Congratulations to Faculty of Science researchers Bill Kim and Logan Donaldson for receiving new infrastructure funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), which supports institutions in attracting top talent and acquiring the state-of-the-art tools and equipment necessary to enable their innovative work.
Chemistry Professor Kim received $100,000 for the project “Methods to Create Mutations in Cells to Understand and Treat Disease.” Kim’s project will involve the creation of new technologies and special tools for protein engineering and genome editing, enabling him and his lab to alter the genetic code of cells. This type of innovation will advance Kim’s study of the genetic differences of various diseases, including cancer, diabetes and heart disease, in the hope it can also be used to help find better treatments. In addition, the researchers believe this new technology holds the potential to grow more climate-resilient plants and could be adopted by Canadian pharmaceutical companies and agriculture businesses for future applications.
Biology Professor Logan Donaldson received $155,000 for the project “An Advanced Platform for Biomolecular NMR Spectroscopy.” The funding will support an upgrade of the electronics to the high-field 700 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer in the Life Sciences Building. The Avance-Neo platform upgrade will provide a new opportunity for Donaldson and 12 other researchers affiliated with the York U YSciCore facility to obtain the most sensitive and detailed information of biomolecules linked to neurodegenerative disease, biosensor design, antibiotic resistance and vaccine development. The funding also provides support for an intensive computing platform that will enable AI design of new biomolecules with therapeutic and diagnostic potentials.