Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Awarded by the Government of Canada, Canada Research Chair positions are designed to reinforce academic research and training excellence with a view to improving depth of knowledge and quality of life, strengthening Canada’s international competitiveness and helping to train the next generation of highly skilled people.

“The UUֱ�� would like to congratulate all the faculty members who have been appointed Canada Research Chairs or had their positions renewed,” said Leah Cowen, UUֱ��’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “From reproductive mental health to the economics of infectious disease and theoretical particle physics, these researchers are advancing knowledge and innovation in important fields.”

The latest cycle of Canada Research Chair appointees from UUֱ�� includes six new and eight renewed positions:

New Canada Research Chairs

Crystal Clark at Women’s College Hospital and the department of psychiatry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Tier 2 in Reproductive Mental Health
Janine Farragher at the department of occupational science and occupational therapy in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Tier 2 in Life Participation and Kidney Disease
Eno Hysi at Unity Health and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Tier 2 in Quantitative Ultrasound and Photoacoustic Imaging
Karen Maxwell at the department of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Tier 1 in Bacteriophage Biology and Therapeutics
Beate Sander at University Health Network and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health – Tier 1 in Economics of Infectious Diseases
Karla Washington at the department of speech language pathology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Tier 2 in Monolingual and Multilingual Paediatric Speech-Language Pathology

Renewed Canada Research Chairs

David Curtin at the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Tier 2 in Theoretical Particle Physics
Philipp Maass at the Hospital for Sick Children and the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Tier 2 in Noncoding Disease Mechanisms
Julien Muffat at the Hospital for Sick Children and the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Tier 2 in Synthetic Neuroimmunology and Stem Cell Bioengineering
Meaghan O’Reilly at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of medical biophysics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Tier 2 in Biomedical Ultrasound
Hannes Rost at the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Tier 2 in Mass Spectometry-based Personalized Medicine
Sali Tagliamonte at the department of linguistics in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Tier 1 in Language Variation and Change
Ulrich Tepass at the department of cell and systems biology in the Faculty of Arts & Science – Tier 1 in Epithelial Polarity and Development
Rachel Tyndale at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the department of pharmacology in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Tier 1 in Pharmacogenomics

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Aaron Wheeler recognized with Chemical Institute of Canada’s Ricardo Aroca Award

rahul.kalvapalle — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 18:49:53 +0000

Aaron Wheeler recognized with Chemical Institute of Canada’s Ricardo Aroca Award

Research & Innovation

rahul.kalvapalle Mon, 02/05/2024 - 13:49

Faculty

St. George

Department of Chemistry

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Institute of Biomedical Engineering

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Professor Aaron Wheeler (photo courtesy of NSERC)

Aaron Wheeler, a professor in the department of chemistry in the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Institute of Biomedical Engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering, has received the Chemical Institute of Canada’s Ricardo Aroca Award.

The award is given to scientists in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of analytical chemistry while working in Canada. Wheeler, who is cross-appointed to the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, was honoured for his achievements in the field of microfluidics.

Wheeler’s lab has developed microfluidic tools to analyze the chemistry of complex biological samples. His research has an array of potential medical applications ranging from developing procedures to study the most dangerous cells among millions in large tumors to growing organ tissues on devices outside the body to test drugs.

“Virtually every living organism sheds cells,” said Wheeler. “A cancerous tumor, for example, sends innumerable cells out into its host’s body. Of those, most cells will not be metastatic, so identifying and studying the few that can survive the immune system and spread the cancer is vital for understanding how to prevent and treat this disease.”

Wheeler will deliver a keynote address when he accepts the award at the Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition (CSC) 2024 in Winnipeg in June.

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Kai Slaughter receives Dorrington Award

lanthierj — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 19:52:17 +0000

Kai Slaughter receives Dorrington Award

Academic Achievement

lanthierj Mon, 06/20/2022 - 15:52

Students

St. George

Jennifer Dorrington Award

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

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Kai Slaughter, a third-year PhD student in biomedical engineering, has received a Jennifer Dorrington Graduate Research Award for 2022.

Slaughter is developing novel approaches for the delivery of cancer drugs in high doses using nanoparticles. Unlike conventional methods, which rely on helper compounds that can be toxic to the patient, nanoparticles could be designed to carry large amounts of therapeutics and deliver them directly into cells.

He is supervised by the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research’s Molly Shoichet, a University Professor of chemical engineering and applied chemistry in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering who is world renowned for her bioengineering research.

Slaughter is engineering drug-rich formulations by exploiting the natural tendency of some chemotherapy drugs to form aggregates. This results in a nanoparticle composed almost entirely of the active drug, therefore reducing the need for helper compounds.

“This type of drug aggregation was actually discovered as a cause of false hits in drug screening assays, but we’re taking advantage of this phenomenon for more efficacious drug delivery,” said Slaughter, who previously won a Cecil Yip Doctoral Research Award.

