“There aren’t a lot of Filipino researchers that I see on campus. Receiving this scholarship means that I have a place here, too,” said Miao, 26, who grew up in the Philippines and immigrated to Canada 15 years ago.

Through her research, Deanne Nixie Miao aims to raise a greater awareness about adverse drug reactions.

Miao, a fourth-year PhD student in biochemistry and medical genetics at the Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, said the Vanier Scholarship allows her to dedicate herself fully to her research without the constant worry of financial pressures.

Miao will receive $150,000 over three years as part of the scholarship. She is one of four UM PhD students, and one of 166 PhD students from across Canada, to be named Vanier Scholars this year.

Beyond the financial support, Miao said the award has also strengthened her confidence that her work is valued and that she belongs in academic research spaces. It has also provided her with more opportunities to take on leadership roles within the graduate student community.

Miao’s supervisor is Dr. Britt Drögemöller, assistant professor of biochemistry and medical genetics and Canada Research Chair in pharmacogenomics and precision medicine at the Max Rady College of Medicine.

UM Today sat down with Miao to learn about her research.

Can you please explain your research?

My research focuses on cisplatin, a cancer drug used to treat a variety of cancers. However, there’s a major limitation to it because it causes permanent hearing loss. Up to 80 percent of patients who receive this treatment develop hearing loss, or cisplatin-induced ototoxicity (CIO).

Pediatric patients are particularly susceptible, with children less than five years having a three-fold higher risk of developing this adverse drug reaction compared to those who are 15 years or older.

Hearing loss during critical periods of speech and language development can cause delays in the development of communication skills, which can subsequently lead to poor academic achievement and psychosocial function.

To uncover the genetic factors that contribute to CIO, I use cutting edge technologies such as single-nuclei RNA sequencing and single-nuclei ATAC sequencing. These datasets will allow me to identify the specific cochlear cell types, genes, and biological pathways affected by cisplatin.

By integrating this information with human genome-wide association studies and polygenic scores, my research will also be able to develop predictive and preventative strategies to mitigate cisplatin-induced hearing loss.

What drew you to this area of research?

I want to raise a greater awareness about adverse drug reactions. My own family has experienced them. My mom had a serious adverse reaction to Celebrex (a NSAID), and my grandfather developed a persistent cough from Ramipril, a medication to treat high blood pressure.

When my mom’s reaction happened, it was brushed off, but those experiences showed me firsthand how easily adverse drug reactions can be overlooked, despite the real impact they have on people’s lives.

These continue to drive my commitment to studying adverse drug reactions so that future treatments can be safer and more personalized.

What impact could your research have in the future on the health of Canadians?

I’m developing a polygenic score to show how likely an individual is to develop hearing loss after receiving cisplatin. This would allow patients to know their risk before treatment begins, enabling more informed decisions about their care.

Another aspect of my research focuses on prevention. By identifying the specific genes, pathways and cell types involved in cisplatin-induced hearing loss, we can uncover putative causal genes that we can use as therapeutic targets. From there, these targets can guide the discovery of otoprotective agents that can mitigate the development of CIO.

What motivates you to do the work you do?

I recently joined a program that pairs graduate students with patient partners.

Meeting patient partners has been eye-opening. It helped me step outside of the tunnel vision that can come with research and see the broader implications of my work.

Their perspectives remind me that my research is not just about data and experiments, it’s about contributing to something bigger than can ultimately improve patient care or outcomes. That sense of real-world impact is what motivates me every day.

What are your plans after you finish your PhD?

I hope to establish my own independent research lab where I can continue advancing precision medicine and pharmacogenomics.

My training at UM is preparing me well for that goal, and I’m fortunate to have mentors who not only provide excellent guidance but also connect with the resources and opportunities I need to grow as a researcher and future leader.

She made a move to the Bannatyne campus to undertake the honours research project for her bachelor of science, supervised by Dr. Barbara Triggs-Raine, professor and department head of biochemistry and medical genetics.

After receiving the degree in 2021, Miao stayed on the Bannatyne campus, working as a lab technician.

She got so caught up in helping to plan a genetic study of hearing loss as a side effect of a cancer drug that she was inspired to pursue a master’s degree and become a researcher.

“I was involved in this project from the very beginning,” says the 24-year-old scientist, who is originally from the Philippines.

