2022
Celebrating excellence in diabetes research in British Columbia, this provincial meeting highlights academic diabetes research from across B.C.
Topics include translational research, islet biology, cell therapy, complications of diabetes, prevention of diabetes and patient-oriented research.
The special event includes an invited keynote speaker and trainee presentations and scientific poster session.
For more information, visit the Vancouver Diabetes Research Day 2022 event page.
2021
Leadership Update: October 2021
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Francis Lynn as the new Head of the Childhood Diabetes Research Laboratories at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR) beginning October 1, 2021.
Dr. Lynn is an investigator with the Childhood Diseases Research Theme at BC Children's Hospital, and an Associate Professor in the University of British Columbia’s Department of Surgery and School of Biomedical Engineering. Dr. Lynn’s research focuses on the mechanisms that regulate the formation of islet beta-cells from pancreatic stem or progenitor cells. This work could lead to new and refined cell-based approaches for preventing and reversing the beta-cell deterioration and loss that occur with diabetes.
In his new role, Dr. Lynn will provide oversight, leadership and strategic guidance for diabetes research at BCCHR and will play an integral role in the success of research in this field within BC Children’s Hospital. He will work with clinicians, scientists and members of the community to build diabetes research capacity at BCCHR; promote collaborative interactions; foster the training and development of current and future diabetes researchers; further relationships with partners (such as BC Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Canucks for Kids Fund); and nurture strategic relationships with provincial, national and international organizations.
With this new appointment, Dr. Bruce Verchere will also be stepping down as head of the Canucks for Kids Fund (CFKF) Diabetes Research Laboratories, effective October 31, 2021. Dr. Verchere has led the diabetes program since its creation in 2002 and helped established BC Children’s as a national leader in the field of pediatric diabetes research. During his time as head of the Canucks for Kids Fund (CFKF) Diabetes Research Laboratories, he has built a multi-disciplinary team of over 100 world-class researchers; trainees and staff; secured several major infrastructure grants; and developed an engaged provincial network to further research into understanding the causes of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and improving treatments. We thank Dr. Verchere for his leadership, mentorship and many contributions to diabetes research, and wish him well as he continues his role as investigator at BC Children’s Hospital and Director for the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics.
Please join us in welcoming Dr. Lynn to his new role as Head of the Childhood Diabetes Research Laboratories. We wish both Dr. Lynn and Dr. Verchere the best in their future endeavours.
2019
2nd Annual UBC Okanagan Diabetes Research Day
2nd Annual UBC Okanagan Diabetes Research Day
Kelowna, BC
Wednesday, June 19, 1 pm – 8 pm
Thursday, June 20, 8 am – 1 pm
For more information visit www.diabetesBC.ca.
UBC Okanagan Diabetes Research Day will be held over two days, June 19 - 20, at the Hotel Eldorado in Kelowna BC. This exciting 2nd annual scientific day enables diabetes research trainees from across British Columbia to network, collaborate, and most importantly, present their work.
All trainees are encouraged to submit an abstract for a poster presentation or deliver a short talk. Vancouver-based trainees who register can sign up for group transportation & accommodations. Please sign up today so we know who requires travel.
View the UBCO Diabetes Research Day flyer.
2018
2018 Vancouver Diabetes Research Day
Researchers from across the province of BC gathered in November for the fifth annual Vancouver Diabetes Research Day 2018. This event is an annual opportunity to connect, share, collaborate and celebrate the incredible diabetes research taking place in BC.
This event was held on November 16, 2018 at UBC Point Grey campus. The annual research day event showcases the depth of diabetes research across British Columbia. Research presented this year spanned translational research from beta cell to bedside. Two themes emerged: Genetics, Prevention, Patients and Complications of Diabetes and Islet Biology and Cell Therapy.
This trainee organized event brought together over 150 members from across British Columbia. The diabetes research community from across BC have had numerous opportunities to gather this past year thanks in large part to a UBC Grant for Catalyzing Research Clusters awarded in 2018 to support knowledge exchange activities.
