Past precision health catalyst grant funding projects
2022/2023 Round
Six proposals led by Early Career Researchers receive precision health catalyst grant funding
June 15, 2023
We are pleased to announce 6 proposals have been funded through the 2022/2023 UBC Faculty of Medicine Precision Health Catalyst Grant Round. The PH Catalyst Grant Review Committee consisting of 12 Faculty members from different departments and research institutes reviewed the 11 proposals against evaluation criteria and recommended 6 proposals to be funded at $50,000 each, 4 related to Cancer and 1 related to Healthy Aging, and 1 related to Heart & Lung, for a total funding allocation of $300,000. In this round, there was no project awarded in the field of Childhood Health and funding was not disbursed.
We congratulate the following successful applicants!
Precision Health Research Area
Cancer
Improving Breast Cancer Screening Efficiency with Administrative Health Data
Leads: Rachel Murphy, School of Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, BC Cancer Research Institute and Andrew Roth, Computer Science & Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Computer Science, BC Cancer Research Institute
Summary: This project aims to use administrative health data to a) develop individualized risk assessment models that improve the ability to estimate a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer, and b) tailor risk models to breast cancers: pre- vs post-menopausal, hormone receptor negative vs positive, triple negative and early vs advanced stage.
Next-generation anti-cancer antibody formats enabled through development of novel low immunogenic RNA delivery
Leads: Anna Blakney, School of Biomedical Engineering, Michael Smith Labs, Faculties of Applied Science, Science and Medicine and Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Chemistry, School of Biomedical Engineering, Centre for Blood Research, Faculties of Science, Applied Science and Medicine, Life Sciences Institute
Summary: This project will develop a low immunogenic novel delivery platform that enables the development and formulation of high-efficacy RNA-launched therapeutic anti-cancer antibodies with immense commercial potential. This platform will simultaneously circumvent existing bottlenecks in antibody development and manufacturing, whilst overcoming a key current limitation in the delivery of RNA therapeutics.
Innovative deep-learning based program for cervical cancer screening
Leads: Gang Wang, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, BC Cancer Research Institute, Xiaoxiao Li, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science, Diana Ionescu, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, BC Cancer Research Institute
Summary: Due to the overwhelming volume and shortage of pathologists, an AI-based cervical screening classifier is urgently needed. This project aims to establish a multidisciplinary digital pathology research team, develop an AI-based automatic diagnosis strategy, and eventually make our cervical cancer screening program more efficient.
Rapid targeted gene sequencing and high-resolution optical genome mapping to optimize selection of targeted therapies in acute myeloid leukemia
Leads: Eric McGinnis, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and Ryan Stubbins, Medicine, Division of Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Research Institute
Summary: This project aims to: 1) Evaluate the feasibility, in a clinical laboratory, of high resolution rapid genomic testing using nanopore LRS and OGM in AML and 2) Evaluate the increase in clinical yield of combined OGM and LRS relative to current standard-of-care methods for timely identification of therapeutically actionable or diagnostic entity-defining genetic abnormalities
Healthy Aging
Human SPI1 variants alter microglial immune memory to promote neuroinflammation
Leads: Annie Ciernia, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and Sheila Teves, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Life Sciences Institute
Summary: This project aims to identify how GWAS hits in non-coding regions confer disease risk or protection. We will specifically examine a novel human variant in a microglia-specific enhancer that increases risk of Alzheimer’s Disease. Findings will allow for precision medicine therapies to ameliorate disease risk and promote healthy aging.
Heart & Lung
Who will benefit from colchicine to reduce heart attacks? Characterizing the baseline inflammation status of patients with coronary atherosclerosis
Leads: Ying Wang, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Centre for Heart Lung Innovation, Providence Research and Joshua Dubland, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Summary: This project aims to provide molecular insights on the baseline inflammation present in the coronary lesions (local) and plasma (systemic) of patients with chronic and acute coronary syndrome. This project will fill knowledge gaps to enable personalizing the use of colchicine and all the future anti-inflammatory therapies.