“It’s the perfect blend of wet lab and dry lab. The wet lab involves studying the effects of this drug on the inner ears of mice, so I have learned skills like cochlear dissection. The dry lab gives me a different kind of intellectual stimulation because it’s computer work, analyzing the datasets.”

Miao’s master’s supervisor is Dr. Britt Drögemöller, assistant professor of biochemistry and medical genetics and Canada Research Chair in pharmacogenomics and precision medicine in the Max Rady College of Medicine. Drögemöller is also a researcher with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM) and the CancerCare Manitoba Research Institute.

Miao received combined one-year funding of $17,850 from Research Manitoba, CHRIM and CancerCare Manitoba for the study. We recently spoke with her about her research.

How would you explain what you’re investigating?

Cisplatin is a very effective chemotherapy drug that’s used to treat a number of kinds of cancer. Unfortunately, it can cause permanent hearing loss as a side effect, or adverse drug reaction. The term for the damage it can do to the cochlea – part of the inner ear – is “ototoxicity.” Child and geriatric cancer patients are at the highest risk for this.

Some studies have found genetic variants in humans that are significantly associated with cisplatin-induced ototoxicity. This means that depending on the expression of genes in a cancer patient’s inner ear cells, they may be more susceptible to this adverse effect. We want to better understand which genes, pathways and specific cells are involved.

We’re injecting mice with cisplatin and then examining the changes in gene expression in their ears. We’re using single-nuclei RNA sequencing and single-nuclei ATAC sequencing. We are the first to use these techniques together to investigate how cisplatin affects gene expression changes at the single-cell level in the inner ear.

What are some of the goals of this project?

If we can identify potential causal genes, that could potentially lead to finding drugs that can help prevent this hearing loss. Maybe a drug can be used in conjunction with cisplatin that won’t interfere with its chemotherapeutic abilities but will prevent the hearing damage.

With the information from our study, we are also developing and validating a polygenic risk score. This is a way of measuring how likely an individual is to develop ototoxicity when they take cisplatin, based on the presence of genetic biomarkers. For a patient with a higher risk score, other chemotherapy drugs could be considered as alternatives to cisplatin.

Are you interested in doing more in the area of precision medicine – this idea of tailoring drugs to the individual, based on their genetics?  

Yes. Dr. Drögemöller, my supervisor, has really been instrumental in my learning about precision medicine. Health care shouldn’t be “one size fits all.” As we know more about how genetics work, treatments are going to become more personalized and targeted to the individual.

I’m planning on transitioning to a PhD. Eventually I hope to have my own lab that will focus on finding out why certain people are more susceptible to adverse drug reactions. I also want to focus on equity, diversity and inclusion, because in research we need to consider that there are genetic differences between populations, and some populations have been understudied. 

This Q&A is part of a series on UM Today this summer featuring Rady Faculty of Health Sciences graduate students. You can find more grad student profiles here: #Radygradstudents

CRCs are world leaders in their field funded by the Government of Canada in the areas of natural sciences and engineering, health sciences, and social sciences and humanities. “These symposia were a wonderful opportunity for researchers to get to know each other’s specialties, and to spark new collaborations with students and the wider community,” says Mario Pinto, Vice-President (Research and International). “I thank all the CRCs for their groundbreaking contributions to address the issues faced by society today.”

This thought-provoking look at current UM research is available to view online, each featuring a brief presentation from the gathered CRCs followed by a question-and-answer period with the audience.

CRC Symposium 1, February 2, 2023 – Fort Garry Campus

Featuring presentations from: Heather Armstrong, Chair in Integrative Bioscience; Guozhen Zhu, Chair in Mechanical and Functional Design of Nanostructured Materials; Trust Beta, Chair in Grain-Based Functional Foods; Eric Collins, Chair in Arctic Marine Microbial Ecosystem Services; Britt Drögemöller, Chair in Pharmacogenomics & Precision Medicine; Ned Budisa, Chair in Chemical Synthetic Biology and Xenobiology; Lori Wilkinson, Chair in Migration Futures; Jason Kindrachuk, Chair in Epidemiology and Global Public Health; Sabine Mai, Chair in Genomic Instability and Nuclear Architecture in Cancer; Jörg Stetefeld, Chair in Structural Biology and Biophysics; Carl Ho, Chair in Efficient Utilization of Electric Power; and Nandika Bandara, Chair in Food Proteins.

