Michelson Postdoctoral Prize Lectureship awarded to Goderich resident

Chapin Korosec has been awarded the Michelson Postdoctoral Prize Lectureship for his work in exceptional scientific, early-career research achievements on a global scale.

The Michelson Postdoctoral Prize Lectureship is considered a prestigious, international award, particularly in the field of physics.

It is presented to an outstanding postdoctoral researcher in any subfield of physics, signifying recognition for exceptional early-career research achievements on a global scale.

Goderich resident Chapin Korosec has just recently received the Michelson Postdoctoral Prize Lectureship award.

Normally awarded to physicists at Ivey League schools, Korosec believes he is one of the only Canadians who has received this award, and one of the only Canadians at a Canadian institute.

“This award is one of the more prestigious international awards given to scientists at my career stage,” said Korosec.

“It is nice to be recognized, however, it also provides motivation to keep working and to continue to do more interesting research.”

Korosec grew up in and currently lives in Goderich with his family. He went to Victoria Public School and GDCI, but left to do his undergrad, PhD and pursue his career in science. Korosec now works remotely at York University.

Currently based in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Korosec has received this award for his exceptional research achievements in physics.

As part of the lectureship, Korosec will highlight his PhD research in designing and implementing the first synthetic protein-based molecular motor.

According to Korosec, his research focuses on developing mathematical and machine learning approaches to understanding the human immune response to viruses and vaccination, as well as how viruses infect their hosts.

Korosec believes he was chosen over the other applicants because of his recently published research designing and implementing the first protein-based synthetic molecular motor. This research was done during his PhD but published several years following his PhD.

“Imagine a motor, not unlike the motors you are used to seeing – think car engines, lawn motors,” explained Korosec.

“But it is so tiny that it fits within the ridges of your fingerprint, about one million times smaller than a car engine. Motors this small exist in nature, as protein motors within every cell of our body.”

Korosec explains that these protein motors distribute resources throughout our cells to keep our cells, like neurons, alive and well.

Korosec developed a synthetic man-made version of nature’s protein motors and showed they moved around when viewed under a microscope.

He and his team named the motor ‘the lawnmower’, because it is designed to consume a specific type of protein.

“As it moves about, it leaves behind a wake of consumed protein,” explained Korosec.

“It is the first synthetic motor version of its kind, which is neat.”

Korosec explained that his work involves working alongside clinicians and public health researchers to understand diseases and immunological trends.

Following his PhD, where he worked on making these tiny motors, the pandemic happened, and Korosec switched to applied mathematics.

During that time there were some interesting and emerging scientific topics happening, which Korosec is excited to contribute to.

At York University, he is a machine learning research scientist, or an applied mathematician, depending on what conference he is attending.

Korosec works for Professor Jane Heffernan within the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. His research at York with Dr. Heffernan focuses on the human immunological response to vaccines and diseases.

“We work with clinicians to understand how the human body responds to vaccination, and how comorbidities such as diabetes, asthma, or HIV influence that response,” Korosec explained.

“We were among the first scientists in the world to publish on how long the antibody response from the COVID-19 vaccines actually lasts in the human body and recommended when a third dose ought to be administered.”

According to Korosec, he and his team were among the first to later characterize how three COVID vaccines doses leads to longer-lasting immunity than two doses.

Now, Korosec is working on two projects: Understanding how SIV traverses a macaque’s body within two weeks after the infection onset and building a machine learning algorithm to understand a person with HIV’s full vaccine immune signature, and how it differs to a non-HIV infected individual.

“Our research meaningfully contributes to our understanding of the immunological protection afforded from vaccination and attempts to untangle the complex immunological interactions that lead to our vaccine-gained immunity,” added Korosec.

“Some people don’t mount a vaccine immune response, while others mount one, but it quickly diminishes. Why? We work on that. I believe mathematics plays a fundamental role in advancing our understanding of immunology.”

The lectureship prize is awarded to junior scholars active in any field of physics. The winner will spend one week in residence at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and deliver two technical lectures and a colloquium.

During his time in Cleveland, he will give three different talks the week of April 6. The main award lecture will focus on the work Korosec has done developing the first synthetic protein-based molecular motor.

According to Korosec, while he was working on engineering this protein-based molecular motor, he was also writing and publishing simulations and theory to try to understand how to optimize its design, while supervising students.

Korosec will also give two other technical talks, one about machine learning applications and another one about the physics of characterizing motion of tiny things small enough to get buffeted about randomly by water molecules.

Following his talks in April, Korosec is hopeful the audience will take away the fact that humans are beginning to understand, engineer, and control synthetic and natural systems that operate at the relevant lengths of cellular life.

“There is a myriad of diseases that occur that we can prevent in the future with more understanding,” Korosec explained.

“Nature’s protein motors are some of the most incredibly efficient machines we are aware of. These motors really bend our mind, because they are so small they operate under different physical constraints.”

For example, Kinesin is a protein motor and looking at its force – how much it can pull cellular cargo – to its weight, it is equivalent to a person being able to pull a 747 aircraft.

Kinesins are biological motor proteins that function to assist cells with the transport of molecules along microtubules. Simply put, they function as highways within cells.

These proteins also play a pivotal role in mitosis (cell division).

Korosec explains that while working on the molecular motor project he was inspired by the romance of ‘To boldly go where no one has gone before’ – Star Trek’s opening monologue.

He said he was motivated to achieve something that has never been done before, and that inspired him to get into the lab everyday.

Currently, Korosec lives in Goderich with his wife and daughter, and he is a Goderich Lion. Recently, in talking with his wife Alexandra and fellow Lion Michael Daly, Korosec explains that they have founded a company together called EpiSense.

This company aims to make learning facts on disease levels in your local community, like influenza, COVID-19 and measles, as easy as checking the weather.

“I think it is going to form the next major chapter of my life,” he said.

“I am very excited for what we are going to achieve together.”

The Michelson Postdoctoral Prize Lectureship carries an honorarium of $3,000 in addition to travel expenses. Nominees must have been awarded a PhD between 2016 and 2024.