We are grateful for the keynote speakers for their travel to Vancouver and for their contributions and inspiring presentations:
- Dr Carla Greenbaum from Benaroya Institute in Seattle, Washington who presented “Disease-modelling therapy in Type 1 diabetes”
- Dr Michael German, University of California San Francisco’s Diabetes Centre who presented “Beta-cell generation, regeneration and degeneration”
Thank you to our venue hosts:
- UBC Life Sciences Institute
- Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
Thank you for the financial support of our sponsors:
- BC Diabetes Research Network
- Cedar-lane
- Integrated DNA Technologies
- Lilly Diabetes Canada
- Meso Scale Discovery
- NanoString Technologies
- New England BioLabs Ltd
- Solo GI Nutrition
- Thermo Fisher Scientific
And thank to our community partners for their participation and support:
- Cities Changing Diabetes
- DIABETES CANADA
We invite everyone to participate again next year in the annual celebration of diabetes research in British Columbia. We will hold the meeting the week of November 14, 2019 to coincide with World Diabetes Day.
Event information will be posted on the BC Diabetes Research Network website: www.diabetesBC.ca
 |
 |
|
|
 |
 |
2017
New Publications from the Diabetes Team
The Gibson Lab's CK Wong has had his paper accepted to the American Diabetes Association's journal Diabetes. Read the paper here.
The paper describes one mechanism whereby susceptibility to a common, complex disease (diabetes) can be determined by epigenetic modifications. The idea came from a patient Dr. Gibson saw who had deletion of one of her EP300 genes, and also had early-onset diabetes without being obese or having autoimmune destruction of islets.
Dan Luciani and Francis Lynn contributed directly to this project and are co-authors.
CK's has been supported for 2 years by the Canucks for Kids Fund Diabetes Studentship.
Additionally, Lynn Lab PhD alumni Paul Sabatini has a new publication in Cell Reports. Read the paper here.
Congratulations to everyone on their new publications!
2017 Vancouver Diabetes Research Day
Thank you to everyone who helped make 2017 Vancouver Diabetes Research Day a great success!
Photo credit: Ianick Leroux
New Journal Publication by the Lynn Lab
Dr. Francis Lynn and PhD student Nicole Krentz have published their studies in the journal, Developmental Cell. Their research shows how the NEUROG3 transcription factor regulates pancreatic islet beta cell differentiation.
These studies provide insight into how stem cells can be stimulated to generate beta cells for treatment of diabetes. Developmental Cell is a high impact journal for developmental biology.
2016
Congratulations to recipients of Stem Cell Network funding
November 24, 2016: Congratulations to BC Children’s Hospital researchers who were awarded grants from the Stem Cell Network’s (SCN's) annual funding competition. Our researchers are either principal investigators or co-investigators for five projects that received grants. The research projects focus on stem cell therapies and/or explore ways of making them more effective or feasible. Four of these projects are focused on diabetes.
One of the grants will fund a first-of-its-kind clinical trial that will recruit Type 1 diabetes patients in British Columbia.
The Stem Cell Network (SCN)’s funds originate from the federal government’s $12 million, two-year investment in stem cell research, announced in March. The grants were announced Nov. 24 in Ottawa by the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, federal Minister of Science.
“These projects encourage partnerships between universities, hospitals and businesses—and that collaboration is a key component of a healthy innovation system,” Minister Duncan said. “Through the Stem Cell Network, people are gaining a better understanding of this promising research, which in turn, helps to inform more effective public policy.”
Michael Rudnicki, Scientific Director of SCN, said research into stem cells is now at a “tipping point, with the potential to see breakthroughs in our generation.”
The projects being led by or involving investigators at the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute are:
Genetic manipulation of hESC-derived insulin-producing cells to improve graft outcomes
Principal investigator: Bruce Verchere, Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital; Professor, Department of Surgery, UBC
Co-investigators: Megan Levings (Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital; Professor, Department of Surgery, UBC), Francis Lynn (Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital; Associate Professor, Department of Surgery. UBC), Tim Kieffer (Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, UBC)
Amount: $490,000
Dr. Verchere’s project will edit the genome of human embryonic stem cells to make insulin-producing cells with better function and survival after transplantation into people with diabetes. They will replace a gene that creates toxic products with a safer gene, and they will insert a gene to protect the transplanted cells from immune attack. With further study, the researchers intend to prepare these modified cells for clinical trial.
