Awards and recognition
Three MSL faculty awarded 2025 NSERC Discovery Grants
The Natural Sciences and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC) announced today a total of $589.7 million of research funding awarded through the Discovery Research Program.
$48.6 million of this funding will support 191 projects led by UBC researchers. 162 of these projects received individual Discovery Grants, including projects led by MSL faculty members Dr. Jörg Gsponer, Dr. Xin Li and Dr. Xin Tang.
The NSERC Discovery Grant program aims to recognize creative and innovative research by supporting long term project goals. Distributed over five years, these grants provide operating funds often in tandem with other support programs. Researchers receiving funds have the flexibility to pursue activities that extend beyond their original proposals, as well as collaborative projects.
Dr. Tang also received an additional $12,500 through the Discovery Launch Supplements program, which supports early career researchers to establish their Discovery Grant-funded research program.

Drs. Jörg Gsponer (left), Xin Li (centre) and Xin Tang (right).
MSL faculty led projects include:
Dr. Jörg Gsponer
New ways to predict and model protein allosteric regulation
$245,000 (5 years)
Dr. Xin Li
Regulation of virulence, sclerotia formation and nuclei number in two pathogenic fungi
$400,000 (5 years)
Dr. Xin Tang
Understanding Single-Cell Biology through Explainable and Biologically Informed AI
Discovery Grant: $210,000 (5 years)
Discovery Launch Supplement: $12,500
Quick Links:
- Learn more about the over $1.3 billion in funding awarded to researchers across Canada today
- Learn about all UBC-funded projects from this federal announcement
- Learn about the other UBC Discovery Grant recipients