Researchers in the UBC Faculty of Medicine have received a combined total of $62.3 million in grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to bolster cutting-edge medical research.
CIHR Funding
The awards include 20 CIHR Foundation Grants totaling $44.6 million and 31 CIHR Open Operating Grants totaling $15.2 million. This is the first time that CIHR Foundation Grants have been awarded and are part of a $600-million investment in health research by the Government of Canada.
“We are thankful to CIHR and the Government of Canada for providing more than $73 million in support for UBC health researchers,” said UBC President Arvind Gupta. “Our researchers are tackling an array of health issues such as cancer, stroke, autism, heart disease and dementia. The new Foundation Grants program will ensure their work has long-lasting benefits locally, nationally and internationally.”
Janice Eng
The UBC Faculty of Medicine’s 50 grant recipients include Janice Eng, Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, who will be receiving $2.48 million over seven years to further her stroke research. Dr. Eng has already developed two major rehabilitative programs that are improving recovery for the 315,000 Canadians living with the effects of stroke.
Dr. Eng’s CIHR Foundation Grant will allow her to build on her previous research and give stroke survivors additional tools to manage their own rehabilitation.
Dr. Eng will explore tools like a telehealth healthy lifestyle program, an Internet-based arm exercise program and self-monitoring wearable sensor technologies that could help patients integrate stroke recovery into their daily lives.
“The flexibility of the foundation grant will enable me to develop innovative treatments, evaluate them through rigorous multi-site clinical trials and move them quickly to the community to improve the recovery and health of Canadians who are living today with the effects of a stroke,” Dr. Eng said.
By identifying technologies that will empower people to take control of their recovery process, Dr. Eng’s work will improve patients’ quality of life and reduce their risk of secondary health complications.
“UBC’s health researchers are at the forefront of their respective fields and CIHR’s investment will ensure that they continue to make breakthroughs in medicine and treatment,” said John Hepburn, UBC vice president, research and international. “CIHR provides important support for health researchers and trainees to advance our understanding of how to best protect the health of our communities and to tackle the major health issues we face.”
Grant recipients were chosen through a rigorous peer-review process, and the two grant programs will help health researchers improve disease prevention and treatment and strengthen healthcare for Canadians.
The UBC Faculty of Medicine recipients and their project titles are:
Ann Marie Craig, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry
Molecular analysis of synapse development
Shoukat Dedhar, Professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
The Role of Tumor Microenvironment in Cancer Progression: Identification and Therapeutic Intervention of Novel Targets
Janice Eng, Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy
Optimizing and maintaining abilities after stroke
John Gill, Professor in the Department of Medicine
Strategies to achieve self-sufficiency in kidney transplantation in Canada
David Granville, Professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Granzymes in Tissue Injury, Inflammation and Repair
Richard Lester, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine
Evidence to action for Canadian and global mobile health (mHealth) communication to promote patient engagement in care: a rigorous implementation science approach
Peter Leung, Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Hormonal determinants of women's reproductive health and disease
Marco Marra, Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics
Exploring the relationship between the genome and the epigenome in cancers
Timothy Murphy, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry
Enabling novel circuit-based treatments for stroke: insights from cortical circuit monitoring and manipulation in mouse models.
Tonia Nicholls, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry
Violence, Victimization, and Crime among Marginalized Populations: Research to Advance Care and Management
Gina Ogilvie, Professor in the School of Population & Public Health
Integrated global control and prevention of HPV related diseases and cancer
Lynn Raymond, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry
Aberrant NMDA receptor and synaptic signaling in vulnerability to neurodegeneration: Focus on Huntington disease
Sohrab Shah, Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
The clonal dynamics of ovarian cancers: phylogenetic models of chemosensitivity and resistance
Kate Shannon, Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine
Structural Determinants, Sexual Health and HIV/AIDS: Reducing Health & Social Inequities
Donald Sin, Professor in the Department of Medicine
Using Multi-Omics To Discover Novel Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Poul Sorenson, Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Targeting the tumour cell stress response in high-risk childhood cancers
Natalie Strynadka, Professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Structure-based Antibiotic Discovery on the Bacterial Membrane
Evan Wood, Professor in the Department of Medicine
Positioning Canada as an international leader in addiction research and education to improve care and reduce costs to the health care system
Calvin Yip, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Molecular mechanisms of autophagy regulation
Jill Zwicker, Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy
Using Brain Imaging to Determine Predictors of Developmental Coordination Disorder and Response to Intervention
The UBC Faculty of Medicine recipients and their project titles are:
Jehannine Austin, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry
A sex-based, prospective, longitudinal study of variables influencing the mental health of children born to women with psychiatric disorders.
