Province Wide Rounds: Precision Medicine and Epitope Matching in Kidney Transplantation

Dr. Louisa Edwards is a social psychologist (PhD) with 10+ years’ experience working in primary care and population-based research. Louisa is interested in the interplay between patient expectations, engaging with a treatment approach, and how these affect health and well-being outcomes. Currently, a Research Program Manager at UBC and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation), working across projects using various genetic technologies for long-term conditions. Louisa led the design and execution of the online public deliberation about adding epitope compatibility to the existing deceased donor kidney allocation criteria within Activity 4.

My name is Krishna and I am currently an undergraduate student majoring Biology at UBC. I first joined the CanPREVENT team back in September 2019 as a co-op student and I have since been helping in most of the activities related to the Biobank that was established in May 2019. I feel privileged to be part of this team that comprises of esteemed researchers and I am constantly learning and being inspired, which is a fuel for my own studies and ambitions.

Other than being constantly mesmerized by the deep intricacies of discoveries in science, I also have many hobbies such as football (soccer), reading comic books (Star Wars and Marvel) and watching movies!

Davide has a combined MD-PhD degree from Northwestern University in Chicago where his primary research interest was renal biology. Since completing his degrees there Davide has joined the Department of Urologic Sciences at UBC where he is a resident in Urology with a special interest in renal transplant.

While working on the clinical side, he was introduced to the multidisciplinary work of the CanPREVENT team and has joined the team to further develop his research interests in translational and discovery science in renal transplantation. Davide is currently working on a number of projects related to the characterization of existing and novel diagnostic tools in transplant work-up and monitoring. When he isn’t running around the hospital or doing research, Davide enjoys racing paddle boards, experimenting with fermentation, and trying to parent his dog Finnegan.

Professor; Director, Centre for Clinical Epidemiology & Evaluation

Research Interests

Dr Stirling Bryan is a co-project leader and will be assessing and translating the economic implications and healthcare impacts of Precision Medicine tools that will be developed during the course of the project.

Dr. Bryan is a health economist who has extensive engagement with the policy and decision-making world. For over 20 years he has been a university-based practicing health economist with extensive engagement to the policy and decision-making world. His research track record reveals a longstanding goal of informing policy and practice. This is demonstrated, in part, through an extensive involvement with the UK National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE). Previously, Dr. Bryan led a University of Birmingham-based team that conducted economic analyses for UK National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE), and subsequently served for 3 years as a member of the NICE technology appraisals committee, advising on coverage policy. In 2005 he was awarded a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowship and spent one year at Stanford University, researching technology coverage decision making in US healthcare organizations. His published papers reveal an ongoing research interest in coverage decision-making processes. Since his relocation to Canada in 2008, Dr. Bryan continued his focus on policy-relevant research. His current position, sponsored by Vancouver Coastal Health, sees him working alongside policy colleagues in one of BC’s largest regional health authorities. Dr. Bryan completed his PhD in economics at Brunel University, following a Masters in health economics from the University of York.

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Professor, Faculty of Law and School of Public Health; and Research Director, Health Law Institute, University of Alberta

Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy; Trudeau Fellow;

Dr. Timothy Caulfield is a co-project leader and will examine the legal, ethical and societal considerations regarding transplantation. Dr. Caulfield will conduct analyses to determine how popular culture (including social media and the news media) represents transplantation policy and organ donation. This information will be used to develop communication strategies to guide communication of the Precision Medicine tools in transplantation policy.

Dr. Caulfield is a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy, a Professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Public Health, and Research Director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta. His interdisciplinary research on topics like stem cells, genetics, research ethics, the public representations of science and health policy issues have allowed him to publish over 350 academic articles. He has won numerous academic and writing awards and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the Trudeau Foundation and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Dr. Caulfield contributes frequently to the popular press and is the author of two national bestsellers: The Cure for Everything: Untangling the Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness and Happiness (Penguin 2012) and Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong About Everything?: When Celebrity Culture and Science Clash (Penguin 2015). Dr. Caulfield also has a strong social media presence and is the host and co-producer of the documentary TV show, A User’s Guide to Cheating Death. Dr. Caulfield obtained his Bachelor of Science and law degree at the University of Alberta, He completed a Masters in Law at Dalhousie University.

Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University

Clinical Scientist, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre

Dr. Ruth Sapir-Pichhadze is a co-project leader and will work in determining the frequency of HLA class I and II epitopes in the Canadian population. These findings will be used to develop probabilistic models to better inform donor/recipient matching. In addition, Dr. Sapir-Pichhadze will lead the development of a systems pharmacology model for personalized immune suppression in transplant recipients.

Dr. Sapir-Pichhadze’s research focuses on the application of personalized medicine strategies for the prevention of immune-mediated injuries. Specifically, she is interested in identifying genetic determinants of donor and recipient compatibility in order to optimize organ allocation schemes, inform personalized surveillance schedules, and establish individually tailored therapeutic regimens in kidney transplant candidates and recipients. Dr. Sapir-Pichhadze has extensive experience in observational studies using large registries and single centre databases, health services research, systematic reviews, decision analyses, epidemiologic methods for evaluating diagnostic test accuracy in the presence or absence of a gold standard, as well as analytic methods capable of dealing with time-varying variables and competing risks. Dr. Sapir-Pichhadze obtained her Bachelor of Science and medical degree from Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel. Dr. Sapir-Pichhadze completed her medical specialization in internal medicine and nephrology for the University of Toronto. In addition, she received her Master of and Doctor of Science focusing on clinical epidemiology.

Dr. Paul A. Keown is Professor of Medicine and Director of Immunology at the University of British Columbia, with appointments in Medicine, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.

Dr. Keown is the project leader and will oversee all aspects of the research Dr. Keown will work towards improving donor/recipient matching by determining the HLA class I and II epitope frequencies in the Canadian population. In addition, Dr. Keown will lead the development of rapid, accurate and sensitive tests for epitope matching and immune monitoring in transplant patients. Dr Keown will also work towards the development of pharmacology models to allow for personalized treatment of transplant recipients.

Dr. Keown‘s principal research activities encompass immunopharmacology, immunogenetics, immunotherapeutics, molecular genetics, and proteomics. Dr. Keown’s research also focuses on pharmacokinetics and therapeutic drug monitoring, phase I-IV national and international clinical trials, economic evaluation, utility measurement and outcome analysis in health care delivery. He is Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia and served as Executive Director of the BC Transplantation Program, Director of Immunology, Head of the Division of Nephrology, President of the Canadian Transplantation Society, Member of Council and President of the XXIII International Congress of the Transplantation Society. Dr. Keown graduated in Medicine from the University of Manchester, and pursued postgraduate training in England, France, and Canada. He holds research Doctorates in both Medicine and in Science from the University of Manchester, and an MBA from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada, the Royal College of Physicians of London, the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Nephrology and American Society of Angiology, and the Royal College of Pathologies and Royal Society of Chemistry in 2009. Dr. Keown is the founder and C.E.O. of Syreon Corporation, a global research corporation specializing in the use of advanced information technologies for health sciences research.