2023
March
The Osborne lab is awarded a Discovery Grant from MS Canada to pursue understanding of how helminth infections alter neuroinflammation and repair mechanisms in the central nervous system.
Leah Hohman, PhD, receives a fellowship from MS Canada. This supports an ongoing collaboration with the Gommerman lab @ the University of Toronto investigating the role of age and an aged microbiome in progressive MS.
Sarah Popple passes her PhD candidacy exam (with flying colors!). The help she received from lab members and other trainees is greatly appreciated. Many thanks to the examiners, Drs Brett Finlay, Mike Gold and Marc Horwitz, for a wide-ranging and fun discussion.
Lisa Osborne awarded the Early Career Researcher Partnership Prize through the CIHR Institute for Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes and the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CIHR INMD-CAG).
The lab is awarded a CIHR Project Grant to continue studying the effects of the dietary fiber guar gum on host immunity. In collaboration with Dr Ian Lewis @ the University of Calgary, we will pursue mechanistic understanding of how guar gum and the microbiota collaborate to produce metabolites that alter CD4+ T cell function and the translational potential of guar gum to limit autoimmune relapses in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS).
Naomi Fettig receives a Travel Award to support her attendance at the Keystone meeting of “NEUROIMMUNE INTERACTIONS: FROM BASIC MECHANISMS TO NOVEL THERAPEUTIC DIRECTIONS” this coming May.
January
In collaboration with trainees from the Horwitz and Crowe labs in the M&I department @ UBC Life Sciences Institute, we show that coxsackie virus infection-induced shifts in the microbiome are sufficient to accelerate type 1 diabetes onset in genetically susceptible NOD mice. Congratulations to Zach and Rachel on their Frontiers in Immunology publication!
2022
September
Congratulations to Naomi Fettig on publication of her thesis work. In Cell Reports, she demonstrates that individual sources of dietary fiber have differential effects on the microbiome and host immune system. Specifically, she shows that one particular fiber source, guar gum, impairs pro-inflammatory T cell activation and delays the onset of MS-like autoimmunity and neuroinflammation.
Dr Leah Hohman’s ideas about how intestinal epithelial cells contribute to age-related immune dysfunction and microbiome dysbiosis are published in Aging Cell. Check out “A gut-centric view of aging: Do intestinal epithelial cells contribute to age-associated microbiota changes, inflammaging, and immunosenescence?”
July
Thanks to Immunity @ Cell Press for the invitation to write a Preview of stunning work from Ignacio et al. describing a previously unappreciated role for microbiota/eosinophil cross-talk in setting intestinal homeostasis. Dr Leah Hohman’s summary “Eo: what are we doing here?” is a great appetizer to the full story out of Dr Kathy McCoy’s lab.
June
This study published in JCI Insight is the product of a great collaboration with Drs Jennifer Gommerman and Valeria Ramaglia. Progressive MS needs new and effective treatments. Here, we describe a new, age-dependent mouse model of progressive MS, which we hope will provided insight into disease pathogenesis and uncover novel treatment targets. Congrats to all involved, including Naomi Fettig.
Also check out Atkinson et al. from Dr Ben Segal’s lab describing a similar age-dependent effect in a distinct genetic background, published in the same issue.
First prize for poster presentations to Naomi Fettig at the Microbiology & Immunology Research Day!
Blair Hardman earns a a CSI Travel award to attend the annual Canadian Society for Immunology meeting.
Welcome to our newest staff member! Natalia Garcia Carranza, co-supervised by Dr Carolina Tropini, will support our ongoing studies of host-multibiome interactions as a Gnotobiotic Research Technician.
June
Lisa Osborne is awarded two pilot grant awards through a partnership between Scialog and Research Corporation for Science Advancement. We’re very excited to work with new collaborators Dr Ukpong Eyo (University of Virginia) on helminth/microbiome interactions and their effects on the central nervous system, and Drs Gianna Hammer (University of Utah) and Linnea Freeman (Furman University) on age-related defects of meningeal immune surveillance.
May
Nicola Pett is awarded an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship to support her work characterizing host-phage interactions.
Sarah Popple is awarded a 4 Year Fellowship from the University of British Columbia. Congratulations Sarah!
