The second cohort of PRiME Fellows was announced today, with nine exceptional young scientists receiving funding to conduct impactful research at the University of Toronto.
Their projects focus on diagnostic or therapeutic solutions that will tackle a variety of diseases, ranging from fibrosis to COVID-19, using approaches in molecular biology, genomics, computational biology, and bioengineering. The winners were selected by the PRiME Fellowship Committee, and showcase some of the exciting and innovative research from PRiME investigators in the Faculties of Pharmacy, Arts & Science, Medicine, and Engineering. Cross-disciplinary collaborations are a key element of PRiME’s approach to advance next-generation research solutions in precision medicine.
Now in its second year, the PRiME Fellowship competition takes place each spring and provides funding to PhD students or postdoctoral fellows with bold ideas that enable high-risk, high-reward research. Fellows will be supported by PRiME in their scientific progress for one year and assisted in leveraging further funding for the next stage of research activity in the lab. Earlier this year, PRiME also launched an Industry-Partnered Fellowship Program which accepts applications throughout the year.
The 2020 awardees are listed below in alphabetical order:
Subha Dahal, PhD Candidate
Supervisors: Drs. Alan Cochrane (Medicine) and Rebecca Laposa (Medicine)
Project title: Development of small molecule modulators of RNA processing as broad spectrum antivirals
Eric Donders, PhD Candidate
Supervisors: Drs. Molly Shoichet (Engineering), Mark Lautens (Arts & Science)
Project title: Triggering Release from Colloidal Drug Aggregates
Brendan Innes, PhD Candidate
Supervisors: Drs. Gary Bader (Medicine) and Alison McGuigan (Engineering)
Project title: Mapping macrophage-fibroblast links in hypoxic environments, focus on fibrosis
Zhongle Liu, Postdoctoral Fellow
Supervisors: Drs. Leah Cowen (Medicine) and Robert Batey (Arts & Science)
Project title: Structure-enabled design and synthesis of fungal-selective mitochondrial inhibitors
Marios Mejdani, Postdoctoral Fellow
Supervisors: Drs. Radhakrishnan Mahadevan (Engineering) and James Rini (Medicine)
Project title: COVID-19 Diagnostic & Vaccine Development Platform
Jiaxi Peng, Postdoctoral Fellow
Supervisors: Drs. Aaron Wheeler (Arts & Science) and Hui Peng (Arts & Science) and Cindi Morshead (Medicine)
Project title: Analysis of Neural Stem Cell Aging by Single-Cell Proteomics
Michael Saikali, PhD Candidate
Supervisors: Drs. Carolyn Cummins (Pharmacy) and Henry Krause (Medicine)
Project title: Targeted Temporal Quantification of Nuclear Receptors Involved in the Gut-Brain Axis
Suryasree Subramania, Postdoctoral Fellow
Supervisors: Drs. Sachdev Sidhu (Medicine) and Stephane Angers (Pharmacy)
Project title: Innovative antibody engineering technologies for targeting therapeutically relevant Frizzled co-receptors
Warren van Loggerenberg, Postdoctoral Fellow
Supervisors: Drs. Frederick Roth (Medicine) and Axel Guenther (Engineering)
Project title: A comprehensive variant effect map for CPOX