We would like to congratulate  two of our BSc Pharmacology students who have just being awarded UBC’s Wesbrook Scholar Awards (2022-23).  “The Premier Undergraduate Scholarships and Wesbrook Scholars are UBC’s most prestigious designations given to senior students with outstanding academic performance, leadership, and involvement in student and community activities. Awards range from 20 Wesbrook Scholar designations each worth $1,000 to renewable scholarships worth $20,000 over two years.” 

In addition to being awarded the Wesbrook Scholarhip, Daniel Shirvani was also the recipient of the Carl Bradford Robertson Scholarship valued at $15,000 and

Katherine Feng was the recipient of the HSBC Emerging Leader Scholarships valued at $5,000.

Congratulations to Dr. Mark Ansermino and team on the successful renewal of their University of British Columbia Research Excellence Cluster – Action in Sepsis.  Initially funding in 2020/2021 as a new emerging cluster, this unit has now been renewed for an additional 2 year period as an Established Cluster.  Research Excellence Clusters are interdisciplinary networks of researchers addressing societal and cultural problems, and working together to solve challenges that transcend traditional boundaries associated with departments, institutions, and funding agencies

Action on Sepsis

Sepsis occurs when an infection results in vital organ damage, and can result in death or disability. Sepsis has huge clinical, social, economic, and political impacts. Thus reducing the impact of sepsis cannot be achieved without cross-cutting, interdisciplinary collaborations. Action on Sepsis fosters diverse and inclusive partnerships across biology, medicine, population and public health, and policy to effectively prevent, diagnose, and manage the deadly condition of sepsis. We aim to create innovative, targeted interventions that will minimize death and disability and improve outcomes for people with sepsis in BC and across the globe.

Cluster Lead: Mark Ansermino

https://sepsis.ubc.ca/

Congratulations to Dr. Gillian Goobie (Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Tillie-Louise Hackett’s laboratory) who was awarded a 1 year Canadian Lung Association Post-doctoral Fellowship to support her research project entitled “Air pollution as a modulator of molecular, structural and clinical outcomes in patients with fibrotic interstitial lung disease ”

A lay summary can be found – https://www.lung.ca/recently-funded-researchers

Congratulations to Dr. Matthew Wiens, Assistant Professor who was recently awarded a 5 year Canadian Institutes of Health Project Grant valued at $1,526.175 to support his research project entitled “Smart Discharges in children over 5:  Expanding a personalized public health approach to improving discharge care in resource limited settings”

A lay summary:

In resource-limited countries, children who suffer from severe infections remain vulnerable for several months after initial recovery and hospital discharge. During this vulnerable period there is a high risk of recurrent infections, re-admission, and death, and these children may not return to their pre-illness level of functioning and quality of life. Children over five years old may be even more vulnerable during this time compared to younger children. Simple strategies like follow-up visits and healthy practices at home can improve recovery and survival. However, comprehensive strategies that can identify the most vulnerable across all age groups are lacking. To date, our team has developed tools that allow healthcare workers to identify those most at risk of dying after discharge among children under 5 years. Our team has also co-developed, with the Uganda Ministry of Health, a discharge-care program. This ‘Smart Discharges’ program applies a risk-based approach, where the child at highest risk receives the most intense form of discharge and post-discharge care. This care primarily consists of education and follow-up with community health workers. This approach is ideally suited to poor countries where healthcare workers and money are limited. In Uganda, our approach has improved discharge and post-discharge care for children under 5 years. Here, we will begin the process of integrating older children into our care framework by developing the tools that can identify older children who are at the highest risk of dying after discharge. We will also seek to understand how severe illness impacts the quality of life of these school-aged children. Finally, by talking with affected families and health workers, we will learn from their stories and experiences about the challenges and barriers faced in caring for their children.