 Dr. Jessica Levesley: The Hayden Laboratory My path to a world-renowned Huntington disease lab A biology enthusiast from her high school years at home in South Africa (SA), Jessica Dawson is now living about as far away from her native Johannesburg as a person can get. In a strange twist of fate, it wasn’t her passion for science that led her to Vancouver, it was her husband’s secondment for work. “Ironically, it was completely coincidental that we came to Vancouver, where a world-renowned Huntington disease lab is located, and run by a South African doctor & researcher,” she said. Now a postdoctoral research fellow in the Hayden Laboratory, Jessica said it couldn’t have worked out better.Jessica’s early interest in biology led her to study genetics at the University of Witwatersrand, SA, where she did her undergraduate and honours degrees in genetic and developmental disease. “My honours degree focused on sex determination in chickens,” she said. But Jessica knew she wanted to be in human-based genetics, so she continued her studies at the University of Witwatersrand in that field. It was during this period that she was introduced to Huntington disease (HD). “One of the projects I worked on was focused on assessing sequencing diversity in patients with HD,” she said. “What hooked me was an early visit to one of our HD clinics in South Africa, where I saw first-hand how debilitating this disease is, how it affects not just the patient but the broader family,” she said. “It gripped me as such an awful disorder, and I really wanted to be involved,” she said.Jessica also discovered that in addition to there being limited resources for HD patients in South Africa, very little research on HD had been done. For example, it wasn’t known if there were any African specific modifiers of the disease. “That was how my project came about,” Jessica said. “I assessed sequence diversity within the gene that causes HD, the Huntingtin gene. In addition, I was looking at patients who presented just like patients who have HD but in fact had a disease called Huntington disease-like 2 (HDL2).” HDL2 is caused by a mutation in a completely different gene from HD, yet it causes patients to present exactly, symptomatically, like patients with HD. “I was looking at patients that are clinically indistinguishable,” she said. “We have the highest prevalence in South Africa. My project studied both HD and HDL2 patients,” she said. Jessica was able to identify a particular sequence variant within the HD gene. “HD is caused by a CAG trinucleotide repeat expansion. Once patients exceed a certain number of repeats they will have a disease presentation. Just downstream of these repeats there’s a particular mutation that had very high prevalence in our African patients. When patients had this particular mutation there was a much earlier onset of disease,” Jessica said. Currently, her research focuses on defining the disease modifying effects of these sequence variants in larger, more diverse cohorts of HD patients. “Because the majority of patients who have been studied, with disease modifiers, are of European ancestry, we want to try and expand the cohorts to see if there are broader impacts for patients across the world.” Additionally, Jessica wants to see if there are broader effects in terms of clinical presentation including the progression of motor and cognitive decline, which are a part of HD. “The ultimate goal is to understand what is driving this earlier onset,” she said. “If we can pin down the mechanistic drivers, we may then be able to develop therapeutics to either halt or delay the onset of disease in patients. These could not only have relevance to patients with these particular variants but could also help us understand the disease mechanism more broadly.” To help with this research Jessica has received a funding award from the Huntington Disease Society of America under the HD Human Biology project. “This has been wonderful because it’s enabled the funding for my research as well as my salary,” she said. As for working in a world-renowned HD research facility, Jessica said that one of the things she really enjoys is that she’s not alone in studying the disease. “In South Africa, within our division of human genetics, I was the only student studying Huntington disease,” she said. “I was quite siloed. But within the Hayden lab we now have our own genetics group. It’s wonderful to have more people to help with this research.” Outside the lab, Jessica and her husband enjoy getting out and learning about their new home. |
