Faculty of medicine researchers are among the UBC awardees of funding through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant: Fall 2023 competition.
A total of 46 projects led by UBC researchers were awarded $31.3 million in combined funding. The projects address key health challenges including cancer, respiratory health, osteoarthritis and more.
On a national level, CIHR approved a total of 374 research grants, plus 6 bridge grants, for a total investment of approximately $325 million. In addition, 150 priority announcement grants were funded for a total amount of $16,400,000 and 14 supplemental prizes were awarded for a total of $450,000.
Faculty of Medicine-led Project Grants
- Functional characterization of genomic DNA elements regulating epigenetic silencing
Principal Investigator: Carolyn Brown (Medical Genetics) - Blood based biomarker for the early detection of recurrent oropharyngeal cancer
Principal Investigator: Cathie Garnis (Surgery) - Evolving Criminal Legal System Approaches, Women, Substance Use, Violence & HIV – A Qualitative Study
Principal Investigator: Andrea Krüsi (Medicine) - Personalized drug safety and targeted drug therapies for individuals with truncating titin variants
Principal Investigator: Zachary Laksman (Medicine) - Accelerated Lung Aging in People Living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Principal Investigator: Janice Leung (Medicine) - Development of clinical candidate hypoxia-activated DNA-PK inhibitors
Principal Investigator: Andrew Minchinton (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine) - “How far is too far?” Creating an evidence base to support safe provision of medication abortion for people living far from emergency services
Principal Investigators: Wendy Norman (Obstetrics and Gynaecology); Bonnie Henry (School of Population and Public Health); Sarah Munro (Obstetrics and Gynaecology) - Toward Effective Policy and Clinical Care in the Context of Track 2 MAID in Canada
Principal Investigator: Michael Mckenzie (Surgery) - Investigating altered sensorimotor processing in Huntington disease
Principal Investigator: Lynn Raymond (Psychiatry) - Anti-Platelet Therapy in Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (APT-SCAD) Trial
Principal Investigator: Jacqueline Saw (Medicine) - Optogenetic stimulation after spinal cord injury in rodents
Principal Investigator: Dena Shahriari (Orthopaedics) - A synthetic biology approach to unlocking the role of the ribosome in cell competition
Principal Investigator: Nika Shakiba (School of Biomedical Engineering) - Targeting metabolic vulnerabilities in childhood cancers using immunotherapy
Principal Investigator: Poul Sorensen (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine) - Using locally developed computer-assisted detection to promote social justice for a population with a high burden of lung disease: A participatory equity-sensitive approach
Principal Investigator: Jerry Spiegel (School of Population and Public Health) - The Cedar Project: Strengthening Our Spirit Intervention for Indigenous peoples who use drugs in Vancouver, BC
Principal Investigator: Patricia Spittal (School of Population and Public Health) - Cytokine receptor common beta chain alterations in mediastinal lymphomas
Principal Investigator: Christian Steidl (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine) - Defining mechanisms for TBP-independent transcription
Principal Investigator: Sheila Teves (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) - Impact of endoscopy bowel preparation on microbiota-mucosal interactions in inflammatory bowel disease
Principal Investigator: Carolina Tropini (School of Biomedical Engineering) - Examining drivers of disparities in experiences and outcomes of perinatal care in Canada through community participatory action research
Principal Investigator: Saraswathi Vedam (Family Practice) - Psilocybin Assisted Therapy (PAT) for Treatment Resistant Depression in Bipolar II Disorder (TRD.BD-II): A Randomized Controlled Trial
Principal Investigators: Lakshmi Yatham, Kyooseob Ha and Kamyar Keramatian (Psychiatry)
Faculty of Medicine-led Priority Announcements
- Health Effects of Wood Smoke and Traffic-Related Air Pollution Exposures: A Necessary Comparison
Principal Investigators: Christopher Carlsten and Emily Brigham (Medicine)
Project Grant – Priority Announcement: Health and Climate Change
External funding partner(s): Health Canada (Ottawa) - Implementation research to improve scale-up of the delivery of evidence-based community exercise programs for stroke
Principal Investigators: Janice Eng, Taru Manyanga and Courtney Pollock (Physical Therapy); Brodie Sakakibara (Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy)
Project Grant – Priority Announcement: Patient-Oriented Research - Development and Commercialization of a Safe and Effective Mpox Subunit Vaccine with Global Impact
Principal Investigators: Leonard Foster (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
Project Grant – PA: Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies Research - Pro-inflammatory platelet signaling: identifying novel therapeutic targets for periodontitis
Principal Investigator: Hugh Kim (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
Project Grant – Priority Announcement: IMHA: Oral Health - Prenatal Exposure to Wildfire Disasters and their Association with Early Childhood Health, Development, and Epigenetics
Principal Investigators: Michael Kobor (Medical Genetics / Biochemistry and Molecular Biology); Sarah Henderson (School of Population and Public Health)
Project Grant – Priority Announcement: Health and Climate Change - EPIC Health: Exercise in Perimenopause to Improve Cognitive Health
Principal Investigators: Teresa Liu-Ambrose, Cindy Barha and Linda Li (Physical Therapy)
Project Grant – Priority Announcement: Aging - Perinatal Opioid Exposures, Trajectories, Insights and Concentrations: The POETIC Network
Principal Investigators: Charissa Patricelli (Family Practice); Timothy Oberlander (Pediatrics)
UBC Faculty of Medicine Co-Applicants: Vilte Barakauskas (Pathology and Laboratory Medicine) Katelynn Boerner and Matthew Carwana (Pediatrics)
Project Grant – PA: Research in First Nations, Inuit and/or Métis Health - Probing the Role of Claudin-11 Mutations in Hypomyelinating Leukodystrophy
Principal Investigator: Mahmoud Pouladi (Medical Genetics)
Operating Grant – PA: Genetics (Bridge Funding: Research Priorities) - Harnessing infection-associated modifiers of paediatric acute lymphoblastic leukaemia progression for therapeutic benefit
Principal Investigator: Gregor Reid (Pediatrics)
Project Grant – Priority Announcement: Early Detection/Cancer Prevention - Effect of an educational radio campaign on contraception use in Nigeria
Principal Investigator: Michael Law (School of Population and Public Health)
Project Grant – Priority Announcement: Global Health Research - The Stop Osteoarthritis (SOAR) Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Type 1 Randomized Controlled Trial for Young People at-High-Risk of Early Onset Knee Osteoarthritis
Principal Investigator: Jacqueline Whittaker (Physical Therapy)
Project Grant – Priority Announcement: Female Athlete Health
Funding Partner: Sport Canada (Gatineau QC) - Advanced Raman Spectroscopy for Exhaled Breath Analysis for Lung Cancer Detection
Principal Investigators: Haishan Zeng (Dermatology and Skin Science); Stephen Lam (Medicine)
Project Grant – Priority Announcement: Early Detection/Cancer Prevention
*conditional award at time of announcement