The CCS Young Investigator Award is presented to a young investigator whose clinical or basic science activities are in the area of cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Liam Brunham, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine’s Division of General Internal Medicine is the 2020 recipient of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s Young Investigator Award in Basic Science.
Dr. Brunham’s research focuses on understanding how changes in specific genes contribute to differences in drug-response as well as to alterations in plasma lipid levels and their relationship to metabolic and cardiovascular disease. His laboratory uses cutting-edge approaches in human genetics, including genome-wide association studies and next-generation sequencing to investigate the role of genetic variation in these phenotypes. His laboratory also uses genome-editing tools and stem-cell based cellular models to dissect the functional impact of genetic variants and investigate molecular mechanisms underlying adverse drug reactions.
Read more about Dr. Brunham’s work here
Dr. Zachary Laksman, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Cardiology was the runner-up for the 2020 Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s Young Investigator Award in Basic Science.
Dr. Laksman’s research focus is on the genetic basis for diseases of the heart muscle, heart rhythm, and sudden cardiac death. An element of Dr. Laksman’s work involves using a stem cell model and growing heart cells in a dish. In doing so, Dr. Laksman’s laboratory can model an individual patient’s specific disease, apply medicines to it, and study the cause of the disease and the effect of treatment.