Dr. Sarah Purcell researches human energy balance in people with chronic diseases, both through the food they’re eating and how that energy is burned.
UBC Okanagan professor Dr. Sarah Purcell is now being recognized as a world-class researcher.
As part of the latest funding announcement from the federal government, Dr. Purcell, an Assistant Professor in the Southern Medical Program and in the Department of Biology, is the new Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Nutrition and Metabolism in Chronic Disease.
Dr. Purcell, who is also an Investigator for the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, focuses her research on understanding human energy balance in people with chronic diseases, both through the food they’re eating and how that energy is burned.
Energy balance for people with chronic diseases—such as obesity, cancer or diabetes—hasn’t been as well studied as for healthy populations. However, chronic diseases can have significant impact on factors like appetite, physical activity levels and even how many calories someone might burn while at rest.
“I’m very honoured to receive this award,” says Dr. Purcell. “It’s going to help us understand these really complex questions of what impacts energy balance in people with chronic disease. Currently, there’s not enough data for these populations to have targeted and evidence-based recommendations for energy intake. In the big picture, perhaps in the next 20 years, I’d love to have more effective nutrition recommendations for these groups.”
Thanks to a partnership between the Canada Research Chair (CRC) program and the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leadership Fund, Dr. Purcell also received funding to build her lab at UBC Okanagan. This infrastructure will include equipment to measure body composition, or the amount of someone’s muscle and fat, as well as different tools for the lab to measure how many calories people burn and how much food they eat.
In the Experimental Behaviour Kitchen, Dr. Purcell’s team prepares and measures the food research participants eat in order to accurately measure calorie consumption.
The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages, on behalf of the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and of the Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health, announced support for over 4,700 researchers and research projects across Canada. These investments of over $960 million through grants, scholarships and programs are part of the government’s ongoing support for Canada’s research ecosystem.
In total, UBC Okanagan researchers were awarded more than $6 million from the combined announcements. Across both campuses, UBC received $68.4 million in funding.
UBC Okanagan is now home to eight Tier 2 Canada Research Chairs.
The federal government established the Canada Research Chairs program in 2000 to promote excellence and innovation in Canadian research centres. Chairholders are some of the world’s most accomplished and promising minds, improving our depth of knowledge and quality of life, strengthening Canada’s international competitiveness and helping train the next generation of researchers.
CFI JELF
In addition to Dr. Purcell’s CRC-associated award, UBCO is home to six other recipients of the John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), totalling over $1.6 million.
Chan, Jessica (Okanagan School of Education)
Improving Literacy Outcomes for Diverse Students and their Families in the Reading, Language, and Mathematics Lab
Gargoum, Suliman (School of Engineering)
Smart Analytics Lab for Modelling Advanced and Livable Infrastructure Systems
Holzman, Jonathan (School of Engineering)
Emerging Technologies for Optical Wireless Communications
Irani, Pourang (Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, CMPS)
Infrastructure for Exploring In-situ Interfaces
Kiesser, Alyse (School of Engineering)
Applied Microbial Systems Ecology: An Integrated Approach to Stable Bioprocesses
Tobber, Lisa (School of Engineering)
Multi-Axial Subassemblage Test System (MAST) to Develop Resilient and Sustainable High-rise Buildings
NSERC Discovery Grants
The minister announced 13 UBCO-led NSERC Discovery Grants with five Discovery Launch Supplements and one award through the Research, Tools and Instrument grants program, together over $3.2 million. UBC as a whole received 139 UBC-led awards for $34.8 million over five years.
(* denotes additional Discovery Launch Supplement)
Chen, Qian (School of Engineering)*
Digital and responsive systems for construction supply chain integration and construction circular economy
Cheng, Julian (School of Engineering)
Intelligent Wireless Robotic Communications
Collier, Christopher (School of Engineering)
Terahertz spectroscopy and microfluidic devices for agri-food applications
Feng, Chen (School of Engineering)
Information and Coding Theory for Blockchain Technology
Gabora, Liane (Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Psychology)
An Autocatalytic Evolutionary Framework for Cognition
Grieneisen, Laura (Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, Biology)*
Causes and consequences of microbial dynamism
Hare, Warren (Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, CMPS)
Structured Blackbox Optimization
Holzman, Jonathan (School of Engineering)
Emerging Technologies for Wireless Communication Systems
Liu, Jian (School of Engineering)
Interfacial Phenomena in Next-Generation Energy Storage Technologies
Osei, Emmanuel (Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, Biology)*
Understanding the role of complex multicellular and multiorgan crosstalk in lung immune protection
van Heusden, Klaske (School of Engineering)*
Data-driven modeling and control for safety-critical applications
Wang, Shawn (Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, CMPS)
New horizons in nonconvex and nonsmooth optimization: regularity theory and splitting algorithms
Zandberg, Wesley (Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, Chemistry)
Development of high-throughput techniques and tools enabling glycomic analysis of gastrointestinal mucus
Discovery Horizons Grant Program
Shave, Rob (School of Health and Exercise Sciences)
The impact of social adversity on cardiovascular aging
Research, Tools and Instrument
Liu, Jian (School of Engineering)
In-situ Analysis of Mass and Mechanical Changes of Interfaces and Interphases in Energy Storage Systems by Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation Monitoring
SSHRC Partnership Development Grants
Four projects led by UBC researchers were awarded a combined total of $0.8 million, with two UBCO projects awarded $0.4 million.
- Ford, Adam (Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science, Biology)
Is Conservation Always Ethical? The Socio-Cultural Dimensions of Woodland Caribou Conservation in Western Canada-
- Partner organizations:
Biodiversity Pathways Ltd. Natural Resources Canada
Natural Resources Canada
- Partner organizations:
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- Gainforth, Heather (School of Health and Exercise Sciences)
Understanding and Supporting Best Practices for Meaningful Engagement in Spinal Cord Injury Research-
- Partner organizations:
Canadian Spinal Research Organization
Health Research BC (Michael Smith Health Research BC)
International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries
North American Spinal Cord Injury Consortium
Praxis Spinal Cord Institute
Spinal Cord Injury BC
Spinal Cord Injury Ontario
- Partner organizations:
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SSHRC Insight Grants
Fifty-seven projects led by UBC researchers were awarded a combined $10.3 million. At UBCO, five projects totalled more than $800,000.
Dulic, Aleksandra (Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies)
Okanagan WaterFutures: Experiential Games for Water Responsibility
Frohlick, Susan (Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, CCGS)
Sound, Memory, Listening: Sonic Worlds and Refugees’ Emergent Belonging in a Multiracial City
Grinnell, George (Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies)
Punk Pedagogy
Latimer, Heather (Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, CCGS)
Conceiving the Future: Dystopia and Reproductive Politics
Walker, David (Faculty of Management)
And just like that, things got worse? The role of key moments in service encounters on customer co-production, customer satisfaction, and employee performance