Dear Community,
I am humbled and honoured to be appointed the inaugural Edwin S.H. Leong UBC Chair in Healthy Aging – A UBC President’s Excellence Chair. I am eternally grateful to Dr. Leong for his generosity, vision and commitment to advancing the science of healthy aging. I am also grateful to the Faculty of Medicine at UBC for their support in the initial stages of program development.
Since my recent appointment as the Edwin S.H. Leong UBC Chair in Healthy Aging – A UBC President’s Excellence Chair in April 2022, I have enjoyed meeting with many members of the UBC community to discuss our shared vision for creating an interdisciplinary, holistic, and collaborative program centred on the biology of aging. This multi-faceted program will look at aging from a society-to-cell perspective to understand the biological, environmental, and social factors that influence aging trajectories. I look forward to meeting many more members of the university to hear your visions and ideas for the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging and would like to encourage anyone who is interested to reach out to be a part of these important discussions.
I anticipate the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging providing the forum to unite researchers, health care practitioners, and trainees across faculties and departments at UBC and affiliated hospital sites who have an interest in research, education and knowledge translation related to healthy aging. I am excited for the many initiatives and opportunities for collaboration that will encourage the cross-pollination of ideas and lead to new research that will transform healthy aging and help people live longer, healthier lives.
As the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging grows at UBC, we will make strategic linkages with other national and international centres and organizations focused on healthy aging. Already, the program was involved in teaching at the Russell Sage Summer Institute for postdoctoral fellows and early career faculty at Northwestern University in early June 2022. The program also co-hosted a research seminar featuring Dr. Lluis Quintana-Murci from the Pasteur Institute in France on July 5th, 2022 who discussed the genetic and evolutionary sources of human immune response variation.
The next academic year will be a year of rapid growth and development for the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging. I am keen to work with you all to further increase UBC’s recognition as a national and international leader in aging research. Together we will define the pathways through which individuals, communities, health systems and whole societies can deliver a future with healthy, optimized aging for all.
If you are interested in being a member of the Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging and joining us on this journey, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
Michael Kobor, PhD
Edwin S.H. Leong UBC Chair in Healthy Aging – A UBC President’s Excellence Chair
Canada Research Chair in Social Epigenetics
Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, University of British Columbia
Published: July 11, 2022
Updated: May 18, 2023