Temerty Medicine awards six Postdoctoral Pathway Fellowships to support research innovation and excellence

Six postdoctoral scholars have received the inaugural Temerty Postdoctoral Pathway Fellowship from the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

The fellowship program, which launched in fall 2025, aims to attract top talent to the university by offering $75,000 per year for up to two years along with professional development support. It was partially supported by funds from the historic $250-million gift from the Temerty Foundation.

“With all the changes that have happened south of the border, people feel significant threat to the foundation of science and the ability to train the next generation,” says Rulan Parekh, a clinician-scientist and professor of medicine and paediatrics who was appointed special advisor, research partnerships to Dean Lisa Robinson in April 2025.  

“This was an opportunity for us to make sure that the best and brightest are being supported and coming to Toronto.”

The Pathway Fellowships are a signature program launched under Parekh’s leadership in close collaboration with Jen Gommerman, professor and chair of immunology at Temerty Medicine. Parekh credits Gommerman with raising the idea for a dedicated initiative to recruit postdoctoral fellows.

The program was developed and run by the office of the vice dean, research and health science education at Temerty Medicine, with Parekh and Gommerman leading the selection committee of six faculty members to adjudicate the competition.

One of the Pathway Fellowship recipients is Giorgia Toscano, who recently completed her PhD in organic synthesis at the University of Vienna.

A native of Rome, Italy, Toscano moved to Toronto in December 2025 to pursue postdoctoral training with Lewis Kay, a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at Temerty Medicine. Kay is internationally recognized for his work developing nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy methods to visualize protein molecules and understand how they function.

“I spent my PhD reading his papers and wished one day that I could study and learn from him,” says Toscano.

Her project uses NMR techniques to examine proteins called histones, which play a key role in organizing DNA and making it accessible to be read and copied. Specifically, Toscano is examining how cancer-related mutations in histones affect their structural dynamics and behavior.

She says that the fellowship provides peace of mind and stability, which will allow her to focus on her research and training.

For both Toscano and Lingke Liu, another recipient of the Pathway Fellowship, their decisions to move to Canada were driven by the opportunity to learn from world-leading researchers and be part of a dynamic Toronto research ecosystem.

Liu, who was born in Hubei, China, studied marine viruses during her PhD at Xiamen University and came to U of T to start a postdoctoral fellowship with Jeffrey Lee, a professor of laboratory medicine and pathobiology at Temerty Medicine.  

Her project focuses on a virus called infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV), which has caused significant disease outbreaks in farmed salmon in Canada and the US resulting in major economic losses. While ISAV is part of the same viral family as influenza viruses, it uses a distinct — and poorly understood — method to infect host cells.

To gain a better understanding of how the salmon virus enters cells, Liu is studying two proteins on the surface of the virus and looking for salmon host proteins that are required for the process. She notes that the future outcomes of her work could provide insights relevant to other human viruses including the paramyxovirus family which includes respiratory syncytial virus and the mumps and measles viruses.

In addition to her scientific training, Liu hopes that her fellowship will offer opportunities to develop the “soft” skills needed to become a successful independent scientist. She says she is keen to learn about strategies to lead a research group and manage students.

Parekh notes that the cohort of six Pathway Fellowship recipients will have access to professional development supports that will address these and other topics.

For example, recipients will be able to take part in the Temerty Teaching Mentorship Program to gain hands-on experience in designing lectures and teaching, and in the Temerty Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Platform to receive entrepreneurship training and mentorship.

The Temerty Postdoctoral Pathway Fellowship program also aligns with the Research Excellence Postdoctoral Fellows program recently announced by U of T to fund 100 new two-year fellowships across its three campuses.

Looking ahead, Parekh hopes that the Pathway Fellowship program can seed the creation of an integrated postdoc community across the Toronto Academic Health Sciences Network (TAHSN). Several TAHSN hospitals, including the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the University Health Network, have launched their own initiatives to recruit talented researchers to the Toronto ecosystem.

“There are many postdocs doing amazing work and it’s important that they benefit from the camaraderie and collegiality that you get from working together,” says Parekh, who also serves as vice-president, academics at Women’s College Hospital.

“We want to set them up for success.”