Award Winners

2025 CCUBC Graduate Student Research Prize

Shane Taylor
McMaster University, Hamilton, ON

The Neurotrophic Factor MANF Regulates Autophagy and Lysosome Function to Promote Proteostasis in C. elegans

Shane completed his PhD in the department last year, in the lab of Dr. Bhagwati Gupta, and was a standout during his time in the department on all levels. He is now pursuing postdoctoral studies at the University of British Columbia, where he is being supported by a highly competitive CIHR post-doctoral fellowship.  During the course of his PhD, Shane published an impressive 7 papers, with his final manuscript being his “ pièce de resistance”.  He was the first author of the paper titled “The Neurotrophic Factor MANF Regulates Autophagy and Lysosome Function to Promote Proteostasis in C. elegans".  This work came out last year in the high impact, non-specialist journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Shane’s manuscript was initially submitted to bioRxiv, and to give you a sense for the excitement that his findings have generated in the field, this preprint has been downloaded (pdf or full text html) over 1000 times. The research findings presented in the PNAS manuscript have implications for cell function and healthy aging, and consequently its publication led to significant press, including highlights in EurekAlert (from the American Association for the Advancement of Science) and Science Daily, two forums intended to alert the scientific community about significant new findings. In addition to being a scientific leader within the Biology Department, Shane was also an integral part of the Biology community. He was extremely active in our Biology Graduate Student Society, and his ‘leaving seminar’ was the MOST HIGHLY attended seminar of our departmental seminar series in the last 5 years. Shane has an amazing ability to bring people together, and to promote the working together to achieve common goals.