Department of Molecular Genetics

Stephen Scherer receives Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 19:49:53 +0000

Stephen Scherer receives Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine

Research & Innovation

rahul.kalvapalle Wed, 12/04/2024 - 14:49

Faculty

St. George

Department of Molecular Genetics

Hospital for Sick Children

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

landscape

Stephen Scherer (supplied image)

Stephen Scherer, chief of research at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and professor in the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, has received the Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine.

Presented by the University of Debrecen in Hungary, the award recognizes scientists who have made significant advancements in the field of molecular medicine, and whose pioneering research has had a profound impact on modern patient care.

Scherer, the director of the Centre for Applied Genomics and senior scientist in the genetics and genome biology program at SickKids, was recognized for his contributions to the discovery of genome-wide copy number variation and its role in influencing genes implicated in numerous medical conditions, particularly autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

“I am deeply grateful to the University of Debrecen for this award and remain dedicated to deciphering the complexities of the human genome, both for the advancement of genomic research and for the ultimate goal of enhancing patient care,” says Scherer, who is also the director of the McLaughlin Centre at Temerty.

Ronald Cohn, president and CEO of SickKids and professor of molecular genetics at Temerty, said Scherer's work has had a "profound impact" on the scientific community and patients around the world. "His scientific leadership and commitment to translational research to support clinical diagnostics and therapeutic development has not only bolstered our institution’s global reputation in genomic science but also underpins our Precision Child Health movement," Cohn said.

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Nabeel Shah recognized with Donnelly Centre Research Thesis Prize

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 14:07:36 +0000

Nabeel Shah recognized with Donnelly Centre Research Thesis Prize

Research & Innovation

rahul.kalvapalle Wed, 10/02/2024 - 10:07

Alumni

St. George

Department of Molecular Genetics

Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

landscape

(supplied image)

Syed Nabeel Haider Shah, a PhD graduate of the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, has been recognized with the 2024 Donnelly Centre Research Thesis Prize.

The annual prize recognizes the quality, originality and significance of a PhD graduate’s work.

Shah’s research examined newly identified RNA binding proteins, two of which were found to have potential roles in cancer development and treatment. One of the proteins was found to be able to enhance the ability of cancer cells to develop into tumours, while the other was found to perform the reverse role by suppressing growth of tumour cells.

“Nabeel has had an extraordinary PhD career,” said his supervisor Jack Greenblatt, University Professor in the department of molecular genetics. “He published 25 peer-reviewed papers from research he conducted over the course of his studies, with lead authorship on 12 of them – and he continues to publish papers from his thesis work. Nabeel made the most of his PhD by contributing significantly and widely across biomedicine.”

Shah credits Greenblatt for being a supportive adviser who provided guidance while allowing him to work independently to develop research projects. “I believe if I was a PhD student in any other lab, it wouldn’t have been possible for me to accomplish as much as I did,” said Shah.

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Aled Edwards named a fellow of the U.K.’s Royal Society

rahul.kalvapalle — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 15:12:18 +0000

Aled Edwards named a fellow of the U.K.’s Royal Society

Community

rahul.kalvapalle Wed, 07/31/2024 - 11:12

Faculty

St. George

Department of Medical Biophysics

Department of Molecular Genetics

Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomedical Research

Royal Society U.K.

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

landscape

Aled Edwards (photo by Johnny Guatto)

Aled Edwards, a professor in the departments of medical biophysics and molecular genetics and the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, has been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the U.K.’s national academy of sciences.

The world’s oldest independent scientific academy in continuous existence, the Royal Society recognizes individuals who have significantly impacted science through its fellowship program. Fellows are elected based on their substantial contributions to fields including mathematics, engineering science and medical science.

Edwards, who holds a Temerty Nexus Chair of Health Innovation and Technology and is the founder and CEO of the Structural Genomics Consortium, was honoured for his contributions to accelerating drug discovery following an open science ethos.

As a fellow of the Royal Society, Edwards will continue to advocate for open science and collaborative research.

