Zhang's vision has earned him four grants in 2016.
This has been a very productive year for Dawei Zhang. He recently became the recipient of a US $200,000 grant from Pfizer's ASPIRE Cardiovascular Program, which is his fourth funding success in 2016.
Zhang, from the Department of Pediatrics and a member of the Molecular & Cell Biology of Lipids Research Group, also received a University Hospital Foundation (UHF) Medical Research Program grant; a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery grant, and a Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC) Grant-in-Aid.
PCSK9: A good answer to bad cholesterol
All funding opportunities will support research ventures that are closely related to each other. Zhang will be looking at ways to treat high cholesterol without developing collateral effects like diabetes. His focus for the ASPIRE grant project, for example, lies on the enzyme PCSK9 and the reduction of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), commonly known as "bad cholesterol."
"Given that more than 50,000 Canadians have strokes and more than 75,000 have heart attacks every year, there is an urgent need for an alternative strategy to inhibit PCSK9," says Zhang.
The levels of LDL-C in plasma are linked to the risk of atherosclerosis, a disease caused by plaques of fat, cholesterol and other substances in the arteries that reduce the normal blood flow and could eventually cause heart attacks, strokes or even death.
There is evidence that statins, the most prescribed type of drugs to lower these lipids, are not effective in certain cases of severe elevated plasma cholesterol and cardiovascular risk, and some patients show statin intolerance. For these patients, the alternative is a therapy of inhibition of the enzyme PCSK9, an approach that has proved to be very effective to lower "bad cholesterol," but can be of very limited access due to how expensive it is.
He and his research team may have found some hope in a newly-discovered membrane protein that seems to help PCSK9 secretion from the liver, so it could cause its inhibition as well. "The outcomes may pave the way for new therapies to lower LDL-C effectively and cost-efficiently," explains Zhang.
Different angles to the same research interest
Zhang is also taking on other projects that focus on insulin, since statins are associated with an increased risk for diabetes. Funding from the University Hospital Foundation will go towards studying the potential effects of PCSK9 inhibition on insulin secretion from human primary beta-cell islets-which are provided by the U of A's Clinical Islet Transplant Program-while the study funded by NSERC will help him discover how statins affect insulin secretion from beta cells. Additionally, the HSFC-funded investigation will aim to identify novel therapeutics to reduce plasma LDL-C levels and the risk of atherosclerosis.
Dawei Zhang has been a member of the FoMD for eight years. Previous awards include a Salary Award from CIHR and an equipment grant from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). Currently, he maintains a Salary Award from Alberta Innovates - Health Solutions (2009-2017) and an innovation grant from the Women and Children's Health Research Institute, which was awarded to investigate a currently incurable disease in infants
Meet our partners in innovation
The Advancing Science through Pfizer-Investigator Research Exchange (ASPIRE) program presents awards to advance medical knowledge in fields like gene therapy for hemophilia, rheumatology, dermatology, breast cancer research, endocrinology, cardiovascular research and more.
The University Hospital Foundation connects donors with health research causes to support innovation at the University of Alberta Hospital, Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute and Kaye Edmonton Clinic with the promise of "connecting generosity to save and change lives."
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) is a federal funding agency for university and student research. The Discovery Grants Program supports ongoing programs of innovative research with long-term goals and promotes the pursuit of new research interests.
The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC) is a volunteer-based charity that invests in life-saving research to advance treatment, prevention and recovery for millions of Canadians suffering from heart disease and stroke.