MICHAEL SMITH - Key Persons
Brett Finlay receives the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal
CB Hughesman, XJD Lu, KYP Liu, Y Zhu, CF Poh, C Haynes. A robust protocol for using multiplexed droplet digital PCR to quantify somatic copy number alterations in clinical tissue specimens. PloS One. 2016; 11 (8).
Job Titles:
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Canadian Academy of Engineering
- Professor
Dr. Charles Haynes is a Professor and Tier I Canada Research Chair in Interfacial Biotechnology within the Michael Smith Laboratories, and is currently serving as Head of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Haynes is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Canadian Academy of Engineering.
Job Titles:
- Centre for Brain Health, Member
The aim of Dr. Marziali's Applied Biophysics research is to develop new technologies for genomics and life sciences ranging from engineering design of novel instruments for BC genomics groups, to development of automation for tissue microarray analysis, rapid genotyping, single molecule analysis methods using nanopores, and novel electrophoresis technologies.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- President
- Research Chair
Dr. Anna Blakney named one of MIT Review's 35 Innovators Under 35
Dr. Anna Blakney receives UBC President's Award for Public Education Through Media
Dr. Anna Blakney receives John R. Evans Leaders Fund award
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Professor of Teaching
- Research Dissemination Award
Dr. Emily Bordeleau is Awarded the Killam Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director, Professor
Dr. Miller joins UBC from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, where she was a Senior Scientist and Professor at the University of Toronto. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and at the Hospital for Sick Children she was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute International Research Scholar and the Canada Research Chair in Developmental Neurobiology. Most recently, Dr. Miller's accomplishments were recognized by the naming of the "Dr. Freda Miller" public school by the Calgary Board of Education.
Research Area
Dr. Miller is best known for her work on dermal and neural stem cells and on mechanisms that regulate neuronal survival and growth. Her discovery of dermal stem cells provided insights into the mechanisms underlying skin maintenance and repair and contributed to providing the conceptual basis for using skin as a major source for genesis of human stem cells. At the same time, Dr. Miller discovered new mechanisms determining whether nerve cells live or die, findings that have implications for our understanding of neurodegenerative disorders. Finally, Dr. Miller has made significant contributions to understanding how stem cells build the brain during normal development and how this goes awry in neurodevelopmental disorders. This led to her recent discovery that the commonly used diabetes drug metformin can recruit endogenous neural precursors and in so doing can promote repair of the injured brain. Together, these discoveries led to clinical trials for therapies that "wake up" our own stem cells to repair the injured brain and skin and to the co-founding of two biotechnology companies.
Drs Freda Miller and Nobuhiko Tokuriki receive CIHR funding
Job Titles:
- Fellow
- Power Corporation Fellow
- Professor
The Plant Journal cover image: Bohlmann Lab contributes to the discovery of the fragrance-defining step in sandalwood oil biosynthesis
Drs. Leonard Foster and Jörg Bohlmann announced as recipients of Genome Canada awards
Resistance to standard antibiotic therapies to treat disease is a global health concern. The ultimate goal of the research in the Strynadka laboratory is the structure-based design of novel, therapeutically useful antibiotics and inhibitors of antibiotic-resistance mechanisms.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Order of Canada
- Professor
Job Titles:
- Fellow
- Professor
- Vice - President / President Elect of the Genetics Society of America
Dr. Hieter and CSMB: ensuring a strong future for science and scientists
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UBC's Dr. Phil Hieter elected to the National Academy of Sciences
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Dr. Aparicio's research program encompasses the fields of cancer genomics, mouse genetic models, high throughput screens, small molecule chemical probes and translational breast cancer research.
Research in the Withers lab primarily focuses upon enzymes involved in glycoside cleavage and synthesis, with special emphasis upon their mechanisms. Research also focuses upon exploitation of the understandings developed. Applications range from development of new enzyme-based synthetic methodologies to new therapeutics and imaging agents.
Dr. Steven Jones' lab undertakes computational cancer research leveraging advanced algorithms and data analysis techniques to gain insights into the complexity of cancer, unravel its underlying mechanisms, and devise innovative strategies for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
Job Titles:
- Neuropathic Pain Research Award
- Professor
Dr. Measday's lab studies yeast diversity associated with vineyards and wineries in British Columbia and also uses Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model to study mobile genetic elements.
