Seed & Sapling Grant Competition

The Breakthrough T1D CFK Centre of Excellence at UBC is proud to have hosted 3 Seed and Sapling Grant competitions. This program aims to attract innovative ideas and talented researchers to our succesfull Centre. This initiative allows investigators to explore pilot research projects that are relevant to the Centre’s overall goal of translating disease-modifying therapies or cell replacement therapies for type 1 diabetes (T1D) from discovery to the clinic e.g., moving foundational, cell-based discoveries, into pre-clinical models. You can find more information about the succesfull candidates below. More details about the next seed and sapling grant opportunity is to be determined.

2024 seed grant application awardees:

RREB1 and Ras signalling
in cytokine-induced beta cell death

Principal Applicant: Dr. Nicole Krentz, Pharmaceutical Sciences, UBC

Co-Applicant: Dr. Jim Johnson, Cellular and Physiological Sciences, Life Sciences Institute, UBC

Immune modulation by CD19 CAR T cells to prevent type 1 diabetes onset in Immune modulation by CD19 CAR T cells to prevent type 1 diabetes onset in pre-diabetic mice

Principal Applicant: Dr. Laura Evgin, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia/ Genome Sciences Department, BC Cancer Research

Co-Applicant: Dr. Megan Levings, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Surgery, University of British Columbia

Translating in vitro assays for single cell metabolism to islet biology in T1D

Co-Applicant: Dr. Lauar de Brito Monteiro (Postdoctoral Fellow), Department of Surgery, UBC

Principal Applicant: Dr. Ramon I. Klein Geltink, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UBC

2024 sapling grant application awardees:

Targeting Transcription Factor EB (TFEB) for improved SC-beta-cell function and survival

Primary Applicant: Dr. Dan Luciani is an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, UBC. The project will be run in collaboration with Drs. Francis Lynn and C. Bruce Verchere ,BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, UBC.

Functional profiling of stem cell
derived beta cell organoids

Primary Applicant. Dr. Hongshen Ma is an associate professor in the Department of Medical Engineering at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, UBC. The Project will be run in collaboration with co-applicant Dr. Francis Lynn,BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, UBC.

2023 seed grant application awardees:

Intestinal Metabolites Alter Susceptibility to Virus-Induced Type 1 Diabetes

Dr. Marc Horwitz | Professor
Department of Microbiology and Immunology | Life Sciences Institute | University of British Columbia

Dr. Lisa C. Osborne | Associate Professor | Department of Microbiology & Immunology | Life Sciences Institute | University of British Columbia

Development of a polymeric form of methotrexate to treat and prevent T1D

Dr. Jan Peter Dutz | Professor
Department of Dermatology and Skin Science | Faculty of Medicine
University of British Columbia

Dr. Urs Häfeli | Professor |
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia

2022 seed grant application awardees:

Harnessing the transcriptional control of protective β-cell degradation mechanisms in T1D: AAV Pilot

Dr. Dan Luciani is an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, UBC.

Simultaneous profiling of single cell insulin secretion and transcriptomics for stem cell derived β cells

Dr. Hongshen Ma is an associate professor in the Department of Medical Engineering at the Faculty of Applied Sciences, UBC.