Congratulations Dr. Natalie Strynadka! Dr. Strynadka is one of 47 Fellows elected to The Royal Society. “The Royal Society is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, engineering, and medicine.”
Dr. Natalie Strynadka a Fellow to The Royal Society
Natalie Strynadka Awarded 2 New CIHR Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance
New funding for major program to tackle microbial drug resistance
Natalie Strynadka has joined with colleagues at UBC, at other Canadian Universities and several centres in Europe to attract major new funding for a Joint Initiative of the Canadian Government (through CIHR) and the European Union. Natalie has won two grants that are valued at over $1 Million over three-year term of the award. One of these grants is to develop new approaches to inhibit peptidoglycan cross-linking as a target for antibacterial drug development, and the other to find ways of protecting the effectiveness of beta-lactam antibiotics (a class of antibiotics that includes penicillin) by finding and developing molecules to prevent their inactivation.
Natalie’s two awards are among six grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research that are aimed at developing new approaches to antimicrobial resistance. Her work will focus on producing high resolution structures of key proteins and protein complexes to determine the critical molecular mechanisms by which pathogenic bacteria function, infect their hosts, and resist current antibiotics. It is hoped that this work will enable the design of new drugs to overcome drug resistance.
Charles Thompson, a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, will receive a $600,000 grant to develop a new strategy for treating drug-resistant tuberculosis using a multiple target approach. Julian Davies, Professor Emeritus in Microbiology and Immunology, and Raymond Andersen, a Professor in the Department of Chemistry, will be collaborating on a project led by McMaster University that received $1.5 million. Horacio Bach, an Adjunct Professor in the Division of Infectious Disease (Department of Medicine), is co-recipient of a $298,000 grant with Urs Hafeli, an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. They will investigate the mechanism of eradicating multi-drug resistant bacteria using organic and inorganic compounds and protein nanoparticles.
The grants were announced on April 13 at UBC by Cathy McLeod, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health, who explained that the funds are part of Canada’s contribution to a 19-country consortium on antimicrobial resistance. “Innovation is one of the key components of the Government of Canada’s framework for addressing the global health issue of antimicrobial resistance,” McLeod said. “Today’s announcement shows how Canadian researchers are contributing at the international level. Their work will benefit Canadians and people around the world.” “Canadian researchers are at the leading edge of the science of antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic drug development,” said Marc Ouellette, Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Infection and Immunity. “CIHR is proud to support their work and their participation in international collaborations focused on producing innovative solutions to this global challenge.”
From left to right: Dr. John Hepburn, Dr. Charles Thompson, Dr. Marc Ouellette, Dr. Horatio Bach, PS McLeod, Dr. Raymond Andersen,
Dr. Natalie Strynadka, Dr. Julian Davies.
Photo credit Martin Dee/UBC
Pieter Cullis Awarded Milton Wong Award for Leadership
Dr. Pieter Cullis was awarded Milton Wong Award for Leadership by LifeSciences BC.
“This award is designed to recognize an individual outside the direct life sciences and biotechnology industry in British Columbia who has demonstrated a significant contribution to the development of the sector. The award highlights the accomplishments of a person who has impacted and strengthened relationships with external supporters favouring the sector.”
Patrizio Panelli – Defended MSc Thesis
Congratulations Patrizio! On April 1, 2015, Patrizio Panelli successfully defended his thesis, “Characterization of the Potential Role of Myosin IIa in Parkin Translocation during Mitophagy.” He has been studying in Dr. Thibault Mayor’s lab.
BMBDG Seminar – PhD Exit Seminar – Marylou Vallejo Espi
Thesis title: “Hypoxia-induced Carbonic Anhydrase IX regulates invasion and metastasis by interacting with and activating MMP-14 within invadopodia,” by Marylou Vallejo Espi
Monday, April 27, 2015 at 3:00 pm LSC #3, 2350 Health Sciences Mall
Vancouver Summer Program (VSP) for International Students
Vancouver Summer Program – New Courses offered in Summer 2015 by the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The Vancouver Summer Program (VSP) gives international students the opportunity to partake in courses while learning about Canadians practices and culture. The academic program runs for 4 weeks from mid July to mid August.
Students enrolled in the VSP take 2 courses, each course consisting of ~39 hours of class time. Classes are meant to be interactive and as such consist of a mixture of lecture as well as group work and in-class discussion. Although the 2 courses are equivalent to six credits based on duration, they are not UBC accredited courses, although the home institutions have the ability to assign their own credits and the performance of students is formally assessed.
The intense summer program began as a pilot in 2012 and expanded successfully in 2013 and again in 2014. This coming summer (2015) the program has expanded again and will feature 34 different 2-course packages offered by different departments and faculties. The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology has joined the VSP in 2015 with a 2-course package. The two courses will be entitled: “Environmental Biochemistry” and “Molecular Mechanisms of Disease”. The concepts and these specific courses have been spear-headed by two of our instructors, Scott Covey and Mike Krisinger. The Vancouver Summer Program has also come at a time when our postdoctoral research fellows have expressed a growing interest in gaining teaching experience. We are therefore very pleased that two postdoctoral fellows and one “soon-to-be-fellow” have joined the team that will be preparing and presenting these two new courses. It is most encouraging that this two-course package has attracted very solid enrollment in this first year.
Further details can be found at the specific VSP website: http://vancouversummerprogram.ubc.ca/.
BMBDG Seminar – Rohit Pappu
“Form and function of intrinsically disordered proteins”, by Rohit Pappu, Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Director, Center for Biological Systems Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis. Monday, April 13, 2015 @ 3:00 pm, LSC #3, 2350 Health Sciences Mall.
BMBDG Seminar – Harry Brumer
“Sweet and savory: Understanding biological systems through structure-activity relationships between carbohydrates and enzymes”, by Harry Brumer, Professor, Michael Smith Lab, UBC. Monday, March 30, 2015 @ 3:00 pm, LSC #3, 2350 Health Sciences.
BMBDG Seminar – Andres Aguilera
“Connecting R-Loop- and Transcription-Medicated Genome Instability with Chromatin Reorganization and Replication Stress,” by Andrés Aguilera, Professor of Genetics, Head of the Molecular Biology Department, University of Seville, Spain. Monday, March 9, 2015 @ 3:00 pm, LSC #3, 2350 Health Sciences Mall.
BMBDG Seminar – Paul Kaufman
“Two unrelated topics: Organizing Human Chromosomes; Disorganizing Fungal Pathogens,” by Paul Kaufman, Professor, Department of Molecular, Cell and Cancer Biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School. Thursday, March 12, 2015 @ 3:00 pm, LSC #3, 2350 Health Sciences Mall.