The Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) has awarded more than $33 million in funding to numerous researchers at McGill and its affiliated hospitals and institutes through the Fall 2019 Project Grant competition.
CIHR awarded 385 health research projects across the country totalling approximately $275 million. Fifty of the projects awarded research grants are led by McGill researchers.
“I would like to congratulate the researchers and their teams of trainees, laboratory technicians, and patient partners for their excellent work and their dedication to advancing scientific knowledge,” said Dr. Michael J. Strong, President, Canadian Institutes of Health Research. “We are proud to support your outstanding research projects that will make a difference in the lives of Canadians.”
CIHR’s largest funding program, the Project Grant competitions support multi-year grants for researchers at various stages in their careers as they conduct research projects that cover the full range of health research topics. The Project Grant program supports “ideas with the greatest potential to advance health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health research, health care, health systems, and/or health outcomes.”
McGill’s Project Grant recipients are leaders in their fields and their projects tackle pressing health issues that matter to Canadians. These projects range from early prediction of preeclampsia in high-risk pregnancies; and tuberculosis prevention in Nunavik; to identifying predictors of anxiety and depression; and exploring potential therapies for spinal cord injury and stroke.
“We are very grateful for the significant funding from the CIHR to our numerous health-focused research projects at McGill,” said Martha Crago, Vice-Principal, Research and Innovation. “The results of the Project Grant competition highlights McGill’s outstanding contributions and continued leadership in health sciences research. Congratulations to our Fall 2019 cohort who are committed to finding solutions for high-quality health care in Canada.”
The 17 McGill projects that were awarded CIHR Project Grants include:
- Dana Anaby
The impact of participation on body functions among youth with physical disabilities: A pragmatic individual-based study
$271,575, three years - Neil Andersson
Decolonizing childbirth with Nunavik Inuit women transferred to high-risk hospitals for childbirth: a co-designed pilot intervention,
$1,718,955, five years - Daniel J. Bernard
Novel insights into GnRH regulation of gonadotropin synthesis
$749,700, five years - Tyler A. Churchward-Venne
Ketone bodies as therapeutic agents to reduce the harmful effects of bed rest on muscle mass and metabolic health in older adults
$420,750, three years - Thomas M. Durcan
Unravelling the complex process of synuclein seeding and propagation with human stem cell derived models
$726,750, five years - Alyson Elise Fournier
Targeting global programs of gene expression to promote axon regeneration
$1,071,000, five years - James L. Gleason, Alyson Elise Fournier, Anthony K. Mittermaier, Nicholas R. Moitessier
Development of 14-3-3 protein/protein interaction agonists as potential therapies for spinal cord injury and stroke
$286,875, three years - David Langlais
IRF1, IRF8 and partners: epigenetic regulators of normal and pathological inflammation
$757,350, five years - Alain Nepveu
The Tumor Suppressor Function of CUX1
$673,200, four years - Samira Abbasgholizadeh Rahimi
Xi-Care: eXplainable intelligent system for Cardiovascular disease management among women in primary Care
$100,00, one year - Richard D. Roy
AMPK blocks epigenetic misregulation and genome instability following acute starvation in C. elegan
$673,200, five years - Reza Salavati
Annotation and discovery of essential pathways in trypanosomatid pathogens
$715,275, five years - Thomas Martin Schmeing
Hybrids and commonalities of thiotemplate enzymes
$860,625, five years - Alvin Shrier
Quality control and pharmacological rescue of heteromeric long QT mutants
$768,825, five years - Faleh Tamimi, Laura Stone
Chronotherapy of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs could enhance bone fracture recovery
$558,450, five years - Timothy H. Wideman, André Bussières, Lesley Singer Norris, Aliki Thomas,
Improving pain education across entry-level physiotherapy programs in Canada: An integrated knowledge translation study
$604,350, five years - Anna Weinberg
Threat and reward sensitivity as markers of stress susceptibility in adolescence: Identifying predictors of anxiety and depression
$581,400, five years 11 months
The 19 projects from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre that were awarded CIHR Project Grants include:
- Faiz Ahmad Khan, Neil Andersson,
Community Health Workers in Tuberculosis Prevention & Care Services in Nunavik,
$707,625, three years - Carolyn Baglole, Ilan Azuelos
Prognostic and Therapeutic Utility of Human Antigen R (HuR) in Fibrosis
$833,850, five years - Swneke D. Bailey
Investigating the Molecular Determinants of Peritoneal Metastasis from Gastro-Esophageal Adenocarcinomas
$753,525, five years - Geneviève Bernard
Unraveling the molecular basis of novel forms of hypomyelinating leukodystrophies
$1,113,075, five years - Nancy E. Braverman
Developing retinal gene augmentation therapy for Zellweger Spectrum Disorder
$933,300, five years - Pnina Brodt
Regulatory circuits controlling the immune microenvironment of liver metastases
$807,075, five years - Styliani Daskalopoulou
Early prediction of preeclampsia using arterial stiffness in high-risk pregnancies; a multinational study (PULSE)
$1,844,568, five years - Samuel David
Ferroptosis-mediated damage in chronic EAE: Implications for progressive MS
$742,050, four years - Maziar Divangahi
Targeting the eicosanoid/macrophage axis to enhance host defense against influenza virus infection
$730,575, five years - Maziar Divangahi
Reprogramming HSCs to generate protective trained immunity against TB
$864,450, five years - Julio F. Fiore, Jr.
Opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after surgical discharge: a systematic review and meta-analysis
$80,325, one year - Jacques Genest, Jr.
Familial hypercholesterolemia in Canada: Precision and personalized approaches to increase identification and improve clinical outcomes
$734,400, five years - Wassim Kassouf
Implication of neutrophil extracellular traps in the efficacy of bladder-sparing therapy in muscle invasive bladder cancer
$902,700, five years - Ivan V. Litvinov
Ectopic reactivation of normally silenced germ cell programs contributes to genomic instability, carcinogenesis and cancer progression in Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphomas (CTCL)
$598,750, five years - Monzur Murshed
Understanding the mechanism of vascular elastocalcinosis and its prevention by MGP
$925,650, five years - Basil J. Petrof
Understanding the basis of diaphragmatic weakness in critical illness
$726,750, five years - Giada Sebastiani
The role of fatty liver in the epidemic of advanced chronic liver disease among people living with HIV
$685,440, five years - Elena Torban
Actin regulation of ciliogenesis: unraveling novel mechanisms of human ciliopathies caused by mutations in the PCP effector genes
$776,475, five years - Simon S. Wing
USP19 in metabolism – mechanisms and translation
$761,175, five years
The three projects from the Douglas Mental Health University Institute that were awarded CIHR Project Grants include:
- Nicolas Cermakian
Circadian regulation of host-pathogen interactions in vector-borne parasitic infections,
$1,005,975, five years - Outi Mantere
Growth and empowerment measure adapted for the Indigenous in Quebec – utility evaluation for psychiatric measurement and intervention
$76,500, one year - Marie-Josée Fleury
Grands utilisateurs de l’urgence en santé mentale et recommandations pour l’amélioration des services
$371,025, three years
The 12 projects from the Jewish General Hospital that were awarded CIHR Project Grants include:
- Jonathan Afilalo
Geriatric Intervention for Frail Heart Failure patients: The GIF-HF Trial
$428,400, four years - Laurent Azoulay
SGLT-2 inhibitors and early bladder cancer events: An international multi-centre study
$286,875, two years and six months - Mark J. Eisenberg
Youth and e-cigarettes: A knowledge synthesis
$114,750, one year and six months - Kristian B. Filion
A personalized dynamic blood pressure control plan for cardiovascular disease prevention among patients with hypertension at low cardiovascular disease risk
$191,250, two years - Céline Gelinas
Managing Pain in Collaboration in the Intensive Care Unit (MPIC-ICU): Impact on clinical practices and patient outcomes
$684,675, four years and six months - Céline Gelinas
Validation of a new multi-parameter technology to better diagnose pain in the adult intensive care population: The Nociception Level (NOL) Index
$524,025, four years - Antonis E. Koromilas
The implication of the adaptive arm of the integrated stress response in KRAS lung cancer
$868,275, five years - Tricia Peters
The protective role of physical activity in polycystic ovary syndrome
$105,000, two years - Alexander Thiel
Non-invasive PET imaging of tropomyosin related kinase B/C receptor in humans
$579,105, three years - Giuseppina Ursini-Siegel
Capitalizing on an oxidative stress response to sensitize poor outcome cancers to PARP inhibitors
$948,600, five years - Giuseppina Ursini-Siegel
Understanding how oxidative stress influences tumor evolution via metabolic reprogramming
$975,375, five years - Oriana Hoi Yun Yu
Thyroid hormone replacement therapy and the risk of adverse cardiovascular events among individuals with mild subclinical hypothyroidism
$122,400, two years