UBC research into pancreatic cancer and disease disparities between sexes received a boost with new funding announced April 15, 2016 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

The university received $1.55 million from the John R. Evans Leaders Fund for 14 research programs across UBC’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.

“This funding provides our researchers with new tools and equipment they need to examine issues like disease and wildfire,” said John Hepburn, UBC vice-president, research and international. “We are grateful to the Canada Foundation for Innovation for their continued support.”

Janel Kopp, an assistant professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, will use the funding for equipment to look at how cancer develops in the cells of the pancreas. Pancreatic cancer has low survival rates; it is the fourth leading cause of death from cancer in Canada.

Elizabeth Rideout, who is also an assistant professor in the Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, studies the differences between men and women in the development of disease like diabetes. She is using the funding for equipment that measures gene expression.

The Honourable Minister Harjit Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, was on campus to announce the funding. He toured Kopp’s and Rideout’s laboratories in the Life Sciences Institute.