Efthymios […]
Old drugs hint at new ways to beat chronic pain
A newly identified link between chronic pain and lung cancer in a pre-clinical model offers hope for pain management Pain is an important alarm system engineered to provoke rapid withdrawal from harmful situations. But for hundreds of millions of people, the alarm bells keep going off long after healing from an initial injury. Persistent pain […]
GlycoNet funding supports UBC startup ABOzymes in becoming a world leader in blood type antigen conversion
GlycoNet, one of the world’s leaders in glycomics—the study of carbohydrates in all living organisms—is pleased to announce that ABOzymes Biomedical Inc., a GlycoNet startup company, received substantial seed financing to further develop its ground-breaking proprietary technology platform that enables blood transfusions and life-saving organ transplants, regardless of patients’ blood type.1 Built upon the discoveries […]
New process developed by LSI researchers turns pulp industry waste wood into plastic products
Researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) have found an environmentally friendly way to turn waste softwood from the pulp industry into plastic products like nylon. “The idea is to use the bacteria in a fermentation-like process to convert aromatic compounds derived from the lignin to something useful,” said microbiologist Dr. Lindsay Eltis. Eltis […]
Learning at risk with shortage of donated cadavers, Dr. Edwin Moore tells Global News Hour
UBC is hoping to raise awareness about its cadaver donation program as the number of donations for medical research, surgical practice and testing continues to decline. The UBC Body Donation Program has operated in the Faculty of Medicine since 1950 and has typically received between 80 and 120 donations per year. That number now ranges from […]