In the Fall 2021 funding competition, the CIHR awarded a total of nearly $8 million to UM in the form of 11 grants.

“This is an excellent showing by our faculty members and their research partners in obtaining support for projects that will advance vital knowledge and benefit people’s health and well-being,” said UM Vice-President (Research and International) Dr. Digvir Jayas.

“It’s impressive to see the breadth of health research taking place at UM in areas such as trauma recovery, mental health, kidney disease, HIV, cancer, diabetes and chronic pain.”

Dr. Myrle Ballard

Dr. Myrle Ballard, assistant professor and Indigenous scholar of chemistry in the Faculty of Science, is Anishinaabe from Lake St. Martin First Nation (LSMFN). She leads a research project that received a five-year grant of $2,067,415.

The LSMFN community’s traditional homelands have been uninhabitable since a human-made flood destroyed them in 2011. LSMFN members experienced trauma when they were forced to evacuate.

With input from community members, Ballard’s project will focus on implementing an Elder-Youth mentorship program to promote health and well-being.

“The post-traumatic distress suffered by LSMFN members requires culturally appropriate research interventions to lessen their grief and heal into a healthy community,” the researchers wrote.

Dr. Garry Shen

Dr. Garry Shen, professor of internal medicine in the Max Rady College of Medicine, co-leads a team with First Nations partners that received a five-year grant of $1,155,150.

A recent study by Shen and partners showed that an online and locally broadcast prenatal education program significantly increased participation rates in prenatal programs and breastfeeding when it was piloted in three First Nations communities.

The new project will enhance the program, which is community-based and incorporates both Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge about healthy pregnancy and breastfeeding. The goal is to improve pregnancy outcomes and maternal/child health in rural and remote First Nations communities.

Here’s a look at the other funded studies. More information on the studies and research teams is available here.

Dr. Tracie Afifi, professor, community health sciences/psychiatry, Max Rady College of Medicine; Canada Research Chair in childhood adversity and resilience; researcher, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM)

Grant: $75,000 (one year)

Afifi’s study focuses on adverse childhood experiences and peer bullying. She seeks to identify which protective factors during adolescence help to reduce the likelihood of substance use problems and mental or physical health conditions among those who have had these negative experiences.

Dr. Robert Lorway, professor, community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine; Canada Research Chair in global intervention politics and social transformation

Grant: $100,000 (one year)

Lorway’s community-based study in Nairobi, Kenya aims to understand and confront the role homophobia plays in men who have sex with men not seeking treatment for HPV-related and other anal diseases until their illness is extremely advanced. 

Dr. Dylan MacKay, assistant professor, community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $320,534 (three years)

MacKay will compare two groups of people with chronic kidney disease in a randomized feasibility trial of methods to reduce dietary acid. Half the patients will take baking soda pills, while the other half will have fruits and vegetables delivered to them to reduce acid through diet.

Dr. Lyle McKinnon, associate professor, medical microbiology and infectious diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $837,675 (five years)

McKinnon’s team has previously found that vaginal inflammation increases a woman’s risk of becoming HIV-infected if exposed. His study focuses on regulatory T cells and their potential to control female genital inflammation as an HIV prevention strategy.

Dr. Gerd Prehna, assistant professor, microbiology, Faculty of Science

Grant: $596,700 (five years)

Prehna will investigate how, during an infection, disease-causing bacteria kill beneficial bacteria by loading deadly toxins onto a “crossbow-like” secretion system. A detailed understanding of this process may make it possible to “disarm” many species of bacterial invaders.

Dr. Tanveer Sharif, assistant professor, pathology, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $956,250 (five years)

Sharif’s study will build on the finding that metabolism plays a role in how a particular mutated gene promotes the spread of tumor cells in aggressive medulloblastoma brain tumors. His team will investigate using metabolism-targeting agents to suppress this process.

Dr. Roberta Woodgate, distinguished professor, College of Nursing; Canada Research Chair in child and family engagement in health research and healthcare; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $600,524 (four years)

Woodgate will lead a cross-Canada study in which young people with chronic pain will be engaged as co-researchers. The goal is to better understand the experiences, needs and priorities of young people with chronic pain in order to provide better patient-centred care.

Grant: $546,976 (three years)

Woodgate’s team will also implement a youth mental health program in Winnipeg, partnering high schools in the Seven Oaks School Division with NorWest, a community youth hub. Multiple data collection strategies, including arts-based methods, will be used to evaluate the program.

