Dr. Tracie Afifi, UM Canada Research Chair in childhood adversity and resilience and professor of community health sciences, and Dr. Marni Brownell, senior scholar, community health sciences, are among the 47 new CAHS fellows for 2025.

“Congratulations to Drs. Afifi and Brownell,” said Dr. Peter Nickerson, UM vice-provost (health sciences) and dean of the Max Rady College of Medicine. “As a CAHS fellow myself, it is my honour to welcome you into this nationwide group of world-class scientists and scholars working to advance the health of Canadians and people around the world.”

Dr. Trevor Young, CAHS president, said that election to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences acknowledges outstanding contributions to the health sciences.

“We are proud of these fellows’ accomplishments, and we are honoured to welcome them to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences,” Young said.

Afifi is an international leader in childhood adversity and resilience research. Afifi, who has published more than 245 peer-reviewed journal publications, has built her research program using a public health approach.

Afifi is the recipient of several awards and honours, including the Royal-Mach-Gaensslen Prize for Mental Health Research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Gold Leaf Award and the Alexander Leighton Award in Psychiatric Epidemiology.

“It is a great honour to have been selected as a 2025 Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences,” Afifi said. “The CAHS does excellent evidence-based work to improve health for all Canadians. I look forward to contributing to the academy in the area of childhood adversity and resilience with the aim of promoting health and well-being for child and families in Canada.”

Brownell conducts research using whole population administrative health and social services databases to examine child health and well-being, focusing on social and structural influences on health. She leads research projects focusing on the health and well-being of children in the child welfare and youth criminal justice systems.

Brownell is the founding director of SPECTRUM, a large research partnership between representatives of community organizations, government staff, academics and trainees from multiple disciplines who work together to address complex social challenges. She is the 2019 recipient of the Canadian Pediatric Society’s Geoffrey C. Robinson award honouring excellence in population health research.

View the full list of UM CAHS fellows.

The study was published last week in the international journal BMC Public Health. The researchers analyzed de-identified (anonymous) government health and social service data that is stored in the Population Research Data Repository at UM’s Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.

They studied the 20-year period from 1998 to 2019, tracking data for more than 13,000 First Nations birthing parents and more than 106,700 non-First Nations birthing parents who had their first child between those years.

The results revealed that:

• First Nations parents experienced extremely high rates of CFS contact in the 20-year study window:
  • 50 per cent of all First Nations birthing parents had an open CFS file (a rate nearly four times higher than non-First Nations parents)
  • 27 per cent of all First Nations birthing parents experienced removal of one or more of their children (a rate nearly six times higher than non-First Nations parents)
  • 10 per cent of all First Nations birthing parents experienced termination of parental rights of one or more of their children (a rate more than five times higher than non-First Nations parents)

“There has been no previous study in Manitoba or elsewhere that has estimated population-level rates of CFS contact among parents,” said Dr. Kathleen Kenny, a postdoctoral fellow in community health sciences at the Max Rady College of Medicine, who led the study.

“Our research shows devastating levels of disruption and harm by CFS to First Nations families and communities over the past 20 years that is broad and extensive.”

She said the reach and scope of interventions by this system should be considered in remedies to mitigate their long-term impacts on First Nations families and support healing.

“This system was never built for us. It does not reflect who we are, how we care for each other, or what our children need. Every child removed from their family and Nation is a tragedy. It breaks the sacred and spiritual bonds, severs connection to land, and inflicts lasting harm on our Nations. When half of all First Nations birthing parents have an open CFS file, that is not protection; it is systemic oppression. Forcing our families into colonial frameworks is a violation of our rights and our sovereignty,” said AMC Grand Chief Kyra Wilson.

The researchers’ joint recommendations include:

• Keep families together: Preserve family and cultural bonds, such as First Nations-led customary systems of care and reunification homes that allow parents and children to reside together with support.
• For First Nations families who have experienced the harms of family separation, adequate funding is needed to support First Nations-led, culturally based models that ensure long-term wellness for parents.
• Maintain the full government social assistance/welfare parental benefit and public housing unit for the parent following a child being taken into temporary custody so that parents are better supported to bring children home and prevent further family breakdown.
• Invest in First Nations-led preventative supports and the resurgence of holistic wellness for First Nations parents at risk of contact with child protective services, including the establishment of community-based, supportive spaces outside of child protective service agencies where families in crisis can be referred as a first-line strategy to strengthen and keep families intact.

“As a participant in this important research, I know firsthand the power of data to tell the truth about what our families have endured. I applaud Dr. Kenny and the University of Manitoba for working in true partnership with the AMC to expose the systemic harms of child welfare and support our Nations’ healing and sovereignty.  We need more First Nations-specific research like this to support First Nations as they move away from colonial provincial structures toward systems grounded in our own laws, jurisdiction, and sacred responsibilities to our children,” concluded Wilson.

