We are pleased to announce the recipients of the G-Can Initiative Grant 2025:

Prakrit Jena.

Proposal: Lysosomal Lipid Flux in PBMCs as Quantitative Biomarker to Stratify GBA1-PD Risk and Therapeutic Response

Dr. Prakrit Jena is the co-founder and CTO of Lime Therapeutics, where he invented the LipidSense platform. Previously a Senior Research Scientist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, he authored 20+ publications and holds two patents in applied nanotechnology.
He earned a PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois.

Dimitri Krainc.

Proposal: Investigating fatty acid desaturase 2 (FADS2) as potential modifier of GBA1 activity

Dimitri Krainc, MD, PhD, FANA is the Ward Professor and Chair of Neurology and Director of the Feinberg Neuroscience Institute at Northwestern. Krainc is a member of the Association of American Physicians, National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Inventors and serves as President of the American Neurological Association.

Maria S Ioannou.

Proposal: The effects of GBA1 on sphingolipid metabolism and ectosome biogenesis in PD

Dr. Maria Ioannou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Alberta and a Tier II Canada Research Chair in Brain Lipid Cell Biology. Her research investigates how lipid trafficking influences neuronal function in Parkinson’s disease using biochemistry and advanced microscopy.