CRC Symposium 2, February 27, 2023 – Bannatyne Campus

Featuring presentations from: Tracie Afifi, Chair in Childhood Adversity and Resilience; Robert Lorway, Chair in Global Intervention Politics and Social Transformation; Janilyn Arsenio, Chair in Systems Biology of Chronic Inflammation; Puyan Mojabi, Chair in Electromagnetic Inversion for Characterization and Design; Annette Desmarais, Chair in Human Rights, Social Justice and Food Sovereignty; Zulma Rueda, Chair in Program Sciences & Global Public Health; and Kathryn Sibley, Chair in Integrated Knowledge Translation in Rehabilitation Sciences.

CRC Symposium 3, March 28, 2023 – Fort Garry Campus

Featuring presentations from: Ties Boerma, Chair in Population and Global Health; Kiera Ladner, Chair in Miyo we’citowin, Indigenous Governance & Digital Sovereignties; Rotimi Aluko, Chair in Bioactive Peptides; Zahra Moussavi, Chair in Biomedical Engineering; Terry Klassen, Chair in Clinical Trials; and Galen Wright, Chair in Neurogenomics.

CRC Symposium 4, April 24, 2023 – Bannatyne Campus

Featuring presentations from: Lisa Lix, Chair in Methods for Electronic Health Data Quality; John Ataguba, Chair in Health Economics; Nicole Wilson, Chair in Arctic Environmental Change and Governance; Lorrie Kirshenbaum, Chair in Molecular Cardiology; Meghan Azad, Chair in Developmental Origins of Chronic Disease; and Kristine Cowley, Chair in Function and Health after Spinal Cord Injury.

CRC Symposium 5, May 16, 2023 – Fort Garry Campus

Featuring presentations from: Kristina Brown, Chair in Arctic Marine Biogeochemistry; Nicole Rosen, Chair in Language Interactions; Robert Mizzi, Chair in Queer, Community & Diversity Education; Samar Safi-Harb, Chair in Extreme Astrophysics; and Susan Logue, Chair in Cell Stress and Inflammation.

CRC Symposium 6, June 19, 2023 – Bannatyne Campus

Featuring presentations from: Andrew Halayko, Chair in Chronic Lung Disease Pathobiology and Treatment; Colin Gilmore, Chair in Applied Electromagnetic Inversion; James Blanchard, Chair in Epidemiology and Global Public Health; Marcelo Urquia, Chair in Applied Population Health; and Souradet Shaw, Chair in Program Science & Global Public Health.

Most of the 14 funded professors lead labs in the basic science departments of the medical college, such as immunology, physiology and pathophysiology, or biochemistry and medical genetics.

Their five-year discovery grants and one-year discovery launch supplements from NSERC total $545,000.

“Congratulations on obtaining these prestigious grants in support of cutting-edge science,” said Dr. Brian Postl, dean of the Max Rady College of Medicine and the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. “We are fortunate to have a wealth of experts at UM whose laboratory discoveries have exciting potential to benefit human health.

“These NSERC grants also make it possible for our professors in medicine to train a large number of undergraduate and graduate students in state-of-the-art research techniques.”

Here are the funded studies:

Dr. Heather Armstrong, assistant professor, internal medicine; Canada Research Chair in integrative bioscience; researcher, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM)

Discovery Grant: $28,000; Discovery Launch Supplement: $12,500

Armstrong’s team will focus on dietary fibres from agricultural products. They will examine how certain fibres alter microbial communities in the gut that are needed for the fermentation of fibre, and how this influences immune responses in the gut.

Dr. Robert Beattie, assistant professor, biochemistry and medical genetics

Discovery Grant: $37,000; Discovery Launch Supplement: $12,500

Beattie’s project centres on gene function in the normal embryonic development of brain cells in the cerebral cortex. His team will use new genetic technologies to examine molecular regulators of the proliferation of a specific kind of neural stem cell.

Dr. Britt Drögemöller, assistant professor, biochemistry and medical genetics; Canada Research Chair in pharmacogenomics and precision medicine; researcher, CHRIM

Discovery Grant: $37,000; Discovery Launch Supplement: $12,500

Drögemöller’s team will perform genomic analyses to identify novel genes and genetic pathways associated with variability in human hearing. They will also look at sex-specific auditory differences and how genetic pathways for hearing change as people age.

