Research Focus - on the dynamic nature of intracellular components.
This chair is targeted towards a sub-cellular biologist with an interest in the cellular cytoskeleton, cell adhesion, the organization of signaling molecules by this intracellular scaffold, cell migration and the extracellular matrix. This person should have expertise in the use and development of cutting edge microscopy and imaging techniques to study protein localization, cell movement and interactions inside of and between isolated cells, thereby providing a unique expertise and complementing the expertise of other Cell Biologists currently at UBC.
Impact
This research chair will augment the development of an interdisciplinary research group in Cell Biology that has formed at UBC that contains members from both the Faculties of Science and Medicine and will strengthen links between the cell biology group and the Dept. of Microbiology & Immunology. We will seek out the best subcellular biologist who may work in cells of the immune system, the nervous system or a model organism.
It is anticipated that the subcellular biologist will have major interactions with the interdisciplinary centre of excellence in Immunology at UBC. There is a current CFI initiative to create a new Facility of Integrated Immunology to bring together all immunologists on campus in an open-plan lab space organized around the development of complementary and integrated cutting edge technologies (mass spectrometry, gene array analysis, transgenic mouse facilities, and imaging facilities). The creation of this truly multidisciplinary research unit, which will cross the faculties of Science, Medicine and Dentistry and will develop cutting edge technologies, fulfills two major goals of the academic plan. This centre will extend current technology to allow dissection of the immune system at the single cell level and generate attomole sensitivity. The chair in subcellular biology would bring in leading edge microscopy technology that would not only benefit the advance of immunology, but would also provide links with many other research units. Additional collaborations would be forged with Bioinformatics and Medicinal Botany as we seek to understand protein-protein interactions on a genome wide scale and to identify natural compounds that may prevent or enhance cell signaling pathways. We also anticipate interactions with the C. elegans Reverse Genetic facility, as many intracellular proteins involved in fundamental biological processes such as cell movement and signaling are likely to be evolutionarily conserved. This chair is thus a natural fit with the Cell and Developmental Biology focus being developed by Botany, Zoology and the Faculty of Medicine. The applicant will have access to the UBC EM facility which has electron microscopes, two confocal microscopes and a variety of other fluorescent and light microscopes.
Plan
To obtain a junior chair for a "rising star" in the field of subcellular biology. Our plan is to recruit a subcellular biologist from a world class cell biology laboratory. No-one individual has yet been identified for this position. However, Paul Kubes (U. Calgary) who studies the migration of immune cells using 'real time' video recordings is one possible candidate for this position, although he may need a more senior chair.
This position has been approved as a CRC chair.