Garbage to Gold: Expansion of therapeutic regulatory T cells from discarded thymus
Principal investigator: Megan Levings, Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital; Professor, Department of Surgery, UBC
Amount: $100,000
For many patients with blood cancers, the only option for cure is hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), but that can cause the donor immune cells to attack the patient’s healthy tissues – known as “graft-versus-host disease.” HSCT would be safer if we could prevent or reduce graft-versus-host disease without affecting the donor cells’ anti-cancer action. Dr. Levings’s team is developing a novel cellular therapy with regulatory T-cells to treat graft-versus-host disease that results from HSCT, but it is difficult and time-consuming to obtain enough regulatory T-cells with the correct properties. Dr. Levings team has shown that appropriate T-cells can be harvested from the thymus gland, which is discarded in children undergoing heart surgery. In this project, her team will develop methods for large-scale expansion of thymic regulatory T-cells, working with a private sector partner to create new reagents and protocols to achieve this aim. This ground-work will be a key step in translating this approach to the bedside to test if delivering thymic regulatory T-cells can reduce graft-versus-host disease.
A stem cell therapy for insulin replacement in patients with diabetes
Principal Investigator: Tim Kieffer, Professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences and member, Life Sciences Institute
Co-principal investigators: David Thompson (Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine), Graydon Meneilly (Professor and Head, Department of Medicine), Garth Warnock (Professor, Department of Surgery) and Megan Levings (Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital; Professor, Department of Surgery, UBC).
Amount: $500,000
Diabetes is a disease caused by insufficient production of the hormone insulin, resulting in elevated blood sugar levels and damage to several tissues leading to debilitating complications. This project – along with four others also funded by the SCN this year (see below) – seeks to develop a cell-based therapy for diabetes by transplanting differentiated stem cells under the skin, whereby the cells take over the automatic production of insulin and control of blood sugar levels.
This project will recruit patients with type 1 diabetes to examine if higher doses of the cells can restore normal control of blood glucose levels and reduce, or even eliminate, the need for insulin injections. If successful, this clinical trial may lead to the development of a product that can cure millions of patients with diabetes, putting an end to insulin injections and making another major accomplishment in Canada’s diabetes research history.
Optimizing stem cell derived beta-cell therapy for diabetes
Principal Investigator: Tim Kieffer, Professor, Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences; member, Life Sciences Institute
Co-Principal Investigators: Brad Hoffman (Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital; Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, UBC), James Johnson (Professor, Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences), Francis Lynn (Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital; Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, UBC)
Amount: $500,000
This project will seek to develop and test what many believe are presently the world’s best protocols for coaxing stem cells towards insulin-producing cells. Both functional and gene analysis technologies will be critical to pinpoint deficits in currently produced cells, and also to validate when we successfully produce mature insulin-producing cells. This team, with its highly complementary skills, is poised to develop methods to manufacture mature insulin-producing cells for what promises to be a new paradigm in diabetes treatment.
Using human pluripotent stem-cell derived cardiomycytes to investigate the mechanisms of ibrutinib-induced atrial fibrillation
Principal investigator: Liam Brunham, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine; Principal Investigator, Centre for Heart+Lung Innovation
Co-investigators: Zach Laksman (Department of Medicine), Glen Tibbits (Investigator, BC Children’s Hospital; Professor, Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, SFU)
Amount: $100,000
Ibrutinib is a new, highly effective medication used to treat blood cancers. However, up to 10 per cent of patients receiving this medication develop atrial fibrillation (AF) that can cause stroke, for unknown reasons. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) can be used to generate human heart cells (cardiomyocytes) representing different heart chambers, and thus are an excellent model system for studying drug-induced heart injury. The overall goal of this project is to use hPSC-derived cardiomyocytes to investigate the mechanisms of ibrutinib-induced AF. Dr. Brunham’s team aims to use these stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes to explore the mechanisms of this side-effect, allowing predictions about which patients may be most sensitive to ibrutinib, and to identify medications to treat or prevent AF in patients who receive ibrutinib — ultimately making treatment with this important new drug safer and more effective.
2015
Vancouver Diabetes Research Day 2015
Vancouver Diabetes Research Day was held on Friday September 25, 2015. The aim of this event is to bring together the diabetes research community from across Vancouver including; BCCH, UBC, VGH, UBCO and SFU. Over 100 participants came to this years event held at the BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, formerly called the Child & Family Research Institute (CFRI).
