For patients with end-stage disease, like cirrhosis, their only treatment option is life-saving organ transplantation. The wait for an organ can take many years over which the patient’s condition continues to deteriorate as there is no other treatment. However, maintaining physical activity and a good nutritional intake is necessary to remain on the wait and […]

Modern molecularly targeted therapies have shown promise in treating some blood cancers, but a cure remains elusive for most acute blood cancer patients. This is largely due to the survival of some blood cancer cells that possess unique properties and can cause treatment failure or relapse, highlighting the need for new therapies. In collaboration with […]

Contact lenses are one of the most successful biomedical devices on the market, with approximately 140 million wearers worldwide. Despite their success, these devices still struggle with discomfort, which ultimately leads people to stop using the product. One of the reasons is the buildup of tear film components on contact lenses while wearing them. The […]

Protein degradation induced by PROTACs (PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras) constitutes a novel modality of drug discovery, with advantages over the traditional approach. This approach is still at infancy and there is a lot to learn in this field. The trainees will work under academic supervisors at University of Toronto, who are experts in chemical tool development […]

In the current functional and structural neuroimaging project, we aim to identify functional and structural changes that correlate with disease presence and its severity (staging) and that can serve as a basis for future development of PD neuroimaging biomarkers. To achieve this objective we will use our expertise in functional neuroimaging of the cervical spinal […]

Early-years educational programing is linked with greater educational, career and life outcomes. The One Child at a Time One Family at a Time program seeks to assist families in overcoming barriers and giving all children equal access to early-years learning. The home visiting program connects children and their families with individualised support and guidance tailored […]

North America is experiencing an unprecedented opioid overdose epidemic driven by the proliferation of fentanyl and fentanyl-adulterated drugs. Based at the BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU) and in collaboration with the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), I will undertake an ethno-epidemiological study to evaluate the implementation, uptake, and effectiveness of a novel low-barrier […]

The field of nuclear medicine relies on positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanners to visualize molecular processes in normal and disease states in the living human. These imaging technologies have significant potential to enhance our ability to diagnose disease, develop appropriate disease-modifying treatments and for non-invasive monitoring of these […]

In rural regions of Canada, many patients live far from hospital emergency departments and specialty services. When urgent medical care is required due to a health crisis, access to pre-hospital care and the distance to an emergency department can have a major impact on morbidity and mortality. The primary objective of our study is to […]

Unprecedented advances have been made in the treatment of cancer through the use of antibody against immune checkpoints, priming immune system instead of targeting cancer, with approval of several antibodies for multiple cancer types. However, so far we are merely seeing the tip of the iceberg because responses to this form of therapy are not […]

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a debilitating disease that primarily affects young individuals. Disease Modifying Therapies (DMT) developed in the past two decades have greatly improved the quality of life for people living with MS. Assessment of brain lesions using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has been a standard method to evaluate the efficacy of DMT in […]

Currently there is a huge challenge in drug screens as the vast majority of the candidate drugs fail in clinical trials either due to no efficacy or drug toxicity. As an alternative to traditional animal models, zebrafish have recently emerged as a powerful vertebrate paradigm to study human disease and to use its developing embryos […]