Schulich Medicine & Dentistry collaborative research group successful in competition
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) awarded a Schulich Medicine & Dentistry research group with a Collaborative Health Research Projects (CHRP) operating grant for their project entitled, ‘Novel technologies for engineering closure of non-healing skin wounds’. This multi-disciplinary collaborative research team consists of biologists, engineers, imaging specialists, a veterinarian, clinicians, and industrial collaborator.
Primary Investigators include Dr. Douglas Hamilton (Dentistry/Anatomy & Cell Biology) and Dr. Amin Rizkalla (Dentistry/Chemical & Biochemical Engineering), along with David Bagley. Bagley is the CEO of Advanced BioMatrix, Inc. in San Diego, where they manufacture & distribute collagen and other quality 3D matrix products, specializing in three dimensional (3D) applications for tissue culture, cell assay, and cell proliferation.
Co-investigators include Drs. Maria Drangova, Luc Dubois, Alexander El Warrak, Andrew Leask, and Geoffrey Pickering. This Schulich Medicine & Dentistry collaborative group received one of only two grants awarded to Western in this cycle (full funding results).
Dr. Hamilton explains, ‘In normal individuals, most skin wounds close within a few days. However, in patients with diabetes or vascular problems, skin wounds can stay open leading to development of a "chronic" or non-healing wound. We are anticipating this project will lead to the development of new materials that could be used to make chronic skin wounds close.”
This NSERC partnered grant (with CIHR) will provide equal funding totaling $697,970 for a three-year term.
The CHRP Initiative funding supports innovative, interdisciplinary, collaborative research projects, requiring participation from the natural sciences or engineering community together with the health sciences community. This funding requires the translation of the research results to knowledge/technology users and related stakeholders outside the academic or training environment. As such, the proposed research projects must have a strong focus on knowledge translation and lead to health and economic benefits for Canadians, more effective health services and products, and/or a strengthened health care system.