Blair Hardman takes centre stage at the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) annual meeting, presenting his work on the cues that determine distribution of antiviral T cells throughout the gut. Thanks to the AAI for generous travel award support!
April
Lisa shares her thoughts with CBC on what we do and don’t know about how to manipulate the microbiome to optimize host health.
March
Dr Lisa Osborne is a co-PI on a Discovery Grant funded by the MS Society of Canada. In collaboration with Dr Jennifer Gommerman @ the University of Toronto, our teams will delve further into the mechanisms by which aging alters the microbiome and neurodegenerative potential in a model of progressive MS.
Growing again….welcome to Negin Ramanjan, our new Gnotobiotic Technician. Negin will be co-supervised by Dr Carolina Tropini.
February
The lab’s first murine norovirus (MNV) research paper is published in Journal of Virology. Big thanks to Andrew Sharon for taking this project on and carrying it over the finish line, and to Heather Filyk who started it all. Congratulations to all involved!
January
Welcome to our newest graduate student, Nicola Pett! Nicola will be co-supervised by Lisa and Dr Carolina Tropini while pursuing a Master’s degree studying phage-host interactions.
2021
August
The lab welcomes our first postdoc, Dr Leah Hohman. Leah comes in with signifcant expertise in T cell biology, host-pathogen interactions and imaging. She’ll use the strong intellectual and technical foundation she developed during her PhD in her research in the Osborne lab studying how age-related changes in the gut impact progressive MS-like disease.
July
Interested in how the intestinal ecosystem communicates with the immune system and central nervous system to influence MS and MS-like disease in animal models? Look no further than Naomi Fettig’s comprehensive review Direct and indirect effects of microbiota-derived metabolites on neuroinflammation in multiple sclerosis, published in Microbes & Infection.
March
Sarah Popple’s first publication from the lab. A great collaborative review with Drs Arthur Mortha and Kyle Burrows from #theonlylabever on Remote Regulation of Type 2 Immunity by Intestinal Parasites is published in Seminars in Immunology.
2020
November
For an overview of why we think intestinal helminths could provide important insights into new ways to modulate immune responses to treat inflammatory diseases, check out this article Dr Lisa Osborne wrote for the UBC Science Blog
September
Sarah Popple, a previous Directed Studies student, returns to the lab. Sarah will study the effects of micro and macro species (a particular family of commensal bacteria and helminthic worms) that are vanishingly rare in the intestinal ecosystems of people living in industrialized countries and their effects on immune function.
Sarah Popple receives a BC Graduate Scholarship to support her proposed MSc studies.
Dr Leah Hohman pitches to the BCREGMED Dragon’s Den and comes out a winner! Thanks to the BCREGMED program for a fun competition and one year of research support.
August
Big thanks to the Weston Family Microbiome Initiative! The lab is the recipient of two(!) collaborative Proof-of-Principle grants to start investigations of a) how signals derived from the aged microbiome alter microglia function and neurodegenerative potential (with Dr Jennifer Gommerman) and b) the nature of host-microbiome interactions with a family of commensal microbes that are disappearing from the intestinal ecosystems of people living in industrialized countries (with Dr Carolina Tropini).
July
Stefanie Valbon is a rising star in the immunology field. As a graduate student at McGill University, she’s started a blog (ImmunoThoughts) to help translate how super cool the immune system for the general public. Lisa was lucky enough to be interviewed by Stef and to discuss how much she loves her job and mentoring.
February
The Canadian Association of Gastroenterologists (CAG) awards Blair Hardman a Travel Award and the opportunity to speak about his ongoing work describing T cell activation and distribution in response to murine noroviruses (MNV).
January
What a great way to start the year…two publications from Lisa’s role as a mentor in the endMS SPRINT program. Working with trainees from different institutions (Marc Charabati @ U de Montréal, Sarah Donkers, PhD/PT @ U Saskatoon, and Megan Kirkland @ Memorial U) and interdisciplinary research interests, we interrogated reasons why people living with MS might be drawn to self-medicating with helminthic worms, and evaluated the strength of data in animal models and people that have tested the effects of helminth infection on MS.
2019
May
Double trouble….Blair Hardman and Andrew Sharon are both awarded 4 Year Fellowships to support their work on mechanisms of intestinal antiviral immunity.
