Funding translational collaborative research

From neuroimaging to melanoma treatment, projects led by Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers received funding this summer from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

"The funded projects reflect an increasing trend toward collaborative initiatives that capitalize on complementary expertise of researchers in different disciplines,” said David Litchfield, PhD, Vice Dean of Research and Innovation at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry. "To build on these successes, it is important that we continue to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration.”

For Brad Urquhart, PhD, this funding will support a multi-centre study across Canada to understand why some patients taking a chemotherapeutic drug experience kidney toxicity while others don’t. “Funding like this is critical for science,” he said. “We feel strongly that this project will help us understand drug induced kidney injury better, and will hopefully result in patients not only beating their cancer, but also going on to have a good quality of life after their battle with cancer.”

Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Project Grant Competition

Evaluating inhibitors of CSPG synthesis in models of spinal cord injury
Arthur Brown, PhD

Molecular mechanisms of non-homologous DNA end-joining biochemistry
Murray Junop, PhD

Advancing clinically-useful diagnostic and progression markers of PD with neuroimaging
Dr. Penny Macdonald and Ali Khan, PhD

Engineering HIV virus-like-particles (VLPs) for improved Env antigenicity and neutralizing antibody responses
Jamie Mann, PhD

Staphylococcus aureus at the commensalpathogen interface: the superantigen paradox.
John McCormick, PhD, and Dr. Tina Mele

Pathways to neurodegeneration from natural human tRNA variation
Patrick O'Donoghue, PhD, Christopher Brandl, PhD, Amanda Moehring, PhD, and Martin Duennwald, PhD

Defining the role for ATF3 in recurrent pancreatic injury and PDAC
Christopher Pin, PhD

Mechanisms of ubiquitination in neurodegeneration
Gary Shaw, PhD, and Martin Duennwald, PhD

Metabolomics for prediction of cisplatin mediated acute kidney injury: a Canadian multi-centre adult and pediatric study
Brad Urquhart, PhD, Dr. Michael Zappitelli, Dr. Tom Blydt-Hansen and co-applicants

Canada Foundation for Innovation

An integrated platform for pre-clinical testing of melanoma treatments
Silvia Penuela, PhD

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

The impact of violent film and gaming on social cognition as a function of trait empathy
Derek Mitchell, PhD