Dr. Jean-Eric Ghia, professor, immunology; researcher, CHRIM

Discovery Grant: $33,000

Ghia will examine the role of a stress protein in the gut microbiota and in smooth muscle contractions of the colon. In mice bred to lack this protein, his team will test whether a fecal microbiota transfer improves colonic muscle contraction.

Dr. Depeng Jiang, associate professor, community health sciences; researcher, CHRIM

Discovery Grant: $18,000

Jiang, a biostatistician, will develop new statistical models for multilevel data research by using a high-efficiency computer lab for statistical computations and simulations. These new models will provide researchers with new ways to understand their data.

Dr. Meaghan Jones, assistant professor, biochemistry and medical genetics; researcher, CHRIM

Discovery Grant: $31,000; Discovery Launch Supplement: $12,500

Jones will investigate how genes help cells to detoxify after exposure to dioxins, which are environmental pollutants. Her team aims to determine whether cells “remember” exposure to dioxins and mount a stronger response upon re-exposure, and whether this differs between embryos and adult mammals.

Dr. Oleg Krokhin, associate professor, internal medicine

Discovery Grant: $24,000

Krokhin, whose field is proteomics (the large-scale study of proteins), seeks to assist labs in separating peptides, which are produced when proteins are broken down. With the goal of advancing peptide separation science, his team will generate innovative tools and techniques.

Dr. Sam Kung, professor, immunology

Discovery Grant: $32,000

Kung’s project focuses on “natural killer” cells, which are important in maintaining immunity to viruses and tumors. His team will examine how a particular protein regulates natural killer cell biology, in part by studying mice that lack this protein.

Dr. Liam O’Neil, assistant professor, internal medicine; researcher, Manitoba Centre for Proteomics and Systems Biology

Discovery Grant: $28,000; Discovery Launch Supplement: $12,500

O’Neil’s study centres on neutrophils, which are blood cells on the front line of the immune system. His team will investigate how neutrophils modify their release of proteins to improve their ability to neutralize invading pathogens.

Dr. Deanna Santer, assistant professor, immunology; GSK Endowed Research Chair in immunobiology of infectious diseases; researcher, CHRIM

Discovery Grant: $28,000; Discovery Launch Supplement: $12,500

Santer’s focus is type III interferons – proteins released by the immune system to fight viruses. Her team will study their signaling and receptor biology, illuminating processes such as what happens immediately after these interferons bind their receptor in individual immune cells.

Dr. Tabrez Siddiqui, associate professor, physiology and pathophysiology; principal investigator, Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine

Discovery Grant: $56,000

Siddiqui’s team will explore the role of synapse-organizing proteins in synapse development in the brain. They will investigate, for example, how these proteins govern brain lamination (cell layering) and plasticity, and how they control synapse numbers.

Dr. Galen Wright, assistant professor, pharmacology and therapeutics; Canada Research Chair in neurogenomics; principal investigator, Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine

Discovery Grant: $28,000; Discovery Launch Supplement: $12,500

Wright uses genomics to study DNA repair processes in the human brain. His team will use computational analyses and human stem cell-derived neural models to identify important DNA repair genes and explore the mechanisms underlying how they are regulated.

Dr. Jiuyong Xie, professor, physiology and pathophysiology

Discovery Grant: $32,000

Xie aims to understand how genes have evolved to produce diverse RNA and protein products through an innate process called “alternative pre-mRNA splicing.” His team will use state-of-the-art techniques to uncover molecular details, helping to predict how splicing will evolve in the future.

Dr. Frederick Zeiler, associate professor, surgery; Rudy Falk Clinician-Scientist Professor

Discovery Grant: $33,000; Discovery Launch Supplement: $12,500

Zeiler will develop new techniques for continuous rapid assessment of cerebral autoregulation (control of blood flow to the brain by cerebral blood vessels) in healthy humans. This will allow for analysis of variations in brain regions and differences based on age and sex.

The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship program, founded in 2013, is designed to develop long-term collaborations between universities in Africa and North America. The project is one of 56 through which the program will pair African-born scholars in North America with institution in Africa to collaborate on research, graduate training and mentoring activities in the coming months.

The fellowships normally cover travel costs for the researchers to visit the host university, but with worldwide travel restriction in place due to COVID-19, visits will be done virtually for Wright and Drögemöller, who first met while pursuing their PhDs at Stellenbosch University.

