Faculty of medicine researchers were awarded more than $3.9 million in funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) as part of the 2022 Discovery research programs. UBC-led research garnered more than $32 million in total. The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, and the Honourable Mona Fortier, President of the Treasury Board, announced the investment to increase the impact of science, technology and innovation in Canada.
The Discovery Grants program supports ongoing programs of research with long-term goals rather than a single short-term project or collection of projects. These grants recognize the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all research advances. Discovery Grants are considered “grants in aid” of research, as they provide long-term operating funds and can facilitate access to funding from other programs but are not meant to support the full costs of a research program.
Discovery Launch Supplements provide timely resources to support early career researchers (ECRs) as they establish a Discovery Grant-funded research program.
The Northern Research Supplements (NRS) program has been established to augment and promote Canadian university-based northern research and training. The main purpose of the Northern Research Supplements program is to recognize the added costs unique to conducting research in the Canadian North.
The NSERC Research Tools and Instruments grants foster and enhance the discovery, innovation and training capability of university researchers in the natural sciences and engineering by supporting the purchase of research equipment.
Faculty of medicine recipients and their projects:
Discovery Grants
Alasdair Barr, Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Understanding the role of dopamine antagonists on peripheral glucose regulation
Pascal Bernatchez, Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Natural and accelerated aging of the eNOS-caveolin-1 system
Elizabeth Conibear, Department of Medical Genetics
The Role and Regulation of Endosomal GTP Exchange Factors
David Fedida, Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Structures of ion channel complexes
Leonard Foster, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Measuring and understanding health stressors in honey bees
Kevan Jacobson, Department of Pediatrics
Identifying novel mechanisms by which fermentable fibers modulate intestinal structure and function
Calvin Kuo, School of Biomedical Engineering
Developing a multisensory network of wearable skin-mounted inertial measurement units to measure impulsive loads to the head
Cornelia Laule, Department of Radiology
Multi-nuclear magnetic resonance for characterizing human central nervous system tissue
Honglin Luo, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Autophagy mechanism of coronaviral infection: Lessons from enteroviruses
Thibault Mayor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Investigation of Pathways that Regulate the Expression of Recombinant Proteins in Yeast
Gregg Morin, Department of Medical Genetics
Functions of CDK12 and CDK13 in pre-mRNA Processing
Timothy Murphy, Department of Psychiatry
Tools for assessing shared sensory experience in interacting mice
Paul Pavlidis, Department of Psychiatry
Neuroinformatics for genomics and anatomy
James Piret, School of Biomedical Engineering
Bioprocess Engineering of Cells for Therapy
Lynn Raymond, Department of Psychiatry
Investigating corticostriatal synaptic plasticity in motor learning
Dena Shahriari, Department of Orthopaedics
Technological advances for the neuromodulation of the spinal cord
Naznin Virji-Babul, Department of Physical Therapy
Brain dynamics under resting state and naturalistic conditions from childhood to adolescence
Research Tools and Instruments Grants
Purang Abolmaesumi, School of Biomedical Engineering
Ultrasound Imaging for Next Generation Non-destructive Inspection of Advanced Materials
Ivan Nabi, Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences
tauSTED: Fluorescent Lifetime Upgrade for Stimulated Emission Depletion Super-Resolution Microscope