2024 Maud Menten Prize recipients
Carl de Boer
Dr. Carl de Boer obtained his Bachelor of Computer Science in the Bioinformatics program at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He then did his PhD in Dr. Tim Hughes' group in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto where he used machine learning and synthetic biology approaches to study the sequence determinants of gene transcription in yeast. Subsequently, Dr. de Boer was a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Aviv Regev's lab at the Broad Institute where he pioneered approaches for measuring and predicting the effects of gene regulatory mutations on gene expression.
Dr. de Boer is now an Assistant Professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of British Columbia and a Michael Smith Health Research BC Scholar. His research aims to develop genomic and computational tools that enable us to understand how the genome is regulated so that we can understand and treat disease. His research spans engineering cells to facilitate genomics Big Data generation, developing DNA synthesis technology, creating machine learning algorithms and bioinformatics tools, developing drugs to treat disorders of gene regulation, and using both computational and experimental approaches to decipher the molecular underpinnings of complex traits and their evolution.
Dr. de Boer is a recipient of the Maud Menten New Principal Investigator Prize in Genetics (Spring 2024) for the project titled: Identifying altered gene regulatory network states and underlying mechanisms in atrial fibrillation, a model polygenic disease.
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Yoshiaki Tanaka
Dr. Yoshiaki Tanaka is a Researcher at Centre de Recherche de l'Hôpital Maisonneuve-Rosemont, and an Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medicine at the University of Montreal. He completed his Ph.D. training at the University of Tokyo (Japan) in 2011 by pursuing bioinformatics. During his postdoctoral training at Yale University (USA) (2011-2020), he sought out complementary training in cell and molecular biology with the goal of understanding stem cell pluripotency and human brain development.
His research aims to elucidate major determinants of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) development and to establish new therapeutic approaches for brain pathologies. His laboratory employs in vitro 3D culture models of human brains and in silico analyses of large-scale genetic data. In particular, he is interested in understanding cancer-normal cell interactions and tumour microenvironment, and investigating how normal cells are involved in tumour progression.
Dr. Tanaka is a recipient of the Maud Menten New Principal Investigator Prize in Genetics (Spring 2024) for the project titled: Investigating Invasions and Evolutions of Glioblastoma with Brain Microenvironment using 3D Organoid. In this project, his team will clarify subtype-specific roles in the tumour microenvironment and molecular mechanisms of subtype transitions of GBM using both in vitro and in silico modelling approaches.
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