Rate My Professor Sabine Gilch

Sabine Gilch is a Professor (Teaching & Research) in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary, holding the UCalgary Research Excellence Chair and the Canada Research Chair in Prion Disease Research (Tier II). She obtained her BSc in Molecular Biology from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, in 2006, followed by an MSc in Molecular Biotechnology in 2008 and a PhD in Molecular Biotechnology/Prion Biology in 2009, both from the Technical University of Munich, Germany. After completing her doctorate, she pursued postdoctoral studies at the University of Wyoming before joining the University of Calgary. Currently, she also serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Cumming School of Medicine, and is a full member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Snyder Institute for Chronic Diseases.

Gilch's research centers on prion and prion-like diseases, with a particular emphasis on chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids, the cell biology of prion infection, and the effects of prion propagation on neuronal cholesterol metabolism and endocytic trafficking. Her work explores the potential for CWD transmission to humans, the emergence of prion strains from prion protein allelic variants, and the identification of therapeutic targets using neuronal cell cultures, cell lines, and transgenic mouse models generated in her laboratory. She has secured major funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, National Institutes of Health, and New Frontiers in Research Fund for projects addressing CWD prion transmission, cholesterol homeostasis in prion diseases, and prion heterogeneity. Key publications include "Intracellular re-routing of prion protein prevents propagation of infectious prions" (EMBO Journal, 2001), "The anticancer drug imatinib induces cellular autophagy" (Leukemia, 2007), "Inhibition of cholesterol recycling impairs cellular PrPSc propagation" (Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2009), and "Heterozygosity for cervid S138N polymorphism results in intermediate chronic wasting disease susceptibility" (PNAS, 2023). Among her honors are the University of Calgary PEAK Scholar award in 2017 and the UCVM Research Excellence Award in 2023. She teaches courses such as Virology (VM422, CMMB421) and Molecular Biology and Genetics (VM324).