Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers awarded more than $11 million in CIHR funding

Researchers at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University have been awarded operating grants worth more than $11 million in the latest competition from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) with more than 20 projects funded through this latest announcement.

Gary Shaw, PhD, from the Department of Biochemistry in collaboration with Jane Rylett, PhD, and Martin Duennwald, PhD, received more than $1 million in funding for the next five years to study how mutations in an enzyme called parkin cause early-onset Parkinson’s Disease. More specifically, they are hoping to identify new proteins that might control parkin’s activity and determine atomic-level structures of parkin with these activating proteins. The hope is that this research will pave the way for the development of therapeutics in the near future.

“We count ourselves very fortunate to have been funded by CIHR for this project,” said Shaw. “We hope this funding will allow us to push closer toward identifying the mechanisms used by parkin and take the first steps toward drug development.”

Congratulations to all Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers who received grants through CIHR this round:

•    Brian Allman , Anatomy and Cell Biology
•    Stephen Barr, Microbiology and Immunology
•    Rodney Dekoter, Microbiology and Immunology
•    Sandrine De Ribaupierre, Clinical Neurological Sciences
•    Gianni (John) Di Guglielmo, Physiology and Pharmacology
•    Frederick Dick, Biochemistry
•    Martin Duennwald, Pathology
•    Aaron Fenster, Robarts Research Institute
•    Douglas Hamilton, Dentistry
•    Lisa Hoffman, Medical Biophysics, Lawson Health Research Institute
•    Morris Karmazyn , Physiology and Pharmacology
•    Ruth Lanius, Psychiatry
•    Andrew Leask, Dentistry
•    Ravi Menon, Robarts Research Institute
•    Terry Peters, Medical Biophysics, Robarts Research Institute
•    Marco Prado, Robarts Research Institute
•    Graham Reid, Family Medicine, Psychology
•    Gary Shaw, Biochemistry
•    Trevor Shepherd, Oncology
•    Michael J. Strong, Clinical Neurological Sciences, Robarts Research Institute
•    Rommel Tirona, Physiology and Pharmacology
•    Zhu-Xo Zhang, Pathology