Dr. Jennifer Yamamoto, assistant professor, internal medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $609,835 (four years)

Yamamoto’s project builds on a previous study of glucose monitoring in mothers with Type I diabetes during pregnancy. It will examine the possible relationship between the blood sugar patterns of these mothers while pregnant and learning difficulties and behaviour problems in their children.

A total of more than $12 million was awarded in the form of project and bridge grants, with study durations ranging from one to five years.

“Congratulations to all the dedicated UM researchers who were successful in this Spring 2021 funding competition,” said UM Vice-President (Research and International) Dr. Digvir Jayas.

“These professors have shown leadership in their fields and are advancing knowledge in several important areas of Indigenous health, as well as in illnesses such as kidney disease, heart disease, HIV, diabetes, cancer and psychiatric disorders.”

The UM project that received the largest grant, more than $1.9 million over five years, is titled Qanuinngitsiarutiksait.2: Developing tools for the wellness and safety of Inuit.

DR. JOSEE LAVOIE

Led by Dr. Josée Lavoie, professor of community health sciences and director of Ongomiizwin Research, the project builds on a previous study of service use by the thousands of Inuit from Nunavut who come to Manitoba to access services.

The new study will focus on how Inuit concepts of wellness can be used to create healing programs in Winnipeg that reflect Inuit values. The researchers plan to develop and implement several programs, such as one tailored to the needs of Inuit families involved with Child and Family Services.

A five-year grant of more than $1.4 million was awarded to the project Oral microbiome and caries risk in young First Nations and Métis children in Manitoba.

DR. ROBERT SCHROTH

A team led by Dr. Robert Schroth, professor of preventive dental science in the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry and researcher with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM), will examine the dental microbiome that is associated with the severe form of baby-tooth decay that affects many First Nations and Métis preschoolers.

The aim is to understand why only some dental microorganisms cause tooth decay, and the environmental factors that may influence this process.

Here’s a look at the other funded studies and lead investigators. More information on the studies and research teams is available here.

Dr. Marissa Becker, associate professor, medical microbiology & infectious diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $200,000 (two years)

Becker’s team will study sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI) among military personnel in Ukraine, examining how they contribute to broader STBBI epidemics amid the armed conflict in that country.

Dr. David Collister, assistant professor, internal medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $321,300 (three years)

Collister seeks to determine which uremic toxins are responsible for individual disease symptoms in advanced chronic kidney disease, and which symptoms respond to dialysis. The findings will inform dialysis decision-making.

Dr. Kevin Coombs, professor, medical microbiology & infectious diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $100,000 (one year)

Coombs will examine human cells’ susceptibility to the Zika virus, which is transmitted by a mosquito that is becoming known in Canada. He aims to understand how cellular genes and proteins work to allow or inhibit Zika growth.

Dr. Sanjiv Dhingra, associate professor, physiology & pathophysiology, Max Rady College of Medicine; principal investigator, Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre

Grant: $960,076 (five years)

Dhingra’s study relates to the potential of using transplanted stem cells from healthy donors to treat heart disease. He will investigate why transplanted stem cells are ultimately rejected by the host’s immune system, and how to prevent this.

Dr. Vernon Dolinsky, associate professor, pharmacology & therapeutics, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $822,376 (five years)

Dolinsky’s team has found that the offspring of mothers who had gestational diabetes are at risk of later heart failure. His study will investigate the role of a cellular protein that could prevent damage to the heart and allow it to pump better.

Dr. Krista Hardy, assistant professor, surgery, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $470,475 (four years)

Hardy aims to better understand the experiences of Indigenous patients who undergo bariatric surgery in Manitoba as a treatment for obesity. Her project will incorporate and assess Indigenous healing and wellness practices in bariatric surgery care.

Dr. Richard Keijzer, professor, surgery, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $233,324 (three years)

Keijzer’s team has created a database of more than 750 Manitobans who were born with a congenital anomaly that required surgery at birth. By linking this to population data, the team will conduct a follow-up study of the patients’ medical, educational and socio-economic outcomes.

Grant: $749,700 (five years)

Keijzer will also lead an international team of experts on congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) to determine the role of circular RNAs in these infants’ abnormal lung development. The results will help to better predict outcomes in babies with CDH.

Dr. Dylan MacKay, assistant professor, community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $100,000 (one year)

MacKay will enrol patients with chronic kidney disease in a one-year, randomized study comparing methods of reducing dietary acid. Half the patients will take baking soda pills, while the other half will have fruits and vegetables delivered to them to reduce acid through diet.

