The beginning of May marks an exciting point in the lives of many fortunate students who have been provided a hands-on opportunity to spend 4 months in research labs and clinics in their fields of interest. Appreciating the importance of investing in the development of our future scientists, CBR Principal Investigators throughout UBC have created novel, interesting and achievable projects that stimulate, enthuse and challenge these high caliber undergraduate students. A myriad of studies are being tackled.

 Rolinda Carter is studying a previously unidentified cofactor for fibrinolysis that may impact on our understanding of hemostatic disorders and cardiovascular disease.

 Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is an enzyme that tumors use as an “immune escape” mechanism. Frank Frazier is performing studies to understand how it is activated in vivo, with the ultimate goal of designing effective inhibitors as anti-tumor therapy.

 The need for a validated serum marker for Alzheimer’s Disease is desperately needed and Ying Guo will assess the value of one such potential candidate.

 Using sophisticated proteomics approaches, Corinna Kuenzer will compile the first ever complete inventory of proteins in human erythrocytes that will facilitate our understanding of blood-related diseases.

 Kevin Lapeyre is evaluating the regulation of actin cytoskeleton in blood cells and plasma.

 Chung (Wilson) Lee is studying some of the molecular cues that control hematopoietic stem cell mobilization, important in our understanding of primary blood disorders and for the design of new stem cell transplant therapies.

 Blood mitochondrial DNA mutations in HIV infected children exposed to anti-retroviral therapy will be explored by Jayoung (Janet) Lee.

 Andy Won Jun Lee will participate in a critical review of VGH use of inferior vena caval filters to prevent pulmonary embolismat VGH, in the hopes of gaining insights to improve quality of care.

Katherine Lu is characterizing novel biochemical pathways that are shared by the complement and coagulation cascades in the hopes of identifying new therapeutic interventions for diseases associated with inflammation and thrombosis.

Hayoung Chelsea Nam is examining current venous thromboembolism prophylaxis physician practices for cancer patients with a view to improving outcomes.

Allison Nicholls is characterizing the formation of  inhibitors of cathepsin K, an important mediator of inflammation and bone degradation.

Justin Smrz is attempting to generate mouse xenograft models of the 5q- myelodysplastic syndrome, a bone marrow failure disorder that primarily affects aging individuals.  

Elizabeth Stone is helping to develop approaches to quantify microparticles in blood, plasma, red cell and platelet concentrates, procedures that may improve blood product storage.

Cally Tam is testing a novel phase portioning system based on polyglycerols and dextran for the efficient separation of antigen modified red blood cells, approaches that may overcome blood transfusion limitations.

Raising funds to increase the number and quality of education and training opportunities for undergraduate students is a key objective of the CBR.  To this end, we are highly appreciative of the support provided by our industrial partners, Bayer Canada, CSL-Behring, and Baxter Canada.  We hope to expand this program in the future, as there are many more excellent students and many more labs and clinics with supervisors who are willing and able.

We look forward to seeing the fruits of the efforts of these summer students when they and many others from the CBR present scientific posters at the Annual CBR Research Day in the Atrium of the Life Sciences Centre on the afternoon of Thursday, August 18, 2011, once again sponsored by Pfizer Canada. So, save the date!!