April
Congratulations to Hannah Robinson, MSc! She defended her thesis and is off to new adventures.
March
Naomi Fettig is awarded a prestigious MS Society of Canada Doctoral award, congrats Naomi!
Naomi was also offered a Master’s level CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship to support her work
Andrew Sharon doing the lab proud! He gave a great talk at the annual Canadian Digestive Disease Week meeting, won the Outstanding Research Presentation prize for the same talk at the trainee-focused Canadian Association of Gastroenterologists (CAG) Research Topics workshop, and his travel to these meetings was supported by a CAG travel award.
Lisa is very excited to be named as a co-PI on a Discovery Grant from the MS Society of Canada awarded to Dr Jennifer Gommerman (University of Toronto). This grant will support an exciting new collaboration investigating the role of chronological age as a risk factor for neurodegenerative processes commonly seen in progressive MS.
2018
November
Andrew Sharon takes 1st prize for his poster presentation at the Microbiome Research Network Symposium. And in 2nd place? Our own Hannah Robinson!
September
Welcome to Naomi Fettig, a new PhD student in the lab! She will be co-supervised by Dr Marc Horwitz and focus on host-microbiome interactions that shape disease outcomes in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.
Hannah Robinson earns scholarship support through the Centre for Blood Research Graduate Research Award.
The lab is awarded a CIHR Project Grant. We’ll use these funds to further our understanding of regulation of antiviral T cells by the intestinal epithelium.
June
Thanks to the GenomeBC Sector Innovation Program for supporting a collaborative grant proposal between the Osborne lab and Drs Sean Crowe & Marc Horwitz (also members of the Dept of Microbiology & Immunology @ UBC). We’re off to explore whether a viral infection that increases susceptibility to type 1 diabetes does so through alteration of the microbiome.
Dr Lisa Osborne is named the Canada Research Chair is Host-Microbiome Interactions.
May
Blair Hardman is awarded an NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship to support his Master’s thesis work examining regulation of antiviral T cells by intestinal epithelial cells.
2017
November
So proud of Heather Filyk, MSc! First student to graduate from the lab following a stupendous defense.
September
The lab is growing again! Welcome to Andrew Sharon, a previous Honor’s student who will study genetic and environmental regulators of intestinal antiviral immunity.
Andrew Sharon’s excellent research potential is recognized with the awarding of a CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship. Congrats Andrew!
January
We’re delighted to welcome Blair Hardman, filling out the ranks of graduate students studying intestinal antiviral immunity. His research will focus on how interactions between intestinal epithelial cells and antiviral T cells shape T cell location, function, and longevity.
2016
November
Heather Filyk’s first paper from the lab is published. Check out her review describing the role of the “multibiome” and it’s influence on immune homeostasis, health, and disease, published in eBioMedicine.
September
Welcome to Hannah Robinson, our second graduate student! Hannah will bring a new area of study to the lab - instead of focusing on protective antiviral immunity, her thesis will focus on how specific dietary interventions alter autoimmune potential in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS).
July
With support from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the BC Knowledge Development Fund, Dr Lisa Osborne will purchase all the necessary infrastructure to build a Gnotobiotic Facility here at UBC. This will be the first Gnoto facility in Western Canada and will not only be critical for Osborne lab research into how the multibiome influences protective immune responses to viral infection and autoimmune reactivity, it should catalyze collaborations with local researchers interested in interrogating the role of the microbiome in their systems of interest. Exciting times ahead!!
May
We’re off to a flying start! Heather Filyk is awarded a CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship.
March
The lab is awarded an NSERC Discovery Grant to support our investigation of the role of STAT1 in persistent viral infection.
The lab is awarded a CIHR Project Grant. These funds will be put to use investigating environmental metabolites that could be harnessed to limit chronic inflammation.
January
So happy to welcome Dr Jung Hee Seo to the team. Jung Hee is a trusted friend and stellar lab manager. All future trainees will have high quality training!
2015
September
Here we go! Our first intrepid graduate student, Heather Filyk, has joined the lab. Her MSc work will focus on genetic mechanisms that coordinate tolerance to commensal-like viruses that persist indefinitely in the gut.