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Matthew Osborne receives Dorrington Award

lanthierj — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 19:48:25 +0000

Matthew Osborne receives Dorrington Award

Academic Achievement

lanthierj Mon, 06/20/2022 - 15:48

Students

Jennifer Dorrington Award

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Institute for Biomedical Engineering

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Matthew Osborne, a fourth-year PhD student in the institute for Biomedical Engineering (BME), has been awarded a Jennifer Dorrington Graduate Research Award for 2022.

The award is an important recognition for Osborne, who noted that the past winners included alumni from his lab. He described them as “pretty incredible researchers.”

“I am thrilled to be in such company,” he said.

Osborne is working with BME Director Warren Chan, whose lab is located in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research where he is also a principal investigator. The Chan lab is world renowned for developing nanotechnology-based diagnostics method for rapid detection of pathogens.

Osborne, who has a background in mechanical engineering, was tasked with automating the lab’s diagnostic platform for the detection of Sars-CoV-2 into a portable device with a smartphone readout. The method is similar to PCR and therefore highly sensitive, but it also allows point-of care use similar to rapid tests. Osborne, who envisages its use one day in remote communities, is now keenly awaiting real-world data being collected from patient samples by his collaborators at Public Health Ontario.

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Charlie Boone elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

lanthierj — Fri, 13 May 2022 14:19:03 +0000

Charlie Boone elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Fri, 05/13/2022 - 10:19

Faculty

St. George

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

American Academy of Arts & Sciences

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(photo by Calvin Thomas)

UUֱ�� professor of molecular genetics and Donnelly Centre investigator Charles Boone has been elected an international member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences for his contributions to functional genomics.

Founded in 1780, the academy is among the oldest scholarly societies in North America and its members rank among the world’s most accomplished scientists, scholars and artists.

Boone pioneered the field of systematic genetics that has transformed our understanding of how cellular processes are coordinated. Together with University Professor Brenda Andrews, he led the effort to produce the first map of genetic interactions for any cell, which revealed how these interactions form a network to influence trait inheritance. The research has implications for predicting disease risk from an individual’s personal genome – one of the fundamental goals of precision medicine.

“I would like to offer my heartfelt congratulations to Professor Boone on this prestigious and highly deserved honour,” said Stephane Angers, director of Donnelly Centre and Charles H. Best Chair of Medical Research at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. “Professor Boone’s contributions to functional genomics are widely known in the scientific community and they have in no small part shaped the Donnelly Centre as a leading global hub for research in systems biology.”

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Keith Lawson wins Donnelly Thesis Prize

lanthierj — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 18:34:50 +0000

Keith Lawson wins Donnelly Thesis Prize

Academic Achievement

lanthierj Thu, 07/08/2021 - 14:34

Students

St. George

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

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Keith Lawson is the 2021 winner of an annual award recognizing the best doctoral thesis in the UUֱ��’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research.

Lawson completed his PhD in the lab of Jason Moffat, a professor of molecular genetics in the Donnelly Centre, where he investigated how cancer becomes resistant to treatment. The research was part of Lawson’s medical training in the surgeon scientist program at UUֱ��’s department of surgery and it was preceded by three years of residency in the clinic.

“I think it’s important for clinicians to stay engaged in discovery science,” says Lawson. “Having our perspective is important right from the discovery side of things and I think that helps us ask clinically meaningful questions.”

During his PhD, Lawson found a way to starve cancer cells of key nutrients in order to shrink tumours, publishing his findings in the journal Nature Metabolism. In another study, published in Nature, he discovered almost 200 genes which hold clues to making cancer immunotherapy available to more patients.

“Keith was an outstanding student with an incredible drive to use systematic genetics approaches for clinically relevant questions related to cancer,” says Moffat. “He was passionate about kidney cancer and made important discoveries related to lipid metabolism and cytotoxic T lymphocyte killing of cancer cells.”

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Charlie Boone named inaugural Banting & Best Distinguished Scholar

lanthierj — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 14:53:09 +0000

Charlie Boone named inaugural Banting & Best Distinguished Scholar

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Fri, 11/20/2020 - 09:53

Faculty

St. George

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

portrait

(photo by Calvin Thomas)

Professor Charlie Boone, interim director of the Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research, is the recipient of the first Banting & Best Distinguished Scholar award which recognizes top researchers at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine whose discoveries are changing lives.

The award was established to support outstanding researchers who have completed terms as Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, a prestigious appointment by the federal government reserved for scientists and scholars who are world-leading in their fields. It comes as the UUֱ�� celebrates the centenary of insulin discovery – a groundbreaking discovery that launched the Banting & Best Department of Medical Research, forerunner of the Donnelly Centre.

Boone was named Canada Research Chair in Proteomics, Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics in 2007 and held the appointment for the maximum two seven-year terms. Globally renowned for his research on genetic networks, he has made pioneering contributions to understanding the genotype to phenotype relationship, which seeks to explain how genes encode the traits of an organism. With his long-term collaborator Brenda Andrews, University Professor and inaugural director of the Donnelly Centre, Boone has established an automated high-throughput platform for measuring how genetic mutations and drug compounds affect cellular fitness. This research has opened the door to a new way of understanding how genes contribute to disease, with a potential for developing finely-tuned therapies.

