Maor Arad and Sara Vujakovic awarded 2025-2026 William and Dorothy Gilbert Scholarships

We extend our congratulations to Maor Arad and Sara Vujakovic, the recipients of the 2025-2026 William and Dorothy Gilbert Scholarship in Biomedical Sciences. This award, established in 1995 by Professor Terrance Snutch in honour of William and Dorothy Gilbert, celebrates the accomplishments of outstanding doctoral students at the Michael Smith Laboratories. While focused on different targets, this year’s recipients are both using new technologies to analyze samples, producing results that could help inform future healthcare approaches.

Maor Arad (he/him) is a biochemistry PhD candidate in the lab of Dr. Leonard Foster (MSL, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology). He completed his Honours Bachelor of Biology at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford with a minor in Chemistry. His undergrad research in the field of proteomics led him to Dr. Foster’s lab in the MSL, where he’s contributing to the Canadian Microbiome Mapping Initiative (CMMI).

This initiative is a collaborative effort for Canadian researchers to map the human microbiome using omics technologies. Arad’s work is focused on optimizing the methods his lab is using to characterize microbiome samples using mass spectrometry-based proteomics, lipidomics, and metabolomics.

“I’m helping to optimize how we handle samples, how we run them through the instrument, and how we can integrate our data,” explains Arad. “The idea is not just to get results from this project, but to also set up a multi-group collaboration where other samples can go through the same pipeline in the future.”

While they’re currently using samples exploring healthy aging in BC, and next looking at Parkinson’s disease, the final goal is a pipeline that groups can use to run samples for any health condition, whether chronic or acute, to see how the microbiome differs and impacts different diseases.

Arad was inspired to work in this field as he wanted to do something that could have a positive impact on human health, working behind the scenes to shape healthcare approaches. He’s also enjoying the collaborative aspects of this project, and notes how important it is to have cross-talk between research teams to move the project forward.

He’s grateful for the support of the Gilbert Scholarship for his work. “This award is a great recognition for me and the importance of what I’m doing, while also helping to relieve some financial burden.”

Sara Vujakovic (she/her) is a PhD candidate studying microbiology in Dr. Jim Kronstad’s lab (MSL, Microbiology and Immunology).

Vujakovic completed her undergraduate degree at UBC Okanagan in microbiology before she took a year off to work in a chemistry lab. There, she developed her research skills through analyzing wine samples, looking for contamination from wildfires. She then joined the Kronstad lab where her current project explores the connection between mitochondria and the cell wall in the pathogenic fungus Cryptococcus neoformans.

“Existing literature has suggested that defects in one can affect the other,” Vujakovic explains. “For example, if we modify mitochondria structures, proteins, or pathways, we often find that the cell wall has been reconstructed. However, no one fully understands how the two are linked, so that is my overarching focus.”

The way she’s doing this is through a screen of all of the genes in the genome, where she’s able to test and sequence fungi that have had different genes deactivated to see how those genes impact growth and antifungal drug sensitivity. The approach she’s taking allows the process to move much more quickly than previously possible. This is because a movable element, called a transposon, is inserted into the DNA, and as the fungus grows the transposon moves into different positions in the genome to interrupt individual genes. The different insertion mutants that survive can then be screened and the changes identified in a high throughput manner.

The hope is to identify genes that have an impact on both the cell wall and mitochondria, so that new drugs and therapeutics can be developed that target those genes or their products. Vujakovic highlights the importance of finding new antifungal targets because there are currently only a few classes of antifungal drugs, some species are developing resistance, and it is difficult to target fungi because of their close genetic relation to humans.

Reflecting on receiving the Gilbert scholarship, Vujakovic shares, “as a first-generation Canadian and the first in my family to pursue higher education to this extent, receiving this award is incredibly validating and provides a reassurance in my skills and progress. It also supports me financially so I can focus more on my research.”

Congratulations once more to both students for this award and their research achievements thus far. We look forward to seeing how their projects will improve healthcare approaches in the future.