Neel Mehta

Dr. Neel Mehta is a Post-doctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the Dept. of Medical Genetics. He holds a PhD in Medical Sciences from McMaster University, where he examined anti-fibrotic therapeutic approaches for the treatment of chronic kidney disease. Neel also holds a MSc from the University of Toronto. Dr. Mehta is the receipt of a fellowship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. 

Neel is working on developing an adeno-associated virus gene therapy product for the treatment of lipoprotein lipase deficiency (LPLD), a disease that causes severely elevated blood triglycerides and life-threatening pancreatitis. His research builds on the original gene therapy product for LPLD, Glybera, developed at UBC, which became the first gene therapy treatment in the world to receive regulatory approval. Due to its extremely high price, Glybera is no longer marketed and patients are left without treatment. Using preclinical animal models of LPLD and through an active collaboration with the National Research Council of Canada, Dr. Mehta’s research will re-introduce and bring forth a novel, more efficacious and cost-effective gene therapy treatment for LPLD.