Dr. Michael Kobor appointed to BC Leadership Chair
AllerGen Research Leader Dr. Michael Kobor, a Professor of Medical Genetics and Canada Research Chair in Social Epigenetics at The University of British Columbia, has been appointed to the Sunny Hill BC Leadership Chair in Child Development.
The Chair provides an endowment that will support Dr. Kobor’s research into the mechanisms and processes by which biological embedding occurs—how experience gets “under the skin” to influence lifelong health and well-being. Dr. Kobor’s work builds on that of the late Dr. Clyde Hertzman and of previous Chairholder Dr. Thomas Boyce.
BC Leadership Chairs are supported by the Leading Edge Endowment Fund (LEEF) of the Government of British Columbia, established in 2002 to strengthen the province’s position as a centre of excellence in research. Dr. Kobor’s Chair is further funded by the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, the Lawson Foundation, the Donald Rix Foundation and the Koerner Foundation.
As part of his work, with AllerGen support Dr. Kobor and his team are analyzing DNA from the umbilical cord blood of children participating in the CHILD Study and the Kingston Allergy Birth Cohort to determine if environmental influences, including maternal stress and childhood poverty, have epigenetic effects that influence allergy and asthma risk. Dr. Kobor is also a CHILD Study Investigator and serves on the Study’s Executive Committee.