 Dr. Keegan Korthauer: The Korthauer Laboratory Cracking The Code Dr. Korthauer began her career with a general interest in biology, ecology, and medicine. It wasn’t until she had worked in an entomology lab as an undergrad that she found her interests lay a little outside the mainstream. “I loved the analysis, the science of teasing apart what answers the data are telling you,” she said. “But it seemed like everyone I was surrounded by was the opposite, they preferred every other part over the analyses, even long days of fieldwork and maintaining colonies of insects” she said. “That got me thinking, maybe I need to find out if there was a way to specialize in that part of the process. I had a great mentor at that time who introduced me to a whole field of science that I didn’t know existed, which is biostatistics and biometrics. I then realized that that could be my expertise.” Further refinement was to come. “Within biostatistics there is a huge diversity with respect to specializations,” Dr. Korthauer said. “While earning my masters, I interacted with faculty who were specializing in statistical methodology to analyze large datasets from genetic and genomic experiments. That’s what I decided to do and get my PhD. I knew that’s where I wanted to focus my doctorial research, specifically to analyze these large, cutting-edge datasets,” she said. In her work today, Dr. Korthauer specializes in creating statistical tools and software to analyze data coming from new laboratory techniques for sequencing genomes and epigenomes. “For every new technique, a tailored modeling approach like the ones we develop can help us get the most out of our data, and do so in a rigorous way.” To develop these approaches, she often uses existing publicly available data collected by other research groups or consortia. “It’s my belief that we’re not necessarily done with data just because it’s been published on,” she said. “We can use and reuse data in different ways, or combine them with different data sets to answer new questions that couldn’t be answered using them one at a time,” she said. Her team also works directly in collaboration with other researchers who are either generating a new type of data for which no tools exist, or asking questions that cannot be answered by off-the-shelf tools. “That sort of unchartered territory is where our group can use our expertise to make the most impact.” Current applications of her work include uncovering molecular signals in cancer. “We are investigating the analysis of cell free or circulating DNA primarily in the blood stream,” she said. Every human being will have some DNA circulating in their bloodstream as part of the normal process of aging. In cancer specifically, a small proportion of that circulating DNA comes from cells that are involved in the cancer process. “There’s an entire field of investigation looking into what we can learn about the disease process just from looking at an individual’s blood plasma and the free-floating DNA it contains,” she said. “While most of that DNA will originate from normal healthy cells some will originate from tumour. If an individual has cancer, the effect of the disease will not be limited to the tissue that has the cancer; maybe there’s an immune response, or other tissues becoming involved. Epigenetics, or modifications to the DNA other than the sequence itself, provides us with sensitive ways to detect those changes.” Epigenetics also plays an important role in regulating genes responsible for healthy development. With respect to the areas of child health, and development, Dr. Korthauer’s lab, in collaboration with the Kobor lab, is learning about the interplay between epigenetics, genetics, and environment by leveraging existing cohort studies of hundreds of Canadian and American children. “These studies track a whole host of measurements, including genetic and epigenetic markers, and environmental factors, from the birth of a child continuing through early childhood,” Dr. Korthauer said. “The specific question our group is asking is how do we untangle these millions of measurements per child to better understand what are the various factors that influence