Wright and Drögemöller moved to Canada in 2014 for post-doctoral studies at the University of British Columbia and came to the University of Manitoba in 2019. Both hold Canada Research Chair (CRC) positions, Wright in neurogenomics and Drögemöller in pharmacogenomics and precision medicine.

Both are human geneticists trained in genomics, so there is commonality in their work even though they work independently from one another.

“Galen’s work looks at precision medicine with regards to neurological conditions, as well as fundamental work on DNA repair in the brain, while mine is focused on trying to develop safer treatments for vulnerable and underserved populations,” said Drögemöller, assistant professor in biochemistry and medical genetics; research scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba; and adjunct scientist, Research Institute in Oncology and Hematology.

The pair plan to host a workshop for students at Stellenbosch’s new neuroscience degree program as part of their fellowships. They will also be establishing mutually beneficial collaborations aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disease in globally representative populations.

“The host applicant, professor Soraya Bardien, does a lot of neurological research and genomics in African populations, with a focus on Parkinson’s disease especially,” said Wright, assistant professor in pharmacology and therapeutics, and investigator in the Neuroscience Research Program at the Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine.

“There are some new clinical geneticists there looking to expand their capabilities to diagnose rare diseases.”

The Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program, now in its fourth year, is designed to reverse Africa’s brain drain, strengthen capacity at the host institutions, and develop long-term, mutually-beneficial collaborations between universities in Africa and the United States and Canada. It is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York and managed by the Institute of International Education (IIE) in collaboration with United States International University-Africa (USIU-Africa) in Nairobi, Kenya, which coordinates the activities of the Advisory Council. A total of 527 African Diaspora Fellowships have now been awarded for scholars to travel to Africa since the program’s inception.

The awards were announced today by the Honourable Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. The new UM CRCs will receive $6.4 million over the next five to seven years.

“Our government is taking action to attract and retain the world’s brightest and most distinguished researchers,” said Bains. “For over 20 years, the Canada Research Chairs Program has been mobilizing Canada’s most esteemed academics to train and mentor the next generation of researchers and pursue ground breaking research that responds to society’s economic, social and health needs.”

Ten of the UM CRCs have been awarded to early career researchers and one prestigious Tier 1 chair to an established UM clinician-scientist. The CRC Program provides funding to universities to recruit and retain Canada’s knowledge leaders. Tier 1 chairs are acknowledged by their peers as world leaders in their fields and are appointed for seven years, receiving $1.4 million in funding over their terms. Tier 2 chairs are exceptional emerging researchers in their fields, appointed for rive years, receiving $500,000 in funding over their terms.

“I congratulate this amazing group of research leaders in being awarded Canada Research Chairs,” said Dr. Digvir Jayas, vice-president (research and international) and Distinguished Professor. “It is a significant career milestone to receive such recognition of excellence by Canada’s research funding program.”

The new UM CRC’s are:

Nandika Bandara (Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Food Protein Processing & Bioproducts

Kristine Cowley (Physiology and Pathophysiology, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Function and Health after Spinal Cord Injury

Britt Drögemöller (Biochemistry and Medical Genetics, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Pharmacogenomics & Precision Medicine

Danielle Gaucher (Psychology, Faculty of Arts) Tier 2 CRC in Social Inequality, Gender and Public Policy

Terry Klassen (Pediatrics & Child Health, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences/ Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba) Tier 1 CRC in Clinical Trials

Robert Mizzi (Educational Administration, Foundations & Psychology, Faculty of Education) Tier 2 CRC in Queer, Community and Diversity Education

Zulma Rueda (Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Sexually Transmitted Infection – Resistance and Control

Souradet Shaw (Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Program Sciences & Global Public Health

Elizabeth Wall-Wieler (Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Population Data Analytics and Data Duration

Nicole Wilson (Environment & Geography, Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources) Tier 2 CRC in Arctic Environmental Change and Governance

Galen Wright (Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences) Tier 2 CRC in Neurogenomics

The CRC program recognizes that diversity is indispensable to research excellence and is committed to working alongside Canadian institutions to achieve its equity targets and reflect the diversity of Canada’s population by 2029. Among the 259 Canada Research Chair recipients announced today, 26% self-identified as racialized minorities, 5% as Indigenous Peoples, 10% as persons with disabilities and 51% as women.