UBC research into pancreatic cancer and disease disparities between sexes received a boost with new funding announced today from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
The university received $1.55 million from the John R. Evans Leaders Fund for 14 research programs across UBC’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.
“This funding provides our researchers with new tools and equipment they need to examine issues like disease and wildfire,” said John Hepburn, UBC vice-president, research and international. “We are grateful to the Canada Foundation for Innovation for their continued support.”
Janel Kopp, an assistant professor in the department of cellular and physiological sciences, will use the funding for equipment to look at how cancer develops in the cells of the pancreas. Pancreatic cancer has low survival rates; it is the fourth leading cause of death from cancer in Canada.
Elizabeth Rideout, who is also an assistant professor in the department of cellular and physiological sciences, studies the differences between men and women in the development of disease like diabetes. She is using the funding for equipment that measures gene expression.
The Honourable Minister Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, was on campus to announce the funding. He toured Kopp’s and Rideout’s laboratories in the Life Sciences Institute.
UBC funding recipients and their projects:
François Bénard, division of nuclear medicine and BC Cancer Agency
Acquisition of a flexible radiochemistry system for novel radiopharmaceuticals
John Braun, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, UBC Okanagan
Data visualization laboratory with application to wildfire science
Joshua Brinkerhoff, school of engineering, UBC Okanagan
Advanced research computing facility for the simulation of turbulent multiphase flows in the natural gas industry
Liam Brunham, department of medicine and Centre for Heart and Lung Innovation at St. Paul’s Hospital
Harnessing advances in genomics to improve the care of patients with dyslipidemias
Maria Holuszko, department of mining engineering, faculty of applied science
Understanding the nature of heterogeneity of coal and its effect on fine coal processing in order to recover fine coal
Pamela Hoodless, department of medical genetics and Terry Fox Research Laboratory
Analysis of high precision genetically engineered mouse models for cancer
Janel Kopp, department of cellular and physiological sciences, faculty of medicine
Centre for Modeling Pancreatic Cancer
Bruce McManus, department of pathology and laboratory medicine and Centre for Heart and Lung Innovation at St. Paul’s Hospital
Frontiers in Molecular Laboratory Medicine at St. Paul’s Hospital
Kota Mizumoto, department of zoology, faculty of science
Laboratory for motor circuit formation
Paul Pavlidis, department of psychiatry and Centre for High-Throughput Biology
Laboratory for neuroinformatics
Elizabeth Rideout, department of cellular and physiological sciences, faculty of medicine
Facility for high-throughput discovery of sex differences in cellular metabolism
Liwei Wang, school of engineering, UBC Okanagan
Flexible power transmission laboratory for renewable energy integration
Calvin Yip, department of biochemistry and molecular biology, faculty of medicine
Research platform for advanced structure-function analyses of human autophagic degradation machinery
Wesley Zandberg, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, UBC Okanagan
Center for Plant Glycoscience and Biotechnology