Read the Royal Society profile of Aled Edwards

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12 U of T researchers recognized with Connaught Innovation Awards

lanthierj — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 18:09:19 +0000

12 U of T researchers recognized with Connaught Innovation Awards

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Thu, 06/01/2023 - 14:09

Faculty

Mississauga

St. George

Connaught Innovation Award

Department of Chemical & Physical Sciences

Department of Chemistry

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Department of Materials Science & Engineering

Department of Molecular Genetics

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

IBME

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

University of Toronto Mississauga

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Twelve researchers at the University of Toronto are receiving Connaught Innovation Awards to help accelerate the development and commercialization of promising technologies with strong socio-economic potential that will have a positive impact on society.

“The University of Toronto congratulates this year’s recipients, whose work is addressing some of society’s most important challenges,” said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “From energy-saving windows to the use of plant hormones as appetite suppressants or the development of therapeutic targets that hold promise for a broad range of neurodegenerative diseases, these researchers’ inventions have the potential to make life-changing impacts here in Canada and around the world.”

This year's recipients are:

Julie Audet, Institute of Biomedical Engineering: A tool to optimize complex formulations based on evolutionary computation accelerated by artificial neural networks
Denise Belsham, department of physiology: The use of a plant hormone CX as an appetite suppressant
Alan Cochrane, department of molecular genetics: Development of broad-spectrum, host-directed antivirals
Kevin Golovin, department of mechanical and industrial engineering: Reducing microplastic fibre pollution using low friction polymer brush as textile coatings
Glenn Gulak, department of electrical and computer engineering: A hardware accelerator for fully homomorphic encryption-based machine learning applications
Patrick Gunning, department of chemical and physical sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga: Development of an artificial intelligence-driven platform to explore the undruggable genome
Benjamin Hatton, department of materials science and engineering: Smart building facades for scalable operational energy management
Ronald Kluger, department of chemistry: Production and evaluation of hemoglobin-bis-tetramers for oxygen transport to increase supply of lungs for transplant by enhancing ex vivo perfusion of donor lungs
Eugenia Kumacheva, department of chemistry: A platform for safety evaluation of chemical agents
Janice Robertson, department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology: Targeting TDP-43 aggregation as therapeutics for TDP-43 proteinopathies
Paul Yoo, Institute of Biomedical Engineering: Novel electrodes for non-invasive electrical nerve stimulation
Yu Zou, department of materials science and engineering: Autonomous additive manufacturing system

The Connaught Innovation Award, which provides one-time seed funding to support the development and commercialization of the researchers’ innovative technologies, is backed by the Connaught Fund – the largest internal university research funding program in Canada. Established 50 years ago through the sale of Connaught Medical Research Laboratories, which is known for the discovery and production of insulin, the fund supports U of T scholars through programs such as the Connaught New Researcher Award, the Connaught Community Partnership Research Program, the Connaught Major Research Challenge for Black Researchers, the McLean Award and international doctoral scholarships.

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Zoe Clarke receives Jennifer Dorrington Award

lanthierj — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 20:19:24 +0000

Zoe Clarke receives Jennifer Dorrington Award

Academic Achievement

lanthierj Mon, 06/20/2022 - 16:19

Students

St. George

Jennifer Dorrington Award

Department of Molecular Genetics

landscape

Zoe Clark

Zoe Clarke, a third-year graduate student in the computational biology program in the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, has received a Jennifer Dorrington Graduate Research Award for 2022.

"I am so grateful to the Dorrington family for their support of science, and specifically my project,” said Clarke, who previously won a Cecil Yip Doctoral Research Award. “Receiving this kind of support really inspires me to work to the best of my ability, and reminds me how much of an impact my research can have on the community.”

Clarke is working to identify cellular processes by which healthy liver cells become cancerous in a bid to shed light on how liver cancer develops from start to finish and to identify targets for future treatments. She is using single cell sequencing to analyze the molecular makeup of individual liver cells following infection with Hepatitis B virus, which causes inflammation of the liver that can develop into cancer.

Clarke is supervised by the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research’s Gary Bader, a professor of molecular genetics and computer science whose team helped produce the world’s first map of the human liver at the molecular level.