Winter 2022 Round
Seven proposals receive precision health catalyst grant funding
May 5, 2022
We were very pleased to receive 30 proposals across various precision health research areas for the Winter 2022 Precision Health Catalyst Grant Competition call. A committee comprised of 15 faculty members across different departments, schools, and research centre institutes was assembled to adjudicate the applications and recommend to the Vice Dean, Research and Senior Director, Research allocation of the funding. Following detailed review, seven proposals were selected for funding based on the committee’s recommendations, for a total allocation of $345K.
We congratulate the following successful applicants!
Precision Health Research Area
Cancer
Risk evaluation and omics screening for targeting prevention in endometrial cancer
Leads: Aline Talhouk, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine; Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute; Women’s Health Research Institute, Anna Tinker; Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine; BC Cancer
Summary: Evaluate the utility of omics data obtained from minimally invasive self-testing tools, to predict Endometrial Cancer (EC) pathology and improve screening. This involves determining whether self-collected, at-home minimally invasive vaginal sampling of DNA and/or vaginal microbiome are able to predict malignant endometrial changes and stratify which patients should receive an endometrial biopsy.
Parent-of-Origin-Aware Hereditary Cancer Diagnostic and Cascade Genetic Testing
Leads: Kasmintan Schrader, Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, BC Cancer
Stephen Yip, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine; Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
Summary: Generate real-world sensitivity and specificity data for calculation of optimal sample sizes needed to validate Parent of Origin(P-O)-aware genetic testing in additional Hereditary Cancer (HC) and other actionable genes. This involves a characterization of P-O effects in SDHD and SDHAF2 PV carriers, a protocol to assign P-O to SDHD variants to support personalized management recommendations, and a method to assign P-O to alleles of common HC genes and other non-cancer related actionable findings to enable focused CGT strategies.
An AI model to predict future lung cancers risk with low-dose screening CT
Leads: Ren Yuan, Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine; BC Cancer
Calum MacAulay, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, BC Cancer
Summary: Use radiomic features and AI models to identify sub-visual changes of the “normal” lung before future cancer develops within a year and compare to those from the “normal” lung where a future benign nodule develops. This involves developing an AI tool that can predict the risk of future lung cancer from a “normal-looking” lung to human eyes on LDCT and validating it in further prospective studies. This pilot project will lay the groundwork to prospectively evaluate the utility of this AI algorithm using the BC Lung Screening Program that will launch across BC in April of 2022 and for national and international collaborative studies with other research groups.
Women’s Health
Precision Health Care to Improve the Quality of Life and Long-term Health of People Entering Premature Surgical Menopause
Leads: Gillian Hanley, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine; Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute; Women’s Health Research Institute
Janice Kwon, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, BC Cancer
Summary: Understand how precision medicine can be used to improve the quality of life and long-term health of patients entering premature surgical menopause and apply lessons learned to a wider population of patients who would not be eligible to be seen at the clinic. This involves generating data as a catalyst for a broader project to address quality of life and longer-term health outcomes in this larger and more diverse patient population entering premature surgical menopause.
Childhood Health
Metabolite Control of Microbiome-Microglia Communication in Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
Leads: Carolina Tropini, School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Medicine and Applied Science; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Science
Annie Ciernia, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine; The Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
Summary: Determine the impact of early life gut inflammation on social behavior and cognition and microbiota-brain communication by capturing the full spectrum of changes and identifying novel metabolites that are altered in pediatric IBD in both sexes. The pilot project predicts that metabolite changes signal to the brain microglia and promote inflammation, which will be examined in future studies.
Uncovering patient-specific genetic factors that can be used to optimize morphine-based pain relief while avoiding harm
Leads: Catrina Loucks, Department of Pediatrics and Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine; BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Colin Ross, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Summary: Catalyze the identification of clinically-relevant genetic factors that predict the safe and effective use of morphine in children through development of a C. elegans platform to validate the roles of novel genetic variants impacting morphine responses uncovered through a larger grant.
Autism
Use of Long Read Whole Genome Sequencing to Drive Community-Based Patient-Oriented Care for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Leads: Anamaria Richardson, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine; BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Suzanne Lewis, Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine; The Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health; BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
Summary: Use new methods of long read whole genome sequencing to ascertain culpable variants within individuals and families with ASD to provide earlier, targeted, and individualized treatment. This involves completing a workup of patient genome and key findings for correlation to variants identified and for translation to precision medicine practice. Patients and families will also receive genetic counseling related to the findings.