Supporting Leading Edge Diabetes Research: New Sonia M. Yung Pilot and Feasibility Grant to be Awarded in 2024

September 8, 2023

While research is essential to driving life-changing advances in health care, many scientists and innovators struggle to secure funding for the critical early stages of their most promising work. Now, thanks to a generous gift from Sonia M. Yung, researchers at the University of Toronto’s Banting & Best Diabetes Centre (BBDC) will have access to a new grant that will help them pursue their most novel ideas.

The new Sonia M. Yung Pilot and Feasibility Grant will be awarded in 2024 – funding a BBDC investigator as they launch new diabetes-related biomedical research that could ultimately lead to improved outcomes for people living with this common condition.

The award will be named for Yung who serves as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Toronto-based health care investment banking firm Bloom Burton & Co.. Following her own diagnosis with Type I diabetes in 2017, Yung has championed advancements in diabetes care and advocates for those impacted by the disease through her role as director of both Diabetes Canada and the National Diabetes Trust Corporation.

“Grants like this are incredibly important to driving innovation, especially when other funding sources are more stretched than ever before,” says Minna Woo, Director of the BBDC and a Professor of Medicine, Immunology and Pharmacology and Toxicology at U of T. “It will help a promising project get started – laying the groundwork for potential new therapies and tools that could significantly improve the lives of people living with diabetes.”

“We’re so grateful to Sonia for her investment in this grant and for recognizing the need to look beyond the inherent risks of early-stage innovation projects to the life-changing impact they can have on patients and communities,” she adds.