Funded Projects

June 16, 2023: Announcing the 2022/2023 Precision Health Catalyst Grant award recipients. 


Background

The Precision Health Catalyst Grant competition aims to enable collaborative and innovative early-stage precision health research projects (foundational or clinical research) created with the intent to fuel a proposal for a larger-scale, longer-term project.   

Proposals for projects can address various PH research areas, where at least one grant is awarded to each of the following PH research areas to align with our Research Institute partners who have contributed funding to the catalyst grants: 

  • Childhood Health 
  • Cancer 
  • HIV/AIDS & Related Diseases, Heart & Lung, Kidney, Mental Health, or Healthy Aging 

Up to a maximum of $50,000 may be requested per catalyst grant proposal.   

Learn more about the PH Catalyst Grants here


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. 


Past Rounds

Winter 2022 Round