Anna Blakney

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

Welcome to Canada 🍁

🚨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 is 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!🙌

Host a teach in. Share science with your community....protest style! Calling back to the teach ins of 1965, we are taking to parks, pubs, & churches to tell our neighborhoods about how the budget cuts will impact them.

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.

Portrait of Dr. Katalin Karikó

I Was Considered a Nobody Dr. Kati Karikó spent decades experimenting with mRNA. Her tireless, methodical work was dismissed and she was ridiculed. Then she won a Nobel Prize.

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...

From COVID to cancer: Why Canada’s RNA vaccine leadership matters more than ever Research teams across Canada are now building on homegrown innovation to expand the potential of RNA vaccines beyond infectious diseases.

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

The advent of clinical self-amplifying RNA vaccines Self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) technology is an emerging platform for vaccine development, offering significant advantages over conventional mRNA vaccine…

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.

Amplifying innovation with diversity and inclusion Sponsor Content

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...

Safety and immunogenicity of an optimized self-replicating RNA platform for low dose or single dose vaccine applications: a randomized, open label Phase I study in healthy volunteers - Nature Communic... Here the authors report an optimized self-replicating RNA (srRNA) vaccine approach that generates protective immunity at much lower doses than mRNA vaccines in mice. In a Phase 1 study using rabies gl...

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.

Reach BC REACH BC brings together researchers and volunteers to make it easy to participate in research, improving the overall quality of life for British Columbians and people across the world.

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

Scratching promotes allergic inflammation and host defense via neurogenic mast cell activation Itch is a dominant symptom in dermatitis, and scratching promotes cutaneous inflammation, thereby worsening disease. However, the mechanisms through which scratching exacerbates inflammation and wheth...

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...

I love W&G!

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...

Transfection Potency of Lipid Nanoparticles Containing mRNA Depends on Relative Loading Levels When formulating mRNA into lipid nanoparticles (LNP), various copy numbers of mRNA are encapsulated, leading to a distribution of mRNA loading levels within the LNPs. It is unclear whether the mRNA loading level affects the functional delivery of the message. Here we show that depending on the mRNA loading level, LNPs exhibit distinct mass densities and can be fractionated via ultracentrifugation. Upon fractionation, we investigated if mRNA loading levels influence LNP sizing, lipid composition, and morphology. We further conducted in vitro and in vivo functional delivery of mRNA and found that the LNP fraction with the highest mRNA loading levels was the least transfection competent.

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
📧 xin.tang@msl.ubc.ca

Exploring the Effects of Incorporating Different Bioactive Phospholipids into Messenger Ribonucleic Acid Lipid Nanoparticle (mRNA LNP) Formulations The current rapid advancement in ribonucleic acid (RNA) therapeutics research depends on innovations in drug delivery, especially the development of a lipid-nanoparticle (LNP)-based system. The conven...

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/...

Mapping global public perspectives on mRNA vaccines and therapeutics - npj Vaccines npj Vaccines - Mapping global public perspectives on mRNA vaccines and therapeutics

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...

The transfection potency of lipid nanoparticles containing mRNA depends on relative loading levels When formulating mRNA into lipid nanoparticles (LNP), various copy numbers of mRNA are encapsulated, leading to a distribution of mRNA loading levels within LNPs. It is unclear if the mRNA loading lev...

Already loving the learning and discovery of science on 🦋, and will contribute by sharing our most recent preprint led by Suiyang, a postdoc co-supervised with Pieter Cullis: chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

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 🧬