Human genetics professor receives Banting Discovery Award
Sirui Zhou, Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Genetics, has been awarded a prestigious 2025 Banting Discovery Foundation’s Discovery Award. The award program recognizes innovative biomedical health research projects led by outstanding new investigators at universities and research institutes in Canada.
Zhou received the inaugural $30,000 Banting-Canerector Foundation Discovery Award, established to support investigators focused on Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD), diseases that cause a defect in the human body’s connective tissue.
“It is a tremendous honor to receive the prestigious Banting Discovery Award,” says Professor Zhou. “This support will advance our research to unravel the complex determinants of EDS and HSD. None of this would have been possible without the invaluable collaboration and support of my colleagues in the McGill Canada Excellence Research Chair Program in Genomic Medicine, particularly Dr. Benoît Delabays and Dr. Vincent Mooser—the driving forces behind this program.”
Zhou and her research team aim to uncover the causes of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS)—the most common subtype of EDS and one that is poorly understood. The connective tissue disorder causes a wide range of physical and psychological symptoms, including chronic pain, fatigue, joint instability, depression, and anxiety. There is currently no cure for hEDS, and treatment options remain limited to symptom management.
Zhou’s research program will study individuals with hEDS and their family members across Quebec. Using advanced tools to analyze genes, proteins, and metabolites, her team will identify the genetic, environmental, and metabolic factors that contribute to the disorder—laying the groundwork for more targeted and effective approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and management.
Zhou leads the Population Genomics and Multi-Omics lab which is under the umbrella of the Canada Excellence Research Chair (CERC) in Genomic Medicine at McGill. She is also a member of the Qualitative Life Sciences Program and an Investigator at McGill's Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Institute of Genomic Medicine.
The Banting Discovery Awards are awarded for a one-year term. The intent is to provide seed funding so researchers can gather pilot data and enhance their competitiveness for other sources of funding. This is the Banting Discovery Foundation’s 100th cohort of Discovery Award recipients.