Great postdoc opportunity to work on metabolomics and genomics of aroma in berries (raspberry and blueberry) at UBC in beautiful Vancouver! Come explore aroma diversity and figure out what are the metabolites and genes that control it - and help us make even better berries! 🌱 🫐 ⚗️ 🧬

This week, we profile a publication by Dr. @annablakney.bsky.social ’s lab that demonstrates the relative expression kinetics of three different types of RNA. This profile honors the late Dr. Credo Casmil, first author of the study and beloved lab member of the Blakney lab: https://bit.ly/42VJlUD

🚨THIS WEEK!!! 🔥Only a few tickets left here: bit.ly/sciencestanduptickets @sbmeubc.bsky.social @nikashakiba.bsky.social @canacn.bsky.social @scienceinvancouver.com #Vancouver #scicomm

The vaccine revolution is being powered by RNA tech and Canada is positioned to lead it. 🍁 💉Check out the work on self-amplifying #RNA by the @annablakney.bsky.social Lab and on #LNPs by the Cullis lab to learn how @sbmeubc.bsky.social#RNA#LNPss at the forefront of vaccine research: https://bit.ly/4m7Iirx

The UBC Michael Smith Labs Postdoc Committee hosted the brilliant @annablakney.bsky.social, where we learned about her inspiring journey to become an Assistant Professor at the MSL & @sbmeubc.bsky.social. Thx for sharing your helpful advice! Thx to the PDFs who attended for the engaging discussion!🙌

Our goal is to have 1000 SUFS Teach Ins across the US, by 9/30. *GASP* 😮 We know, it's a big goal. If you've received tax dollars for your science, you have a responsibility to inform *your* community what is at stake: public health, the economy, innovation, and America's global leadership.

Dr. Katalin Karikó spent decades experimenting with mRNA. She was scoffed at, demoted, and eventually forced to retire. Then, she won the Nobel Prize. Listen to her story in the first episode of “The Leap,” produced with the @hypothesisfund.bsky.social. pod.link/73329284/epi...

Canada helped pioneer RNA vaccines and now could lead the next wave, from pandemics to cancer care. Drs. @annablakney.bsky.social and Pieter Cullis of @sbmeubc.bsky.social @ubcmedicine.bsky.social explain on @theconversationca.bsky.social why the moment is now: bit.ly/42X2cxN

Our new review is out in Molecular Therapy! Lots of exciting accomplishments, and many more challenges, in the field fo self-amplifying RNA: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

📅 April 24 | Next-Generation #RNA Vaccines & Therapies This event is organized by McGill's Pharmacology and Therapeutics and will feature lecture speaker Dr. @annablakney.bsky.social from UBC (also a D2R-funded researcher!). More info: mcgill.ca/pharma/semin...

Caught the light on a nice day in MSL with some of our lab members- grateful for this group that makes coming to work every day a joy 🥰

Share with US students who had their offers of admission withdrawn for PhD programs: Apply to Canada. Check out Canadian professors, and contact us. Our system works differently here, and we are all still, technically, able to accept students for Fall 2025.

Honored to be included with these people making a big impact in Canada, who also happen to be women, on this International Women's Day 😀 www.theglobeandmail.com/life/adv/art...

Exciting to see this work from Replicate Bioscience out! A single dose rabies vaccine with no serious adverse events in humans is quite remarkable. Fun collaboration for Credo and I, and exciting to see saRNA technology realizing its promise in humans: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nitobe Garden on a snow day! Extra peaceful with the dusting of snow and quiet campus.

New clinical trial led by colleagues in the Michael Smith Labs is now recruiting, check it out here: reachbc.ca/project/628

Itchy? Scratch a little, but not too much! Neat read on the mechanism behind this, and a reminder for the next time you get a mosquito bite: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our most recent publication in Molecular Therapy led by Credo Casmil shows that the saRNA backbone impacts both protein expression and vaccine immunogenicity- can’t wait to see where we go with these new vectors! doi.org/10.1016/j.ym...

The Michael Smith Labs postdoc communication group recently interviewed Brett Finlay and I about the hats we wear as faculty: www.msl.ubc.ca/research-hat...

Celebrating the end of 2024 with our new publication led by Suiyang Liao: we investigate the role of empty LNPs on transfection efficiency of mRNA- turns out they’re not just silent bystanders, and there’s a balance in how loaded you want your particles: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Happy holidays from the Blakney Lab! Mixed messages about whether we escaped 🤐

🚀 Excited to announce that our Lab @UBC is recruiting! 🌟 We're looking for passionate intern, graduate, and postdoc with strong coding/ML backgrounds to join us in advancing AI for single-cell biology & brain-computer interfaces. 🏔️ Vancouver awaits! 👉 tanglab.msl.ubc.ca 📧 [email protected]

Hot off the press- new paper from my lab exploring the use of bioactive phospholipids in LNPs! Many are known to have functions in specific cell types, leading to a change in cytokine secretion profiles in human PBMCs: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

How has social media influenced attitudes toward mRNA vaccines? Outstanding paper from Heidi Larson and Leesa Lin- the graph of top adverse events from VAERS versus Twitter is particularly intriguing: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hi 🦋! I’m an Assistant Professor at University of British Columbia in the Michael Smith Labs and School of Biomedical Engineering. Our lab is interested in engineering next-generation RNA vaccines and therapies 🧬