Mariana Brussoni, Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics
The state of play: Socio-ecological perspective on children's outdoor play
Mark Fitzgerald, Professor in the Department of Medicine
Development and validation of Canadian health literacy measurement tool for chronic disease management
Karin Humphries, Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine
Coronary Revascularization: a tool for evidence-based, individualized, shared-decision making (CR-Decide)
K.S. Joseph, Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Application of the fetuses-at-risk paradigm for advancing knowledge and improving obstetric and neonatal care
Jacek Kopec, Professor in the School of Population & Public Health
A Comparison of Strategies to Reduce the Burden of Osteoarthritis: A Population-based Microsimulation Study
Janel Kopp, Assistant Professor in the Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences
Using genetically engineered mouse models to define variables producing pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma heterogeneity
Andrew Krahn, Professor in the Department of Medicine
Impact of Early Repolarization on Long QT Syndrome: Canadian Genetic Heart Rhythm Network
Harley Kurata, Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Atomic resolution pharmacology of anti-epileptic drugs
Teresa Liu-Ambrose, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy
Reshaping the Path of Mild Cognitive Impairment by Refining Exercise Prescription: Understanding Training Type and Exploring Mechanisms
William Lockwood, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Longitudinal assessment of immune-tumor interactions during lung cancer progression
Dan Luciani, Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery
Control of beta-cell mitochondrial physiology and adaptation by core anti-apoptosis proteins
Francis Lynn, Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery
Npas4 Regulation of Glucose Homeostasis
Sai Ma, Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
The role of genetics and epigenetics in meiotic errors underlying impaired spermatogenesis in male infertility
Calum Macaulay, Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
Multi-Scale Tissue System's Biology approach to Identify Lethal Prostate Cancer
Brian MacVicar, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry
Pannexins in cytotoxic swelling-induced cell death
Paul Man, Professor in the Department of Medicine
Epigenetic and Transcriptomic Disturbances in HIV-Associated COPD
William Mortenson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy
Systematic, Comprehensive, One-to-One Training (SCOOT) for Scooter Skills
Brad Nelson, Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics
Mechanisms of Protective Immunity in Ovarian Cancer
Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes, Associate Professor in the School of Population & Public Health
Research on the utilization of therapeutic hydromorphone (RUTH) for long-term opioid dependence
Babak Pourbohloul, Associate Professor in the School of Population & Public Health
An Integrated Real-time Modeling and Surveillance Decision-support Framework to Inform Public Health Emergency Preparedness
Mohsen Sadatsafavi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine
Interventions for undiagnosed and early-stage COPD: Informing policy, practice, and research through an Evaluation Platform in COPD (EPIC)
Terrance Snutch, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry
Structure and function of neuronal calcium channels - contributions to brain pathophysiologies
Weihong Song, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry
The role of RCAN1 in Alzheimer pathogenesis
Paul Yong, Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
Etiology of dyspareunia in endometriosis
Priority Announcement Recipients
Laura Arbour, Professor in the Department of Medical Genetics
Long QT Syndrome in Northern British Columbia: Predicting Risk for sudden death
Shernaz Bamji, Associate Professor in the Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences
Palmitoyl Acyl Transferases in Neurodevelopmental Disease
Liam Brunham, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine
Modeling the Functional Impact of Genetic Variants Associated with Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity in Genome-edited Isogenic Human Cells
Louise Masse, Associate Professor in the School of Population and Public Health
Impact of transitioning to secondary schools on behaviours associated with obesity and academic-related outcomes: An ecological perspective
Ivan Nabi, Professor in the Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences
The endoplasmic reticulum-mitochondria interface and its regulation by the Gp78 ubiquitin ligase
Ivan Sadowski, Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Factors regulating establishment and maintenance of HIV provirus latency
CFI Funding
Nearly $250,000 has been awarded by the federal government to help fund two innovative research projects in the UBC Faculty of Medicine.
The funding is part of the CFI’s John R. Evans Leadership Fund, designed to help institutions attract and retain the very best of today’s and tomorrow’s researchers.
The funding awarded to Faculty of Medicine researchers was among nearly $900,000 awarded to eight UBC researchers, with research areas ranging from respiratory system diseases to advanced materials.
The UBC Faculty of Medicine recipients and their project titles are:
Jeremy Hirota, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine
A Translational Research Platform to Study Occupational and Environmental Respiratory Disease
Tillie-Louise Hackett, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Molecular determinants of obstructive lung disease