changes in the epigenetic signals of a child in early life.” In addition to heading her own lab, Dr. Korthauer is an assistant professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of British Columbia and an investigator at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute. She is also a faculty member in the Bioinformatics and Genome Science and Technology graduate programs at UBC. When asked how she came to have a lab at the CMMT, she responded that as she was already just down the hall at BCCHR, the CMMT seemed like a natural fit. “The interdisciplinary nature of my research, with innovation in quantitative methods and application to genomic science, is particularly well-suited for my arrangement with a home department in a traditional academic area like statistics and an affiliation at BC Children’s Hospital and CMMT,” she said. “It’s actually exactly what I was looking for.” When she’s not working, she enjoys chasing after her toddler, biking around the city, and distance running. |
 Oguz (Oz) Ozgoren: The Pouladi Laboratory Understanding the Role of Claudin-11 Oguz (Oz) Ozgoren is a PhD student in the Department of Medical Genetics at UBC and a researcher in Dr. Pouladi’s lab at the CMMT. A CIHR CGS-M awardee, he joined the Pouladi Lab in June of 2021 where he is investigating the role of claudin-11-related hypomyelination leukodystrophy. With a double major in biology and neuroscience from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, and experience with cell culture and mice, Oz was initially put in touch with Dr. Pouladi for his master’s degree. Claudin-11 is an oligodendrocyte encoding protein or gene that plays a critical role in myelination, auditory function and spermatogenesis. “In 2020, a set of patients was found globally, that carry a stop-loss mutation, and one of the individuals was here at BCCH,” Oz said. “This mutation means that instead of the stop-codon on the gene being introduced, a single point mutation is introduced that leads to the stop codon being absent, resulting in another 39 amino acids being transcribed. It’s an elongated protein that leads to abnormal myelination, and less myelination results in less white matter in the brain.” Patients with this mutation have developmental and motor milestone delays. “Children are usually able to sit without support around 7-9 months of age, however the patients with the stop-loss mutation achieve this much later, at 3.5-5 years of age,” Oz said. “When it comes to their ability to walk, these children still need assistance from another individual.” In a recently published paper Oz and his co-authors describe the implications of claudin-11 in health and disease in mouse models. While Oz says the characterization he did was quite basic, it is a necessary part of determining a larger understanding of the roles of claudin-11, which are not thoroughly understood. Additionally, it will prove vital in developing targeted therapeutic strategies. “It is essential to have a model organism that closely resembles humans, in order to gain a better understanding of the effects that the mutation has on patient populations,” Oz said. One of the things their research revealed is sterility in male mice with the stop-loss mutation. “This was not previously known as it is not a major phenotype compared with the neurological symptoms,” Oz said. “We don’t know whether the mice cannot produce sperm, or the issue is in the testes, or they just can’t mount females. So that work needs to be done. But we do have a well-rounded neurological paper that will soon be ready for peer review.” Having moved here from Toronto, Oz enjoys the camaraderie in the Pouladi Lab. “Because we’re such a small lab, we go skiing or on hikes together,” he said. “The lab is so well knit together that when we go out we make it a lab event. When we go to movies Dr. Pouladi will join us.” They’ve also done a potluck dinner and hope to do more lab dinner events. |
CMMT Valentine’s Day Get Together: February 14, 2024