PI presentations were given by; Lucy Marzban, Marc Horwitz, Jim Johnson, Dan Luciani and Elizabeth Rideout.
Katie McKilligan was our impact speaker with type 1 diabetes. Trainees presented their posters and gave talks as well.
The event was made possible through the generous support of our Sponsors:
- Alpco
- Thermo Fisher / Life Technologies
- Biolegend
- StemCell
- eBioscience/Affymatrix
- CFRI Research Education Office
- Canucks For Kids Fund Childhood Diabetes Laboratories
- UBC Diabetes Group
Special thanks to our volunteer organizing committee for making the event a success; Nicole Krentz, Paul Sabatini, Stephanie Campbell, Thilo Speckmann, Søs Skovsø, Sigrid Alvarez, and Bruce Verchere.
This year's annual Vancouver Diabetes Research Day will be held at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute.
Friday, September 25, 2015 | BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, 950 W 28th Ave
For more information, contact Vancouverdiabetes@gmail.com.
2014
Canucks for Kids Fund Diabetes Catalyst Awards 2014-2015
The Canucks for Kids Fund: Diabetes Catalyst Grants jumpstart exciting and innovative projects aimed at finding a cure for diabetes and improving the lives of children with diabetes.
Thanks to the generous support of the Canucks for Kids Fund and BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, this pilot funding competition has invested $555,000 in 16 inventive research projects since its inception in 2009.
We’re pleased to congratulate this year’s grant recipients:
- Diabetes and Pancreatic Cancer: IAPP as the Missing Link?
Bruce Verchere, $40,000grant
- Identifying Autophagy-Regulated Mechanisms of β-Cell Failure and Death in Diabetes
Dan S Luciani, $35,000 grant
- Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Complications in Children with Type 1 Diabetes
Angela Devlin, $25,000 grant(Co PI’s Dina Panagiotopoulos and Kevin Harris)
- The impact of health coaching for parents of children with Type 1 Diabetes on their children’s health related quality of life, medication adherence, diabetes family conflict and glycemic control – A pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.
Brenden Hursh, $20,000 grant
Applications to the Diabetes Catalyst Grant Competition are evaluated by researchers from across the country and international. This year, the reviewers ranked all applications extremely high before ultimately selecting the four winners.
The annual internal grant competition is open to on-site members of the Canucks for Kids Fund Childhood Diabetes Laboratories. BC Children's Hospital Research Institute scientists who are not on-site members of the Canucks for Kids Fund Childhood Diabetes Laboratories are encouraged to apply with an on-site program member as a co-investigator. For more information, contact Meg Hughes, the Diabetes Research Program Manager, at mhughes@bcchr.ca.
Vancouver Diabetes Research Day 2014
The first item is to announce we held a successful Vancouver Diabetes Research Day for the research community from across Vancouver. The inaugural Vancouver Diabetes Research Day was held on World Diabetes Day (November 14th 2014). November 14th is acknowledged by the World Health Organization as World Diabetes Day and is held on the anniversary of Dr Frederick Banting’s birthday, the Canadian medical scientist who won the Nobel prize in 1923 for discovering insulin.
Our event was held off-site at the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s Alumni House. We hosted 93 attendees from the University of British Columbia, UBC-Okanagan and University of Northern British Columbia. This event, organized and led by trainees, showcased our strong local diabetes research community, with 14 talks from graduate student and post-doctoral trainees, a poster session, three young investigator talks, and one plenary speaker (Dr. Greg Korbutt from the University of Alberta). Plans are underway to hold the Vancouver Diabetes Research Day event again in November 2015.
Canucks for Kids Fund Diabetes Catalyst Awards 2014-2015
Award Amount: $25,000-$50,000 for one year
Application Deadline: January 30, 2015,4:00 p.m.
Description:
The Canucks for Kids Fund Diabetes Catalyst Awards support pilot studies in childhood diabetes research which are aimed at finding a cure for or improving the lives of children with diabetes. A Canucks for Kids Fund (CFKF) Diabetes Catalyst grant may; generate preliminary data, create or test new methods and technologies, create new collaborations and/or encourage multi-disciplinary research, stimulate new directions in diabetes research, or launch a research project from an early stage to a more comprehensive investigation.