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Sagi Abelson, Kim Tsoi and Alanna Weisman win 2020 Banting Discovery Awards

lanthierj — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 20:05:45 +0000

Sagi Abelson, Kim Tsoi and Alanna Weisman win 2020 Banting Discovery Awards

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Fri, 07/09/2021 - 16:05

Faculty

St. George

Banting Research Foundation Discovery Awards

Department of Molecular Genetics

Insulin 100

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Women in STEM

landscape

Three University of Toronto professors are among the winners of the 96^th annual Banting Research Foundation Discovery Awards.

The prizes, announced by Mitacs and the Banting Research Foundation, support investigators at universities and research institutes in Canada with seed funding within the first three years of their first academic appointment.

The winners are:

Sagi Abelson, assistant professor of molecular genetics and principal investigator, computational biology, at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, for his project using large, publicly available single-cell datasets to build a comprehensive single-cell classifier, to detect cancer and measure changes associated with chemotherapy.
Kim Tsoi, assistant professor in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, orthopaedic surgeon in the Sinai Health System and research clinician-investigator at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, for her work developing a treatment for soft tissue sarcomas, a rare, aggressive type of cancer.
Alanna Weisman, assistant professor in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, clinical scientist in the Sinai Health System and University Health Network and scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute and ICES, for her study using anonymized provincial health-care data to determine whether factors such as sex, income, and socioeconomic factors are barriers to insulin pump use for people with type 1 diabetes and the impact that has on people living with the disease.

“The University of Toronto congratulates Alanna Weisman, Kim Tsoi and Sagi Abelson on this important recognition from Mitacs and the Banting Research Foundation,” said Professor Leah Cowen, associate vice-president, research.

“They are building on the legacy of discovery, innovation and collaboration at U of T sparked a century ago with the discovery of insulin – and their bold ideas will make a real difference in the health of Canadians and people around the world.”

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Donnelly Centre graduate students recognized with Jennifer Dorrington Award

lanthierj — Thu, 08 Apr 2021 13:31:15 +0000

Donnelly Centre graduate students recognized with Jennifer Dorrington Award

Research & Innovation

Academic Achievement

lanthierj Thu, 04/08/2021 - 09:31

Faculty

St. George

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Department of Molecular Genetics

Institute for Biomedical Engineering

Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomedical Research

Jennifer Dorrington Award

landscape

(L-R) Shubham Gupta, Jamie Wu, Jessica Knox

Three students working on doctoral research in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research have received Jennifer Dorrington Graduate Research Awards for 2021.

The annual award recognizes students enrolled in graduate programs at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine who are doing research in a Donnelly Centre lab. Established by the Dorrington family in 2006, the award celebrates late U of T Professor Jennifer Dorrington who did pioneering research on ovarian cancer at the iconic Banting and Best Department for Medical Research which was succeeded by the Donnelly Centre.

The students, whose research holds potential for global food security, early disease detection and better cancer treatments, are:

Jessica Knox, department of molecular genetics, supervised by Professor Peter Roy
Shubham Gupta, department of molecular genetics, supervised by Assistant Professor Hannes Röst
Jamie Wu, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, supervised by Professor Warren Chan

“On behalf of everyone on the Dorrington award committee, I would like to offer warmest congratulations to the winners. We were really impressed by the exceptionally strong pool of candidates this year,” says Gary Bader, professor of computational biology and molecular genetics in the Donnelly Centre and chair of the award committee whose members are Donnelly Centre investigators Liliana Attisano, Henry Krause and Fritz Roth.

“Jessica, Shubham and Jamie have made amazing progress, especially during this challenging year, and their research will have an important impact on peoples’ lives,” said Bader.

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Leah Cowen elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

lanthierj — Tue, 24 Nov 2020 19:23:52 +0000

Leah Cowen elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Tue, 11/24/2020 - 14:23

Faculty

St. George

AAAS Fellows

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Department of Molecular Genetics

Women in STEM

landscape

(Photo courtesy of NSERC)

Leah Cowen, a professor in the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

In a statement, the AAAS praised Cowen’s “distinguished contributions in the field of microbial genomics, particularly for using functional and chemical genomic analyses to identify vulnerabilities in fungal pathogens.”

Cowen, who was recently named the University of Toronto's first associate vice-president, research, is also a Canada Research Chair in Microbial Genomics and Infectious Disease. She has developed an innovative research program that uses genome-scale analyses to identify and explore the genes responsible for fungal infections and drug resistance by defining its underlying functional relationships. By mapping out a genetic network, this information holds the potential to discover and design new medicines for infectious diseases.

