Media Release | Apr. 28, 2006
UBC Research Re-inforced with New Federal Support
Marine microorganisms and climate change, drug therapies for chronic disease, and statistical genetics are among the research topics that will be strengthened at the University of British Columbia with the addition of five new and five re-appointed Canada Research Chairs.
The UBC positions are among 109 federally funded research positions, representing a total investment of almost $86 million distributed to universities, research institutes and hospital across Canada today.
UBC has now appointed 129 of the 166positions allocated to the university since the program’s inception in 1997. The federally funded research program is designed to build Canada’s research capacity by attracting and retaining the world’s best researchers, and invests $300 million annually to appoint 2,000 investigators by 2008.
New Chairs include: (in alphabetical order)
Jiahua Chen, Canada Research Chair in Statistical Genetics, develops statistical methods to estimate subgroups within a mass of data with many variables. His work in developing new statistical theory as well as implementing software can be applied to many disciplines, including astronomy, engineering and genetics.
Steven Hallam, Canada Research Chair in Environmental Genomics, is from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is developing genomic libraries of marine microorganisms that that transform methane into carbon dioxide and hydrogen, a process that reduces the flow of methane gas from ocean to atmosphere. His work will help scientists understand the impact these microorganisms have on the global carbon cycle and climate change.
Carlo Marra is Canada Research Chair in Pharmaceutical Outcomes. He will link health information systems with data acquired at the pharmacy level to improve effectiveness and safety of commonly prescribed drugs and reduce the incidence of adverse side effects.
Dinesh Pai is Canada Research Chair in Sensorimotor Computation. He develops computational models to identify fundamental principles of movement and sensing, based on observations of biological systems. His work, useful in robotics and interactive virtual environments, will contribute to new treatments for neuromuscular conditions such as spinal cord injury and stroke.
Judy Wong, Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Genome Maintenance, studies telomeres, molecular structures found at each end of a chromosome that protect, maintain and limit cell growth. She investigates how telomeres can combat the unlimited cell growth seen in cancer, and how to use telomeres to grow replacement tissue or blood vessel cells.
Renewed Chairs include: (in alphabetical order)
Jinhua Chen, East Asian Buddhism; Thomas Oxland, Spinal Cord Biomechanics; Steve Rogak, Clean Energy Systems; Fabio Rossi, Regenerative Medicine; Andrew Sandford, Genetic Susceptibility to Inflammatory Airway Diseases.
Chair appointments provide support for either seven- or five-year terms. The seven-year terms can be renewed repeatedly; the five-year terms can be renewed only once.
A complete listing of Chairs may be found at www.chairs.gc.ca.
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