IMHA Lab of the Month - February 2020: The Trant Team
Dr. John Trant--CIHR-Arthritis Early Career Researcher
With cutting edge research taking place across the country, IMHA is pleased to share the great strides labs, trainees, and patient partners are making along with innovative knowledge translation (KT) efforts. This month, we highlight the Trant Team — a new biomedical research group located at the University of Windsor in Ontario.
The Trant Team focuses on applying tools of synthetic and computational chemistry/ biochemistry to unmet challenges in biomedical science. My name is John Trant. I hold a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Ottawa where I made and studied antifreeze glycoproteins for organ cryopreservation, and then conducted postdoctoral work at Brock and Western Universities studying the total synthesis of natural products and chemical engineering and nanoscience respectively.
In late 2019 I received a jointly-funded CIHR-Arthritis Canada Early Career researcher award that, with additional support from the University of Windsor, will support our arthritis program over the next 6 years. My team, along with my collaborators and mentors, design new chemical probes that bind extremely tightly to immune system receptors that initiate an immune response to collagen and other antigens. By blocking these receptors, we can potentially develop a new therapy to relieve the burden of rheumatoid arthritis. These probes will also help colleagues in the field explore the molecular underpinnings of this disease.
Using computational design, we create and evaluate new unnatural amino acids and peptides. We then apply them to a 3-D printed ex vivo model of human synovium--the tissue targeted by rheumatoid arthritis. We are excited to push forward with our new funding.
One challenge we face is that our work is “one-more-step removed" from the bedside compared to many other health researchers. Our focus is largely on the design of new chemical entities and drugs to target proteins identified by others. This means that we must be very clear about how our work will benefit the health of Canadians—especially when talking with the public or to industrial or funding partners.
Our core tenet is to create entirely new molecules that do things no previous molecule can--this is our lab’s superpower! We are always eager to partner with other researchers who need new molecules and actively look for new collaborations. Interdisciplinary research is central to advancing biomedicine. We are happy to wander outside of our silo and are extremely honoured that CIHR and Arthritis Canada have welcomed us in to the larger musculoskeletal health research community!
Feel free to connect with us on:
Twitter: @TrantTeam
Instagram: @TrantTeam
Webpage: The Trant Team
- Date modified: