Congratulations to DMCBH member Dr. Tao Huan, who is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry, on being appointed to a new Canada Research Chair in metabolomics and exposomics. His research will focus on the study of the entire sets of small molecules in a given biological system, such as a cell, organ, whole organism or biofluid, along with interrelated environmental chemical exposures.
Metabolomics are particularly useful in the study of environment-gene interactions, identifying disease biomarkers, and drug discovery. The metabolome is a close counterpart to the genome, the transcriptome and the proteome. Together the four constitute the building blocks of systems biology. But unlike genes and proteins whose functions are subject to epigenetic regulation and post-translational modifications, respectively, metabolites serve as a direct functional readout of a current cellular state and therefore easier to correlate with phenotype. This makes them valuable for linking molecular changes to health outcomes.
The Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program invests up to $311 million a year to attract and retain some of the world’s most accomplished and promising minds. Chair holders span the natural sciences, health sciences, humanities and social sciences. The CRC program was part of a $452 million investment through the Research Support Fund recently announced by the Government of Canada.