History:
The Canucks for Kids Diabetes Catalyst Award was established in 2009 by the generous support of the Canucks for Kids Fund charity. In 2015 the fifth competition is being held to stimulate new research by members of the Canucks for Kids Fund Childhood Diabetes Laboratories.
Contact:
Meg Hughes
Program Manager
mhughes@bcchr.ca | 604-875-2000 ext. 4905
Alberta-BC Islet Workshop
The 4th Annual Alberta-British Columbia Islet Workshop is being organized by Dr. Francis Lynn from the Diabetes Research Program at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute. This joint workshop, sponsored by the Universities of Alberta and British Columbia, will be held at the Silver Star Resort near Vernon BC between February 9-12th, 2015.
We are excited to announce that our visiting guest speakers this year will be Alan Attie from the UW-Madison and Marc Prentki from the Université de Montréal. Topics that will be included in the sessions are: stem cells and development; islet transplantation and immunology; insulin secretion and islet biology; beta-cell mass; genetics and epigenetics; new techniques and methodologies etc.
UBC promotions mark career milestones for BC Children's Hospital Research Institute investigators
Congratulations to:
- Dr. Francis Lynn, CFRI Scientist, promoted to Associate Professor with the Division of General Surgery in the Department of Surgery at UBC.
- Dr. Pascal Lavoie, CFRI Clinician Scientist and Neonatologist at BC Children's and BC Women's, promoted to Associate Professor with the Department of Pediatrics at UBC.
Canucks for Kids Fund: Diabetes Catalyst Grant recipients
The Canucks for Kids Fund: Diabetes Catalyst Grants jumpstart exciting and innovative projects aimed at finding a cure for diabetes and improving the lives of children with diabetes.
Thanks to the generous support of the Canucks for Kids Fund and BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, this pilot funding competition has invested $435,000 in 12 inventive research projects since its inception in 2009.
We’re pleased to congratulate this year’s grant recipients:
- Dr. Brad Hoffman
Project: “Identification of trxG complex factors involved in β-cell specification and maturation” $40,000 - Dr. Francis Lynn
Project: “High efficiency generation of human embryonic stem cell reporter lines to improve in vitro formation of beta cells” $35,000 - Dr. Shazhan Amed
Project: “Engaging youth through technology-based behaviour tracking, goal setting, and interactive communication – the future of childhood obesity prevention” $25,000
Applications to the Diabetes Catalyst Grant Competition are evaluated by researchers from across the country. This year, the reviewers ranked all applications extremely high before ultimately selecting the three winners.
Diabetes cover story
New research from Clara Westwell-Roper, Dr. Jan Ehses and Dr. Bruce Verchere was featured on the cover of the May 2014 issue of Diabetes. The image (right) is a color-enhanced scanning electron micrograph of a macrophage.
The publication, "Resident macrophages mediate islet amyloid polypeptide–induced islet IL-1β production and β-cell dysfunction," holds promising implications for better long-term treatment for patients with type 2 diabetes.
Speaking of Children (Spring 2014)
Dr. Bruce Verchere is interviewed in the latest issue of Speaking of Children magazine. Read more: Sweet Discovery: A potential cure for type 1 diabetes is on the horizon.
Can a promising treatment for type 1 diabetes eliminate the need for insulin?
BC Children's Hospital Research Institute researchers were recently awarded an exciting new grant to support clinical trials of a drug with the potential to reduce or eliminate the need for insulin injections in children and adults with type 1 diabetes (T1D).
New role for insulin: affects immune system as well as metabolism
Researchers have found a previously unknown link between metabolism and immunity, discovering more about why chronic inflammation develops in people who have obesity.
In new research, Dr. Megan Levings and colleagues demonstrate that insulin can damage regulatory immune cells, causing more inflammation in fat tissue.
2013
Four BC Children's Hospital Research Institute PhD students receive Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships
September 23, 2013- The Vanier Scholarships are intended to attract and retain world-class doctoral students to Canada and are awarded to students from around the world who have displayed leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement. The scholarships are worth $50,000 per year for three years.
Among the recipients was Dominika Nackiewicz (PI: Dr. Jan Ehses) for her project: "Using regulatory macrophages (Mregs) to promote beta cell regeneration during islet inflammation."