| Publications Caron NS, Aly AE, Findlay-Black H, Martin DDO, Schmidt ME, Ko S, Anderson C, Harvey EM, Casal L, Anderson LM, Rahavi RSM, Reid G, Oda MN, Stanimirovic D, Abulrob A, McBride JL, Leavitt BR, Hayden MR. Systemic delivery of mutant huntingtin lowering antisense oligonucleotides to the brain using apolipoprotein A-I nanodisks for Huntington disease. Journal of Controlled Release. PMID: 38215984 Bartl S, Xie Y, Potluri N, Kesineni R, Hencak K, DalCengio L, Balash K, Oueslati A, Parth M, Salhat N, Siddu A, Smrzka O, Cicchetti F, Straffler G, Hayden MR, Southwell AL. Reducing central and peripheral huntingtin by immunotherapy delays disease progression in a mouse model of Huntington disease. Neurobiol Dis. PMID: 38092268 Reilmann R, Anderson KE, Feigin A, Tabrizi SJ, Leavitt BR, Stout JC, Piccini P, Schubert R, Loupe P, Wickenberg A, Borowsky B, Rynkowski G, Volkinshtein R, Li T, Savola J, Hayden MR, Forrest Gordon M. Legato-HD Study: A multicenter randomized double-blind phase 2 study assessing the efficacy and safety of laquinimod as a treatment for Huntington’s disease. Lancet Neurology. PMID: 38280392 Rikke Hahn Kofoed, Elizabeth M. Simpson, Kullervo Hynynen, Isabelle Aubert. Sonoselective delivery using ultrasound and microbubbles combined with intravenous rAAV9 CLDN5-GFP does not increase endothelial gene expresssion. Gene Therapy 2023-12. PMID: 36781945 Seyedeh Zeinab Mirjalili Mohanna, Andrea J. Korecki, Elizabeth M. Simpson. rAAV-PHP.B escapes the mouse eye and casues lethality whereas rAAV9 can transduce aniridic corneal limbal stem cells without lethality. Gene Therapy 2023-09. PMID: 37072572 Liu X, Fan X, Wang F, Chen M, Xu Q, Zhu H, Xu A, Pouladi MA*, Xu X*. CHCHD2 up-regulation in Huntington disease mediates a compensatory protective response against oxidative stress. Cell Death & Disease. 2024. 15(2):126. doi: 10.1038/s41419-024-06523-x. PMID: 38341417 (* co-corresponding) Gjervan SC, Ozgoren OK, Gow A, Stockler-Ipsiroglu S, Pouladi MA. Claudin-11 in health and disease: implications for myelin disorders, hearing and fertility. Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience. 2024. 17:1344090. doi:10.3389/fncel.2023.1344090. PMID: 38298375 Radulescu CI, Ferrari Bardile C, Garcia-Miralles M, Sidik H, Yusof NABM, Pouladi MA. Environmental deprivation effects on myelin ultrastructure in Huntington disease and wildtype mice. Molecular Neurobiology. 2023. doi:10.1007/s12035-023-03799-6. PMID: 38079108 Park DS, Kozaki T, Tiwari SK, Moreira M, Khalilnezhad A, Torta F, Olivié N, Thiam CH, Liani O, Silvin A, Phoo WW, Gao L, Triebl A, Gonçalves L, Kong WT, Zhang XM, Dunsmore G, Dutertre CA, Lee S, Ong JM, Balachander A, Khalilnezhad S, Lum J, Duan K, Lim ZM, Tan L, Low I, Utami KH, Yeo XY, Di Tommaso S, Dupuy J-W, Varga B, Karadottir RT, Madathummal MC, Bonne I, Malleret B, Yasin ZB, Da NW, Tan Y, Wong WJ, Zhang J, Chen J, Sobota RM, Howland SW, Ng LG, Saltel F, Castel D, Grill J, Chan JKY, Thion MS, Sangyong J, Wenk MR, Pouladi MA, Pasqualini C, Angeli V, Cexus ONF, Ginhoux F. iPSC-derived microglia export cholesterol to neuronal cells in human brain organoids and promote their maturation. Nature. 2023. doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06713-1. PMID: 37914940 Utami KH, Yusof NABM, Garcia-Miralles M, Skotte N, Nama S, Sampath P, Langley SR, Pouladi MA. Dysregulated COMT expression in fragile X syndrome. Neuromolecular Medicine. 2023. doi:10.1007/s12017-023-08754-1. PMID: 37684514 Rauluseviciute I†, Riudavets Puig R†, Blanc-Mathieu R+, Castro-Mondragon JA+, Ferenc K+, Kumar V+, Lemma RB+, Lucas J+, Chèneby J, Baranasic D, Khan A, FORNES O, Gundersen S, Johansen M, Hovig E, Lenhard B*, Sandelin A*, Wasserman WW*, Parcy F*, Mathelier A*, 2024. JASPAR 2024: 20th anniversary of the open-access database of transcription factor binding profiles. Nucleic Acids Research, 52, D174–D182. (†Co-first authors , +Co-second authors, *Co-corresponding authors) [NSERC and CIHR acknowledged]. PMID: 37962376 Schleussner N, Cauchy P, Franke V, Giefing M, FORNES O, Vankadari N, Assi SA, Costanza M, Weniger MA, Akalin A, Anagnostopoulos I, Bukur T, Casrotto MG, Damm F, Daumke O, Edginton-White B, Gebhardt JCM, Grau M, Grunwald S, Hansmann M-L, Hartmann S, Huber L, Kärgel E, Lusatis S, Noerenberg D, Obier N, Pannicke U, Fischer A, Reisser A, Rosenwald A, Schwarz K, Sundararaj S, Weilemann A, Winkler W, Xu W, Lenz G, Rajewsky K, Wasserman WW, Cockerill PN, Scheidereit C, Siebert R, Küppers R, Grosschedl R, Janz M, and Bonifer C, Mathas S, 2023. Transcriptional reprogramming by mutated IRF4 in lymphoma. Nature Communications, 14, 6947. [NSERC, CIHR BCCH Foundation/Research Institute acknowledged]. PMID: 37935654 FORNES O, AV-SHALOM TV, Korecki AJ, FARKAS