2020 Yip Awards recognize early graduate research in biomedicine

lanthierj — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 20:35:20 +0000

2020 Yip Awards recognize early graduate research in biomedicine

Academic Achievement

lanthierj Fri, 11/13/2020 - 15:35

Students

St. George

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Women in STEM

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Ten graduate students have been awarded the Cecil Yip Graduate Research Award – for research projects that range from mapping the liver at the molecular level to improving cancer drug delivery using nanoparticles.

The award was established to honour the late UUֱ�� Professor Cecil Yip, former vice-dean of research at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and co-founder of the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research. Open to all first-year students doing research in the Donnelly Centre, the annual $3,000 prize recognizes cross-disciplinary research in biomedicine.

This year’s winners are:

Zoe Clarke (department of molecular genetics)
Delaram Pouyabahar (department of molecular genetics)
Kenny Rebelo (department of molecular genetics)
Ronald Xie (department of molecular genetics)
Erik Jacques (Institute of Biomedical Engineering)
Elana Sefton (Institute of Biomedical Engineering)
Zahra Sepahi (Institute of Biomedical Engineering)
Kai Slaughter (Institute of Biomedical Engineering)
Chang (Amber) Xue (Institute of Biomedical Engineering)
Daniela Isaacs-Bernal (department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry)

“On behalf of everyone at the award committee I would like to congratulate the recipients of the 2020 Yip Doctoral Research Award,” said Christopher Yip, dean of the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering and principal investigator in the Donnelly Centre where he also serves as chair of the award committee.

“The awarded projects are at the cutting edge of biomedicine and provide fantastic opportunities for our students to hone a diverse set of skills as we train them to become inventors of tomorrow.”

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Patricia Brubaker receives Diabetes Canada Lifetime Achievement Award

lanthierj — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 17:03:04 +0000

Patricia Brubaker receives Diabetes Canada Lifetime Achievement Award

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Fri, 11/06/2020 - 12:03

Faculty

St. George

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Department of Physiology

Women in STEM

landscape

(photo by Johnny Guatto)

Professor Patricia Brubaker of the UUֱ��’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine is the first woman to receive the Diabetes Canada Lifetime Achievement Award.

The award recognizes a Canadian medical doctor or scientist for their leadership in diabetes research and longstanding contributions to the diabetes community in Canada.

“When I think about lifetime achievement, I think about the joy of discovery,” Brubaker said. “That eureka moment keeps me going. I would say my most significant contributions have been my work on the implications of glucagon-like peptide 1 in diabetes, as well as the discovery and application of glucagon-like peptide 2 as a new treatment for short bowel syndrome.

“Aside from the discovery aspect, my lifetime achievement has been the joy of interacting with my amazing trainees who challenge me and keep me engaged. I have a wall of photographs in my office...I think I have one up of every person I’ve trained. Those relationships I have built over the years are a real source of pride.”

Brubaker was nominated for the award by renowned UUֱ�� endocrinologist Professor Daniel Drucker. He said Brubaker, a Canada Research Chair and fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is “one of the most honest and critical scientists I've been privileged to work with” as well as one of the most unselfish, volunteering her time to fill numerous leadership positions.

“As Professor Brubaker's work has shown us over the last several decades, she has become one of the international leaders in the biology of the glucagon-like peptides,” Drucker said in a congratulatory video. “This work has had tremendous translational impact and Pat has been at the forefront of this exciting wave of research.

“Although she is receiving the lifetime achievement award, she continues to carry out research at the highest level, even today.”

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Brenda Andrews elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences

lanthierj — Thu, 14 May 2020 19:08:36 +0000

Brenda Andrews elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Thu, 05/14/2020 - 15:08

Faculty

St. George

U.S. National Academy of Sciences

Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research

Women in STEM

landscape

(photo by Jovana Drinjakovic)

University Professor Brenda Andrews has been elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences – one of the highest honours awarded to a scientist worldwide.

Andrews is the Charles H. Best Chair of Medical Research in UUֱ��’s Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and a professor in the department of molecular genetics in the Faculty of Medicine. She was recognized for her “outstanding contributions to functional genomics,” a field that seeks to reveal how genes and other cellular components operate on a systems level.

With her long-term collaborator Charles Boone, also a professor of molecular genetics in the Donnelly Centre, Andrews pioneered automated large-scale genetic studies in yeast cells. This led to the first global view for any cell type of how its genes and their protein products cooperate to sustain cellular function.

Her lab was also among the first to develop AI-powered computer vision tools for the automated analysis of cell microscopy images, accelerating advances in the field of cell biology.

Under Andrews' leadership, the Donnelly Centre has become internationally recognized as a leading biomedical research hub. The former chair of UUֱ��’s Banting & Best Department of Medical Research and Department of Medical Genetics, she also served as the inaugural director of the genetic networks program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR). An international member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology, she is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Companion of the Order of Canada.

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