Pamela Lincez is a fifth year student in the Biotechnology Honors program at UBC who was chosen to participate in this year’s Rising Stars of Research - photo by Martin Dee

UBC Reports | Vol. 55 | No. 8 | Aug. 6, 2009

Students poised to become stars

By Lissa Cowan

Sometimes love at first sight can be a simple matter of biology.

After Calgary native Leah Lim attended last year’s inaugural Rising Stars of Research National Undergraduate Science and Engineering Research Poster Competition at UBC as a fifth-year undergraduate student, she became convinced graduate school was for her. She looked at her options in November 2008 and remembered a brief talk she had with Charles Thompson, professor in UBC’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology, during a tour of science labs.

“He showed us an agar plate with Mycobacteria growing on it,” says Lim. “Then he gave a quick description of what his lab studied, and I was captivated.”

Lim is one of nine students who attended Rising Stars of Research in 2008 and decided to come back to UBC to pursue graduate studies this year. Now in the first year of her master’s, Lim is studying and working at the Thompson Lab in the Life Sciences Centre.

“My research looks at the role of a specific regulatory protein, whiB7, that confers antibiotic resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis,” says Lim. “Learning about this protein will help researchers develop drugs to more successfully treat tuberculosis with antibiotics.”

Rising Stars of Research is coordinated by the UBC Faculty of Graduate Studies and brings together dozens of professors from several faculties to help organize the event, review applications and judge student posters.

“As a professor I feel it is one of my responsibilities to provide support through teaching and helping to guide students who wish to pursue graduate studies,” says François Jean, an associate professor at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at UBC and organizer of the competition.

In 2007, Jean first came up with the idea of holding a national undergraduate science poster competition at UBC to support and encourage students in their ongoing development as scientists and interest them to pursue graduate studies. This year, he is actively involved in the co-ordination of the Rising Stars of Research events with other UBC faculty members.

A new component of this year’s event, August 19-22, is the participation of international students.

UBC’s Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) is leveraging existing relationships to attract top students from the region’s universities. This summer, the University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology will cover the costs for seven students to travel to UBC to participate in the Rising Stars of Research event. They’ll be joined by 100 students from universities across Canada.

“The ultimate goal of the event is to position UBC worldwide as a place where we develop, support and celebrate outstanding young researchers,” says Jenny Phelps, assistant dean and director, Graduate Enrollment Services at the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

Pamela Lincez is a fifth-year student in the Biotechnology Honours program at UBC who was chosen to participate in this year’s event. She is attracted to the field of virology because of the significant impact infections cause on a global scale, especially with viruses like Influenza A virus, Human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and Hepatitis C virus (HCV).

“This event is an opportunity for me to network with students and learn about Canadian and Hong Kong research groups that may be of assistance with future research,” she says. “I hope to receive constructive advice about my work and my plans for graduate research.”

Rising Stars of Research includes a workshop to help students with scholarship applications, opportunities for small groups of students to tour facilities, and interaction with UBC faculty, graduate students and peers from more than 30 Canadian and Hong Kong universities. The highlight of the event is a poster presentation by students in the areas of health sciences, biochemistry and molecular biology, life sciences and psychology, computational sciences and technology, physical and earth sciences, and engineering.

The poster session will be held in the Life Sciences Centre West Atrium on August 20, 11am-2pm, and is open to the public. Awards in each category are valued at $500 each. Co-sponsors of the event include the BC Innovation Council, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, UNBC, BC Mental Health and Addictions Research Network, UBC Facility for Infectious Disease and Epidemic Research (FINDER), and UBC Life Sciences Institute.