We are excited to announce that Charles Yin has won a prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, Canada’s most prestigious scholarship for doctoral students. Charles is a MD/PhD student in the Heit lab, and was 1 of 55 students selected by the CIHR for this award. The Vanier award was established by the Government of Canada “to strengthen Canada’s ability to attract and retain world-class doctoral students and establish Canada as a global centre of excellence in research and higher learning. Vanier Scholars demonstrate leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and/or humanities, natural sciences and/or engineering and health”.
Charles’s Research:
Charles is spearheading our work into the role of Rab17 during efferocytosis – the removal of dying cells from our tissues. This work has revealed a pathway used by immune cells to avoid unwanted immune responses following normal “housecleaning” of our tissues. Charles has published this research over two papers (publication #1, publication #2).
Charles is also spearheading a collaborative study into macrophage dysfunction during atherosclerotic disease, using macrophages isolated from human heart tissue. We hope that this work will provide insight into heart disease and identify future treatments.
For more information, see Charles’s biography at the Schulich School for Medicine and Dentistry.