Q&A with Dr. William Gibson: Translating research into clinical practice
August 26, 2013 -Weaver Syndrome is a rare genetic disorder that is distinguished by accelerated growth with rapidly-maturing bones. This extra growth begins before birth and continues throughout childhood.
In 2011, Dr. William Gibson led the team that pinpointed the gene. They did this by identifying several mutations that cause Weaver Syndrome, and their discovery led to a breakthrough in improving care for patients with the syndrome by enabling a definitive DNA-based diagnosis.
The Gibson Lab has leveraged this opportunity to provide biobanking support and diagnostic testing to clinicians across Canada and internationally.
2012
Early puberty and mental health in girls
August 7, 2012: A recent Globe and Mail article looks at whether there is a link between early puberty and depression in girls. One of the experts interviewed for the story was Dr. Dina Panagiotopoulos.
2012 Canucks for Kids Fund Diabetes Catalyst Grant Competition Results
The committee received 11 excellent innovative research proposals. After an external peer review process the successful grant applications for the 2012 Catalyst Grant Competition were:
- William Gibson, $50,000 grant
Role of p300 protein in B-cell function and survival - Megan Levings, $50,000 grant
Gene signatures of T regulatory cells as molecular biomarkers in type 1 diabetes
Diabetes researcher honoured with new award
Dr. Francis Lynn was announced as the first recipient of the new Alan Permutt Career Development Award by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). The award honours research in the field of beta cell therapies.
12th International Conference on the Immunology of Diabetes
February 15, 2012: Dr. Bruce Verchere and Dr. Rusung Tan are co-chairs of the 12th International Conference on the Immunology of Diabetes, taking place on June 15-June 19th, 2012 in Victoria, British Columbia.
IDS 2012 will feature novel discussions on a wide range of current topics, including clinical trials, the microbiome, immunopathology of type 1 diabetes, issues of transplantation, and new models of diabetes.
Genetic variation increases risk of metabolic side effects in children on some antipsychotics
January 24, 2012: Researchers have found a genetic variation predisposing children to six-times greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome when taking second-generation anti-psychotic medications. The research is published today in the medical research journal Translational Psychiatry. Dr. Dina Panagiotopoulos and Dr. Angela Devlin were co-authors of the study.
2011
Gene discovered for Weaver syndrome
December 15, 2011: Scientists have found a gene that causes Weaver syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that typically causes large size at birth, tall stature, developmental delay during childhood, and intellectual disability. Published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics, the discovery means that testing the EZH2 gene for mutations could help families who are seeking a diagnosis for their child. The study was led by Dr. William Gibson. Read more.
Gene therapy stimulates protein that blocks immune attack and prevents type 1 diabetes in mice
July 5, 2011: Increasing a specific protein in areas of the pancreas that produce insulin blocks the immune attack that causes type 1 diabetes, report BCCHR researchers in the August issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, published early online. The research team includes Dr. Bruce Verchere, Dr. Loraine Bischoff, Dr. Joel Montane, and Dr. Rusung Tan.
A weighty issue: How much sugar is too much?
March 15, 2011: Dr. Daniel Metzger talks to the Vancouver Sun about sugar in beverages. Read more.
Canucks for Kids Fund donates $5 million to BC Children's Hospital
March 14, 2011: The Canucks for Kids Fund announced a gift of $3-million to support BC Children's Hospital Foundation's Campaign for BC Children and $2-million to the Diabetes Research Laboratory at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute. Read more.
2010
Global BC story on diabetes research
December 12, 2010: Dr. Bruce Verchere spoke to Global BC TV about diabetes research.
T cell discovery shows promise for Type 1 diabetes treatment: UBC-CFRI study
October 5, 2010: Researchers from the University of British Columbia and the Diabetes Research Program at BC Children's Hospital Research Institute have identified the role of a type of T cell in type 1 diabetes that may lead to new treatment options for young patients. Read more.
Researchers from the Diabetes Research Group receive funding from Canada Foundation for Innovation
May 13, 2010: We are pleased to congratulate diabetes research scientists Dr. Francis Lynn and Dr. Brad Hoffman who recently received $250,000 in funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation through the Leaders Opportunity Fund for their project "Beta Cell Genesis Research Facility."