“The University of Toronto is proud of Leah Cowen and her exceptional leadership in the biomedical field,” said University Professor Ted Sargent, vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “Her work on the biology of fungal pathogens, the mechanisms through which microbes cause disease and ways to counter microbes’ drug resistance, will lead to the development of safe and effective treatments for infectious diseases.”

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John Dick elected to National Academy of Medicine

lanthierj — Mon, 19 Oct 2020 15:30:50 +0000

John Dick elected to National Academy of Medicine

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Mon, 10/19/2020 - 11:30

Faculty

St. George

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Princess Margaret Cancer Centre

Department of Molecular Genetics

landscape

(photo by imagesbydelmar)

Dr. John Dick, a professor in the department of molecular genetics in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and senior scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine (NAM).

The NAM is one of three academies that comprise the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in the United States. Each year, the NAM elects up to 100 members, including 10 international members, recognized for their achievements in health and medicine.

A Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Biology, Dick is globally recognized for his discovery of leukemia stem cells, made possible by an assay he developed. The assay involves transplanting cells from human adult bone marrow, normal or cancerous, into an experimental model to gauge cancer initiation. Using this approach, he revealed that only a small subset of these cells was capable of initiating leukemia and was the main cause of disease relapse. These contributions have helped shape the understanding of cancer and reveal new strategies for curing the disease.

“The University of Toronto congratulates Professor John Dick on this richly deserved recognition,” said University Professor Ted Sargent, vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives. “He has revolutionized our understanding of leukemia.”

Scott Gray-Owen receives Minister of College and Universities Award of Excellence

lanthierj — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 21:18:37 +0000

Scott Gray-Owen receives Minister of College and Universities Award of Excellence

Community

lanthierj Fri, 10/09/2020 - 17:18

Faculty

St. George

Department of Molecular Genetics

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

landscape

(photo by Nick Iwanyshyn)

Professor Scott Gray-Owen of the Temerty Faculty of Medicine has received a Minister of College and Universities' Award of Excellence for his extraordinary contributions to the COVID-19 response in Ontario.

“I’m privileged to have had the opportunity to support U of T’s world-renowned faculty and their teams, each with their own expertise and ideas, as they’ve come together to develop ingenious approaches to understand and intervene against this devastating pandemic,” Gray-Owen said. “The natural synergies that arise from U of T’s culture of innovation and collaboration have always driven impactful breakthroughs, but the speed and scale with which our entire community pivoted towards this great challenge has honestly been inspiring to behold, and gives me the confidence that science will once again save us.”

A professor in the department of molecular genetics, Gray-Owen used the faculty's CL3 high-tech containment lab to test the efficacy of an antimicrobial coating for face masks developed by Quebec company I3 BioMedical Inc. He found the coating deactivated more than 99 per cent of the virus that causes COVID-19 within minutes, greatly reducing the risk that health-care workers could be exposed to the virus by touching and adjusting their masks.

“The University of Toronto congratulates Professor Gray-Owen on this important recognition,” said Professor Christine Allen, U of T’s associate vice-president and vice-provost, strategic initiatives. “His efforts helped a Canadian company bring its essential health innovation to market, supporting a made-in-Canada solution to the pressing need for personal protective equipment for frontline health-care workers.”

Department of Molecular Genetics

Stephen Scherer receives Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine

Read the SickKids story

Nabeel Shah recognized with Donnelly Centre Research Thesis Prize

Read the Donnelly Centre story

Aled Edwards named a fellow of the U.K.’s Royal Society

Read the Royal Society profile of Aled Edwards

12 U of T researchers recognized with Connaught Innovation Awards

Zoe Clarke receives Jennifer Dorrington Award

Read the Donnelly Centre story

Sagi Abelson, Kim Tsoi and Alanna Weisman win 2020 Banting Discovery Awards

Donnelly Centre graduate students recognized with Jennifer Dorrington Award

Read the Donnelly Centre story

Leah Cowen elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

John Dick elected to National Academy of Medicine

Read more about Professor Dick

Scott Gray-Owen receives Minister of College and Universities Award of Excellence

Read more about Gray-Owen