Celebrating more than two decades of the Peterborough K.M. Hunter Foundation’s support for graduate students

The Peterborough K.M. Hunter Graduate Awards provide support for doctoral health science students across Temerty Medicine, with preference for those working in fields with significant personal meaning for Hunter family members. These areas include neurodegenerative diseases (in memory of Elizabeth’s grandmother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s), mental health (in tribute to an uncle who was diagnosed with schizophrenia), glaucoma (in memory of their grandfather), as well as nutrition (in tribute to both a sister who lives with gluten intolerance and a cousin who lives with celiac disease).

The philanthropic foundation can trace its roots back to 1967, when Giesbrecht’s grandfather, Kenneth Martin Hunter, the president of Buntin Reid Paper, founded the K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation to support medical research and social services.

Natalie Galant (BA 2010 UC, BScN 2012, PhD 2018) received her PhD in medical biophysics from U of T in 2018. Galant’s work specializes in protein misfolding diseases, where the build-up of abnormal proteins in the body can negatively impact organ functioning. Conditions involving these faulty proteins – for example, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS, cardiac amyloidosis, and kidney amyloidosis – can be fatal. During her PhD, Natalie’s research contributed to the development of an antibody for the potential treatment of ATTR Amyloidosis, a protein misfolding disease that can impair heart function.

Now serving as CEO of Paradox Immunotherapeutics, Galant and her team are developing antibodies for abnormal proteins through a drug-design platform they created.

Currently investigating antibodies for another protein misfolding disease that can cause heart failure, Galant is also looking to develop potential treatments for conditions that impact the kidneys.

Armineh Babikian is a current PhD Student in U of T’s Rehabilitations Sciences Institute. Before starting her doctoral studies, she worked as an occupational therapist for six years with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in urban low-income settings in New York City and rural Armenia. She is also the founder and executive director of Therapists for Armenia, a multidisciplinary non-profit organization aimed at enhancing rehabilitation and disability services in Armenia through education, advocacy, and collaboration.

Babikian is passionate about supporting people with disabilities and strengthening health-care services in Canada and abroad.

As an international student, Babikian explains that she had limited access to funding and research support, so receiving the K.M. Hunter Graduate Award provided much-needed help that allowed her to continue living and working in Toronto.

Janette Vardy (PhD 2007) was already a doctor when she decided to leave her native Australia to pursue further graduate life sciences studies in Toronto. She completed a PhD in Clinical Epidemiology at U of T under the supervision of Ian Tannock, now an emeritus professor of medicine and medical biophysics at the University and a world-leading medical oncologist and cancer researcher at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

Vardy says she was drawn to research from her interest in how different body systems interact while a patient is undergoing treatment for cancer.

After receiving her PhD, Vardy established the Sydney Cancer Survivorship Centre with the vision of providing more holistic patient-centred care for cancer survivors. The centre places an emphasis on minimising long-term side effects of cancer treatments and improving overall well being for the patients.