View or read the study infographic: pdf or plain text. 

In a cohort study that included more than 35,000 patients, rates of anxiety and any mental disorder were more strongly associated with injury in the workplace than injury outside the workplace.

“There’s a lot of research detailing that workplace injury leads to bad mental health outcomes, but there’s not a lot of research comparing workplace injury to injury outside of the workplace head to head,” said co-author Dr. Anthony Wightman, a first-year internal medicine resident at UM.

You can read the full story in Medscape Medical News. 

“Congratulations to the UM researchers who secured CIHR funding for their cutting-edge work in health and well-being,” said Dr. Mario Pinto, UM vice-president, research and international. “This recognition highlights the impact of UM’s innovative health research. These researchers are driving solutions for better health care in Manitoba and globally.” 

Dr. Peter Nickerson, vice-provost (health sciences) and dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, said the funded projects show the diversity of health research taking place across UM ranging from investigating gut health and HIV/HPV progression to reducing inequities in trail use for urban First Nation and Métis people and examining the interaction of dietary flaxseed with blood pressure medication. 

“The researchers who received project funding are from eight different Max Rady College of Medicine departments, the College of Pharmacy, the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences,” Nickerson said. “CIHR funding is vital to the research that takes place at UM. And it’s essential in advancing science with provincial, national and global implications.”  

One of the 12 grant recipients is Dr. Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin, assistant professor of physiology and pathophysiology at the Max Rady College of Medicine. She and her team received $1,032,750 over five years to study what could one day lead to new treatments to reduce the risk of heart disease in people with disrupted circadian rhythms.  

Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles that regulate changes in the body, including heart rate and blood pressure. When the circadian rhythm is disrupted by things like shift work, poor sleep or jet lag, it has a negative impact on the heart and could lead to heart disease, Rabinovich-Nikitin said.  

“It’s known that shift workers have a 40 per cent higher risk of heart attacks, but we can’t do without shift work, so our research is working to develop treatments to help people with disrupted circadian rhythm, such as shift workers,” said Rabinovich-Nikitin, who is also a researcher with the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, a joint St. Boniface Hospital Research and UM institute.  

Rabinovich-Nikitin’s preliminary studies suggest that a disrupted circadian rhythm results in abnormal lipid metabolism and accumulation of lipids in the heart, and this might be the underlying cause of heart failure following a heart attack.  

“The goal of the newly funded project is to determine how circadian genes affect lipid metabolism following a heart attack and to understand how modulation of circadian proteins can improve lipid metabolism and cardiac function following a heart attack,” she said.   

“We know how diet and exercise contribute to one’s health, but circadian rhythm is a neglected area of research. It’s very important to have a normal circadian rhythm, and we’re working hard to better understand its impact on our health.”     

UM CIHR project funding recipients 

Dr. Michel Aliani, professor of food and human nutritional sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences; principal investigator, nutritional metabolomics research, division of neurodegenerative disorders, St. Boniface Hospital Albrechtsen Research Centre 

Project: The capacity for dietary flaxseed to inhibit the metabolism of antihypertensive drugs 

Grant: $1,189,575 (five years) 

Using state-of-the-art instrumentation, Aliani’s study aims to prove that flaxseed ingested in the diet can interact with drugs that control blood pressure. Data from the study will explain the action of dietary flaxseed in lowering blood pressure and provide important safety data on the interaction of flaxseed in one’s diet with drugs that lower blood pressure.  

Dr. Marissa Becker, professor of community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences; director of technical collaborations at the Institute for Global Public Health 

Project: Prioritizing Place in Sexually Transmitted and Blood-Borne Infection prevention in Kenya: Reframing prevention programs through Program Science 

Grant: $975,375 (five years) 

Using a program science approach, Becker and the team will develop a deeper understanding of how physical, organizational, social and relational dimensions of “place” shape ecologies of risk and safety for prioritized adolescent girls and young women (15-24 years), female sex workers and their male sexual partners in Nairobi County, Kenya. This work will generate contextualized knowledge for prioritizing place-based strategies to optimize sexually transmitted and blood-borne infection prevention program coverage and address unmet needs.  

Dr. Lucy Delgado, assistant professor of educational administration, foundations and psychology, Faculty of Education 

Project: The impact of Métis-specific spaces on the health and wellness of Métis women and Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer people 

Grant: $1,017,452 (four years)  

Through data collected as part of a series of gatherings, interviews and qualitative surveys, Delgado’s project will measure the outcomes for Métis women and Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer peoples engaged in Métis-specific spaces and provide a framework for post-secondary institutions in their creation of Métis-specific spaces. The final stage of this project will be an evaluation of the efficacy of the framework when taken up by new institutions. 

Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, associate professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences; Canada Research Chair in molecular pathogenesis of emerging viruses; researcher, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba 

Project: Characterization of long-term sequelae and immune signatures in Ebola virus disease survivors from 1976-2014 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 

Grant: $100,000 (one year) 

Kindrachuk’s study will determine whether long-term health impacts following Ebola virus disease are conserved across geographic locations and what epidemiologic or biological factors might be linked to more severe complications and immune durability. The team will focus on disease survivors from multiple historic Ebola virus disease outbreaks within the Democratic Republic of the Congo and will also examine this through questionnaires and analysis of historical samples.  

Dr. Jonathan McGavock, professor of pediatrics and child health, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences; researcher, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba 

Project: Honoring Ourselves and the Land – Reducing inequities in trail use for First Nations and Métis people in urban centres in Manitoba 

Grant: $1,266,075 (five years) 

With the help of Elders and Indigenous families, McGavock and his team will deliver and evaluate four main themed urban trail cultural events: 1) Full Moon ceremony walk/ride for girls, women and two-spirited people. 2) Land-based teachings with Elders/Knowledge Keepers. 3) Medicine teachings. The team will work with non-governmental organizations to plant gardens and/or traditional medicines in parks adjacent to the trails. 4) Youth-led teachings about local Indigenous cultures, languages and traditions. 

Dr. Donald Miller, professor of pharmacology and therapeutics, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences; researcher, Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine, Health Sciences Centre 

Project: Improving therapeutic outcomes in medulloblastoma through optimizing brain delivery of agents targeting inhibitors of apoptosis proteins 

Grant: $592,876 (four years) 

Miller’s medulloblastoma research will use a method his laboratory has developed and tested to selectively and reversibly open the blood-brain barrier to increase brain and tumour levels of chemotherapeutics and the XIAP sensitizing drugs to allow both radiation and chemotherapeutic agents to kill the tumour cells in the brain more effectively. Using peptides that target cadherin, the team will temporarily loosen the connections between the brain capillary endothelial cells to allow increased delivery of drugs and sensitizing agents to the brain tumour.  

Dr. Thomas Murooka, associate professor of immunology, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences 

Project: Role of mucosal neutrophils in driving HIV/HPV infection and disease progression 

Grant: $1,139,850 (five years) 

Murooka’s project will focus on specific bacteria linked to inflammatory disease in the lower female genital tract and identify the immune cells that further exacerbate this disease process. The team will use an animal disease model to better understand how this inflammatory process increases HIV and HPV infection, with the overall goal of defining why some individuals are more prone to sexually transmitted infections and to test drug candidates that can lower acquisition risk.  

Dr. Liam O’Neil, assistant professor of internal medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences 

Project: Cigarette smoking induced neutrophilic inflammation as a modifiable risk factor for Rheumatoid Arthritis in First Nations 

Grant: $100,000 (one year)  

O’Neil will investigate the way cigarette smoking interacts with the immune system, leading to rheumatoid arthritis. The team believes neutrophils, a common immune cell, are particularly prone to inflammation, leading to abnormal immune responses in people at high risk for rheumatoid arthritis development.  

Dr. Dake Qi, associate professor, College of Pharmacy, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences 

Project: TAAR1 in adipose tissue is a novel therapeutic target to combat atypical antipsychotics (AAPs)-induced metabolic dysfunction via downregulation of MIF 

Grant: $849,150 (five years) 

Qi’s project will investigate how trace amine-associated receptor (TAAR1) downregulates the release of macrophage migration inhibitory factor in fat cells and its impact on metabolic dysfunction induced by the classic atypical antipsychotics (AAP), olanzapine, by utilizing a combination of molecular and cellular biology techniques and physiological animal models. The team believes that TAAR1 agonists will improve the clinical psychiatric treatment with AAPs. 

Dr. Deanna Santer, assistant professor of immunology, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences 

Project: Role of type III interferons in regulating mucosal immunity in a healthy gut versus ulcerative colitis 

Grant: $967,725 (five years)  

Santer will study fresh gut tissues and blood collected from people with or without ulcerative colitis during routine clinic visits. The team will use a combination of their novel human biopsy culture model, 3D “mini-guts” and immune cells to find out exactly how type III interferons (IFN-L) promote gut health but also how IFN-L could dampen the overreactive immune cells causing symptoms.  

Dr. Jarret Woodmass, assistant professor of surgery, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences 

Project: Reverse total shoulder arthroplasty with and without subscapularis repair: Randomized controlled trial evaluating patient-reported and clinical outcomes 

Grant: $455,175 (five years)  

The aim of Woodmass’ study is to conduct a high-quality, randomized trial comparing outcomes of reverse total shoulder replacement (RTSA) with and without subscapularis repair. This ground-breaking study will provide evidence to support or negate the ongoing use of subscapularis repair in RTSA to optimize patient outcomes and manage scarce health-care resources.