RA, ARENILLAS DJ, MATHELIER A, Simpson EM, Wasserman WW, 2023. OnTarget: in silico design of MiniPromoters for targeted delivery of expression. Nucleic Acids Research, 51, W379-W386. (Co-first authors) [Genome Canada, CIHR, Weston Brain Institute and NSERC Acknowledged]. PMID: 37166953 NOVAKOVSKY G†, SARASWAT M†, FORNES O†, Mostafavi S, Wasserman WW, 2023. ExplaiNN: interpretable and transparent neural networks for genomics. Genome Biology, 24, 154. (†Co-first authors) [UBC IDF, CIHR, NSERC, BCCHF/BCCHRI, UBC Advanced Research Computing acknowledged). PMID: 37370113 Caffrey A., Lamers Y., Murphy M.M., Letourneau N., Irwin R.E., Pentieva K., Ward M., Tan A., Rojas-Gómez A., Santos-Calderón L.A., Canals-Sans J., Leung B.M.Y., Bell R., Giesbrecht G. F., Dewey D., Field C.J., Kobor M.S., Walsh C.P., and McNulty H. (2023). Epigenetic Effects of Folate and Related B Vitamins on Brain Health Throughout Life: Scientific Substantiation and Translation of the Evidence for Health Improvement Strategies. Nutr Bull. 48:267–277. Haghani A., Li C.Z., Robeck T.R., Zhang J., Lu A.T., Kobor M.S., Lin D.T.S., Ernst J., Seluanov A., Gorbunova W., Yang X.W., Raj K., and Horvath S. (2023). DNA Methylation Networks Underlying Mammalian Traits. Science. 381:eabq5693. Lu A.T., Fei Z., Haghani A., Robeck T.R., Zoller J.A., Li C.Z., Lowe R., Yan Q., Zhang J., Vu H., Kobor M.S., Lin D.T.S., Ernst J., Raj K., and Horvath S. (2023). Universal DNA Methylation Across Mammalian Tissues. Nat Aging. 3:1144–1166. Kolsun K.P., Lee S., MacIsaac J.L., Subbarao P., Moraes T.J., Mandhane P.J., Turvey S.E., Kobor M.S., Jones M.J., and Simons E. (2023). DNA Methylation is not Associated with Sensitization to or Dietary Introduction of Highly Allergenic Foods in a Subset of the CHILD Cohort at Age 1 Year. J Allergy Clin Immunol Glob. 2:100130. Aronoff J.E., McDade T.W., Adair L.S., Lee N.R., Carba D.B., MacIsaac J.L., Dever K., Atashzay P., Kobor M.S., and Kuzawa C.W. (2023). Socioeconomic Status is Negatively Associated with Immunosenescence but Positively Associated with Inflammation Among Middle-aged Women in Cebu, Philippines. Brain Behav Immun. 10.1016/j.bbi.2023.10.003. Online ahead of print. Rajasekar P., Hall R.J., Binaya K.C., Mahapatra P.S., Puppala S.P., Thakker D., MacIsaac J.L., Lin D., Kobor M., Bolton C.E., Sayers I., Hall I.P., and Clifford R.L. (2023). Nepalese Indoor Cookstove Smoke Extracts Alter Human Airway Epithelial Gene Expression, DNA Methylation and Hydroxymethylation. Environ Pollut. 337:122561. Burton M.A., Garratt E.S., Hewitt M.O., Sharkh H.Y., Antoun E., Westbury L.D., Dennison E.M., Harvey N.C., Cooper C., MacIsaac J.L., Kobor M.S., Patel H.P., Godfrey K.M., and Lillycrop K.A. (2023). DNA Methylation of Insulin Signaling Pathways is Associated with HOMA2-IR in Primary Myoblasts from Older Adults. Skelet Muscle. 13:17-31. Merrill S.M., Letourneau N., Giesbrecht G.F., Edwards K., MacIsaac J.L., Martin J.W., MacDonald A.M., Kinniburgh D.W., Kobor M.S., Dewey D., England-Mason E., and the APrON Team. (2024) Sex-Specific Associations between Prenatal Exposure to Di(2-ethylhexyl) Phthalate, Epigenetic Age Acceleration, and Susceptibility to Early Childhood Upper Respiratory Infections. Epigenomes. 8:3. Xu J, Sabatino B, Yan J, Ermakova G, Doering KRS, Taubert S. The unfolded protein response of the endoplasmic reticulum protects Caenorhabditis elegans against DNA damage caused by stalled replication forks. G3 (Bethesda). 2024 Jan 24:jkae017. doi: 10.1093/g3journal/jkae017. – Doering KRS, Ermakova G, Taubert S. Nuclear hormone receptor NHR-49 is an essential regulator of stress resilience and healthy aging in Caenorhabditis elegans. Front Physiol. 2023 Aug 14;14:1241591. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1241591 Wirth F, Heitz FD, Seeger C, Combaluzier I, Breu K, Denroche HC, Thevenet J, Osto M, Arosio P, Kerr-Conte J, Verchere CB, Pattou F, Lutz TA, Donath MY, Hock C, Nitsch RM, Grimm J. (2023) A human antibody against pathologic IAPP aggregates protects beta cells in type 2 diabetes models. Nat Commun. 2023 14(1):6294. PMID: 37813862 Fulcher JM, Swensen AC, Chen YC, Verchere CB, Petyuk VA, Qian WJ.(2023) Top-down proteomics of mouse islets with beta cell CPE deletion reveals molecular details in prohormone orocessing. Endocrinology 164(12):bqad160. PMID: 37967211 Spanier JA, Fung V, Wardell CM, Alkhatib MH, Chen Y, Swanson LA, Dwyer AJ, Weno ME, Silva N, Mitchell JS, Orban PC, Mojibian M, Verchere CB, Fife BT, Levings MK.