Advani Lab

Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science & Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital & University of Toronto.

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

About Us

The Advani Lab’s mission is to improve the lives of people with diabetes now and in the future.

Diabetes happens when the sugar levels in your blood are too high. When the sugar levels in your blood are too high for too long this can cause long-term health problems like kidney disease and heart disease. These long-term health problems are called diabetes complications.

Our Objective

Our objective is to improve the lives of people with diabetes, now and in the future. To achieve this objective, our research program has three strands:

Investigating the causes of kidney disease in diabetes, with a focus on epigenetic processes, inflammation, chronic kidney disease and acute kidney injury.

Exploring the causes of heart failure, especially heart failure in diabetes, focusing on understanding how inflammation affects heart function.

Understanding the lived experience of those with diabetes, and exploring how people with diabetes can partner with their healthcare organization to improve diabetes care.

Living With Diabetes

Find education, support, and resources to improve quality of life with diabetes. If you are a person living with diabetes, check out our Living With Diabetes page.

Research Interests

Our discovery research focuses on the causes of kidney disease and heart disease, especially kidney disease and heart disease in diabetes.

Lab Members

Dita Chamoun

Research Coordinator III

Email Dita

Suzanne Advani

Research Technician II

Email Suzanne

Lisa Hong

Graduate Student

Email Lisa

Youan Liu

Research Technician IV

Email Youan

Sri Batchu

Senior Research Associate

Email Sri

Duc Tin Tran

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Email Duc Tin

Harmandeep Kaur

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Email Harmandeep

Syeda Madiha Zahra

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Email Syeda

Emily Yeung

Graduate Student

Email Emily

Andrew Advani

Principal Investigator

Email Andrew

Featured Publications

Preventing occludin tight-junction disruption via inhibition of microRNA-193b-5p attenuates viral load and influenza-induced lung injury.

Vaswani CM, Varkouhi AK, Gupta S, Ektesabi AM, Tsoporis JN, Yousef S, Plant PJ, da Silva AL, Cen Y, Tseng YC, Batah SS, Fabro AT, Advani SL, Advani A, Leong-Poi H, Marshall JC, Garcia CC, Rocco PRM, Albaiceta GM, Sebastian-Bolz S, Watts TH, Moraes TJ, Capelozzi VL, Dos Santos CC. Molecular Therapy. 2023;31:2681-2701.

Altered expression, but small contribution, of the histone demethylase KDM6A in obstructive uropathy in mice.

Hong LYQ, Yeung ESH, Tran DT, Yerra VG, Kaur H, Kabir MDG, Advani SL, Liu Y, Batchu SN, Advani A. Disease Models & Mechanisms. 2023;16:dmm049991.

Pressure overload induces ISG15 to facilitate adverse ventricular remodeling and promote heart failure

Yerra VG, Batchu SN, Kaur H, Kabir MDG, Liu Y, Advani SL, Tran DT, Sadeghian S, Sedrak P, Billia F, Kuzmanov U, Gramolini AO, Qasrawi DO, Petrotchenko EV, Borchers CH, Connelly KA, Advani A. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2023;133:e161453.

News

3rd October 2023

Some updates from our lab. Firstly, a very warm welcome to Dr. Syeda Madiha Zahra who has joined us as a new post-doctoral fellow, and to Emily Yeung who has joined us as a new graduate student. Secondly, congratulations to Lisa Hong on her first ever first-authored paper published in Disease Models and Mechanisms.

15th May 2023

Many congratulations to Dr. Duc Tin Tran on being awarded a Novo Nordisk-BBDC Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Banting and Best Diabetes Centre.

10th May 2023

We’re pleased to let you know about two new publications from our lab. The first was led by Dr. Veera Ganesh Yerra, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation on 1st May 2023 (PMID:37115698). In it, we describe a new mechanism by which inflammation causes heart failure. The second was led by Dr. Harmandeep Kaur, published in the British Journal of Pharmacology on April 28 th 2023 (PMID:37115600), in which we report the G-protein coupled receptors expressed by activated kidney fibroblasts.