This article is part of a three-part series that will profile the inaugural Killam International Research Award recipients who traveled abroad in 2023.
A Dal doctoral student studying how the human body鈥檚 molecular biology can provide insights into disease development is one of the inaugural recipients of a new Dal-based award that provides global research opportunities to scholars at institutions abroad.
AV俱乐部 launched the Killam International Research Award last year with the support of the Killam Trusts. The award, which is open to all Killam Scholars at Dal, offers as opportunity for young researchers to foster collaboration and gain access to a different set of resources to answer their research questions.
鈥淢ost academics are open to discussion and collaboration, so the hardest part is just putting away the imposter syndrome and fear of rejection before you send the email,鈥� says recipient Sabateeshan (Saby) Mathavarajah, a PhD Pathology student supervised by in AV俱乐部鈥檚 .
Recipients of the award must arrange a supporting supervisor at their destination institution.
Mathavarajah worked with , an expert in genomics and aquaculture at Michigan State University, his host institution. Mathavarajah and Dr. Braash first met in person at a conference last October.
Mathavarajah鈥檚 research centres on how immunity present in an animal鈥檚 body from birth can affect the development of tumours and offer insights into how to treat them.
Foundations for further work
The Killam International Research Award set the stage for a more dynamic collaboration, allowing Mathavarajah to travel to the Braasch Lab for two months earlier this year and gain access to equipment, animal samples, and facilities. His goal was to use the lab鈥檚 sample species, including a freshwater fish known as a spotted gar, to advance his work on the function of a particular type of gene 鈥� the PML gene 鈥� in tissue regeneration.
鈥淭he Braasch lab is one of the only labs in the world with established, consistent access to the spotted gar and they were the first to sequence the organism,鈥� he says. 鈥淗aving access and being able to study the role of PML directly in the organism revealed the new insights on its function in tissue regeneration that we would not have known otherwise.鈥�
Mathavarajah鈥檚 collaboration with the lab continues now and, when available, the cell lines he helped to develop will be invaluable studies that could enable new insights into the evolution of pathways that impact human health and disease such as innate immunity and tumour suppression.
Work from the collaboration was in The Journal of Experimental Zoology-B: Molecular and Developmental Evolution.
Learn more about the Killam advantage and opportunities at AV俱乐部.