Dr. Wilfred A. Jefferies earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at the University of Oxford for studies on glycoproteins expressed on activated lymphocytes. His discoveries include identifying the OX40 (CD134) co-stimulatory immune checkpoint molecule expressed on activated CD4 cells. He defined transferrin receptors (OX26/CD71) in the Blood-Brain Barrier and characterized diseases of the central nervous system in which hypervascularity occurs. From these observations, Dr. Jefferies created the p97/melanotransferrin "Trojan Horse" for delivering therapeutics to the brain for the treatment of brain tumours. Further work includes elucidating immune subversion mechanisms in viruses and tumours, along with methods to overcome these conditions, and characterizing the epigenetic regulation of antigen processing in cancer cells. Dr. Jefferies' research group recently discovered the CD74-dependent Major Histocompatibility Complex-I (MHC-I or HLA) and the MHC-I recycling intracellular pathways underpinning cross-presentation in dendritic cells, both of which are critical for priming MHC-I restricted immune responses against viruses and tumours. Finally, his group has recently identified two important classes of calcium channels that function to limit inappropriate immune responses, leading to pathology in autoimmune disease and possibly cancer.
Dr. Jefferies' current research program focuses on discovering and translating new therapies for disease. His current interests are in tumour immunology and cancer immunotherapy; antigen presentation and vaccines; and blood-brain barrier and angiogenesis. His work on cancer targets the restoration of the immune system's ability to recognize tumours that have lost functional antigen processing machinery components, which may render selected tumours "invisible" to adaptive immune responses. His team is also utilizing novel screening systems to identify genes, proteins and small molecules that are able to restore and enhance immune recognition and killing of cancer cells. Notably, with other Vancouver Prostate Centre colleagues, Dr. Jefferies is leading an initiative to examine the use of IL-33 as an immune-biomarker for metastatic prostate tumours and a prognosticator for recurrence of prostate cancer in patients.
Dr. Jefferies has more than 100 publications, holds 60 patents, and has supervised 42 graduate students, 17 postdoctoral fellows and over 100 undergraduate research projects. His research discoveries have created the intellectual foundation for four University spin-out companies, representing a critical avenue for knowledge translation resulting in hundreds of full-time high technology positions. Overall, Dr. Jefferies' research continues to contribute to understanding how immune responses are initiated and expanded, how tumours and infectious pathogens subvert these processes, and how autoimmunity results from dysregulation of the immune response.
Joanne Fox is a science education and outreach academic based at the University of British Columbia. She is involved in innovative teaching and learning initiatives and educational leadership activities, with specific areas of expertise in the first year experience, international education, program evaluation, and scientific communication. She was past Director of the First Year Seminars program (SCIE113), as well as mentor for the UBC iGEM program. She is currently seconded from her role at the Advanced Molecular Biology Laboratory (AMBL) so that she can serve as the Principal of UBC Vantage College.
Dr. Fox has been teaching in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and in the Faculty of Science's First Year Seminars since 2005. In 2014, she was selected to be the first Academic Director of UBC Vantage College and is now Principal of the College, which offers an innovative first-year program for international students. Previous to this appointment, she spent a year working as the Faculty of Science academic lead for UBC Vantage College, working with the UBC Vantage College Science faculty to design learning experiences for the first cohort of Science-stream students. As the Principal, she now provides leadership and support to all UBC Vantage College's faculty, working closely with the participating Faculties and Departments.
Dr. Fox's exceptional teaching has been recognized with a UBC Killam Teaching Prize. She is also a highly regarded leader in interdisciplinary collaboration and initiatives that enrich student engagement, both critical elements of the UBC Vantage College program.
She has repeatedly played a leadership role in collaborative innovation at UBC: She was responsible for successful outreach programs that engage over 1500 students per year at the educational facilities of the Michael Smith Laboratories; she sits on the leadership team for the Terry Project, a cross-faculty program that promotes interdisciplinary dialogue about global issues between students of the social sciences and humanities and students of the physical and life sciences; and she was also a course designer, instructor and acted as Director of the First Year Seminars (2010-2013), an initiative that helps students successfully transition into first year university.
Dr. Fox has a PhD in Genetics, and has taught in the areas of Bioinformatics, Medical Genetics, Statistics, and Biology.
Katherine MacDonald is a current student in the Piret/Levings lab. Learn more about her work.
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Imperial College London