(2023) Tregs with an MHC class II peptide-specific chimeric antigen receptor prevent autoimmune diabetes in mice. J Clin Invest 133(18):e168601. PMID: 37561596 Fuhri Snethlage CM, McDonald TJ, Oram RD, de Groen P, Rampanelli E, Schimmel AWM, Holleman F, Siegelaar S, Hoekstra J, Brouwer CB, Knop FK, Verchere CB, van Raalte DH, Roep BO, Nieuwdorp M, Hanssen NMJ. (2023) Residual β-cell function Is associated with longer time in range in Iidividuals with type 1 diabetes. Diabetes Care Aug 3:dc230776. PMID: 37535870 Chen YC, Taylor AJ, Fulcher JM, Swensen AC, Dai XQ, Komba M, Wrightson KLC, Fok K, Patterson AE, Klein Geltink RI, MacDonald PE, Qian WJ, Verchere CB. (2023). Deletion of carboxypeptidase E in β-cells disrupts proinsulin processing but does not lead to spontaneous development of diabetes in mice. Diabetes 72(9):1277-1288. PMID: 37364047 |
Events
2024 MEDG Academic Rounds: April 5, 2024 at 12-1pm
Dr. Michael Hayden – Killam Professor, Center for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, University of British Columbia will be presenting “Novel Approaches to Huntington Disease: Looking back, Looking forward”
Zoom link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/67690549115?pwd=THQ1NlZMTFAvSjlIOVlZZS9ydVZrZz09
Meeting ID: 676 9054 9115
Passcode: 071883
CMM Talks Seminar Series: April 5, 2004 at 3:0-4:30pm
Dr. Carol Huang – Assistant Professor, Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University will be presenting “Efficient mapping of genome-wide regulatory elements for biological insights”. Dr. Huang is also a Wasserman Lab alumni.
Room 3113 at our site.
Read more: https://as.nyu.edu/biology/directory.shao-shan-carol-huang.html
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Upcoming CMM Talks will take place on April 26 and May 24 in Room 3113
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| Save The Date The annual BC Children’s Hospital Foundation Race for the Kids will be on Sunday, June 9th. Join Team CMMT to help fundraise and participate in the fun run: https://fundraise.bcchf.ca/join/cmmt All members of the CMMT community including friends and family are welcome to participate. Support by donating or sharing the donations page: https://fundraise.bcchf.ca/fundraisers/cmmt |
| Special Announcements Dr. Michael Hayden has been awarded the degree of Doctor of Science in Medicine (DSc(Med))(honoris causa) by the University of Cape Town. Read more: https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2024-02-20-uct-to-confer-honorary-doctorates-on-six-remarkable-individuals |
Awards & Scholarships
Dr. Bruce Verchere
2023 Diabetes Canada Lifetime Achievement Award
https://twitter.com/DiabetesCanada/status/1716862360084754802
Dr. Yi-Chun Chen, Verchere Lab
CIHR/JDRF REDI (Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence) Fellowship
https://jdrf.ca/news/cihr-research-excellence-diversity-and-independence-redi-early-career-transition-awards-announced/
Dr. Mandy Meijer, Kobor Lab
Rubicon Research Grant / Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
Dr. Chris Kay, Hayden Lab
Huntington’s Disease Society of America / Berman/Topper Career
Development Fellowship & Huntington Society of Canada’s NAVIGATOR Research Grant
Dr. Jessica Levesley, Hayden Lab
Huntington’s Disease Society of America / HD Human Biology Project
Dr. Kelsie Doering, Taubert Lab
BCCHR Mentorship Award – trainee category
Dr. Lauar de Brito Monteiro, Verchere & Klein Geltink Labs
JDRF Postdoctoral fellowship
Lindsay Pallo, Verchere Lab
NanoMedicines Innovation Network (NMIN) Doctoral Graduate Awards
Rachel Spencer, Taubert Lab
NSERC CREATE CIRTN Scholarship
Chiaki Shuzenji, Taubert Lab
BCCHR Graduate Scholarship
| Fun Facts March is statistically the most unproductive month in the US due to NBA Basketball. The name “March” comes from the Roman god “Mars”. Did you know? Wilbur Wright and his brother Orville invented the airplane in April 1867 and called it a flying machine. The Empire State Building opened its doors on May 1, 1931 and at the time, held the record for being the tallest building in the world. |
Our next newsletter will be released June 2024.
Submit storyline suggestions to media@cmmt.ubc.caby May 15, 2024.
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