Dr. Lyle McKinnon, associate professor, medical microbiology & infectious diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $300,000 (three years)

McKinnon’s team has previously found that vaginal inflammation increases a woman’s risk of becoming HIV-infected if exposed. His study focuses on regulatory T cells and their potential to control female genital inflammation as an HIV prevention strategy.

Dr. James Nagy, professor, physiology & pathophysiology, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $742,050 (five years)

Nagy’s study builds on his previous research on how nerve cells in the brain communicate at electrical synapses, how protein components function in this transmission, and how malfunctioning of these mechanisms contributes to neurological disorders.

Dr. Marcus Ng, associate professor, internal medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $548,890 (five years)

Ng will analyze data from patients with epilepsy to compare the brain zone of epileptic activity during rapid eye movement sleep, other stages of sleep, and wakefulness. Better mapping of where seizures arise could allow more patients to undergo life-changing neurosurgery.

Dr. Tabrez Siddiqui, associate professor, physiology & pathophysiology, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $983,026 (five years)

Siddiqui will investigate, in mice, how a type of altered biochemical signaling affects the brain, producing deficits such as those in autism and schizophrenia. The goal is to increase understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders so that drug targets can be identified.

Dr. Jörg Stetefeld, professor, biochemistry, Faculty of Science; Canada Research Chair in structural biology and biophysics

Grant: $742,050 (five years)

Stetefeld will pursue a molecular study of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a protein involved in cancerous tumor development and tissue fibrosis. He aims to develop new therapeutic targets based on understanding the role of CTGF.

Dr. Julia Uhanova, associate professor, internal medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $573,751 (two years)

Uhanova will explore whether adherence to a traditional First Nations land-based diet decreases the severity of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, an aggressive form of fatty liver disease. This inflammatory disease has a high prevalence among First Nations.

Dr. Jude Uzonna, professor, immunology, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $990,676 (five years)

Uzonna’s study focuses on how the body maintains immunity after recovery from leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease. Understanding factors that regulate the antigen-specific memory response to the disease will aid progress toward a vaccine.

Dr. Kristy Wittmeier, associate professor, pediatrics & child health, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $240,976 (two years)

Building on her previous research, Wittmeier will study knowledge-sharing networks in child development and rehabilitation in Canada. Her team will make recommendations to improve these networks to better serve children’s needs.

The interdisciplinary team is one of only four research groups in Canada to receive funding from CIHR’s Human Immunology Research Teams grant, an initiative to study autoimmune diseases with the goal of improving the knowledge of the human immune system.

“We’re delighted to receive this CIHR funding, but we also recognize the challenges ahead in undertaking such an interdisciplinary project,” said Dr. Hani El-Gabalawy, professor of medicine and immunology and Endowed Rheumatology Research Chair, Max Rady College of Medicine.

The project, titled Prediction and prevention of rheumatoid arthritis in First Nations People, has three aims. The first aim is to improve biomarkers in predicting whether someone will develop rheumatoid arthritis.

El-Gabalawy, the project’s principal investigator, said that rheumatoid arthritis “starts before it starts.” Meaning that before someone develops sore, stiff or swollen joints, and a diagnosis can be made by a doctor, the person has biomarkers in their blood that show their immune system isn’t functioning properly, he said.

The biomarker could be present for up to 10 years before the person develops any symptoms, El-Gabalawy said. However, not everyone who has these biomarkers will develop rheumatoid arthritis. So part of what the research team is trying to do with this first aim is to find better ways of predicting who will develop rheumatoid arthritis.

The project builds on team members’ previous research that showed that rheumatoid arthritis is very common in some First Nations families. El-Gabalawy said that the disease can be particularly damaging and resistant in First Nations people.

Aim two of the project will be a randomized clinical trial in First Nations communities to see whether the combination of turmeric, omega-3 and vitamin D can reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis based on biomarkers developed through the first aim. In support of this approach, team members’ previous research showed that this combination of supplements helped prevent inflammatory arthritis in mice.

Co-investigator Dr. Dylan Mackay, an assistant professor in the department of community health sciences and a clinical trialist with the George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, said that if the results of the trial are favourable, it could mean that treatment costs could be reduced or avoided with the trio of affordable supplements.

“Some of the modern rheumatoid treatments are incredibly expensive,” said Mackay, who is a lead on the clinical trial. “Finding lower cost alternatives that maintain the health of people would be fantastic.”

Researchers will screen about 1,500 people to find under 200 people with biomarkers to be eligible for the study.

The third aim will look at the experience of First Nations people as they progress through the clinical trial from start to finish. Amanda Fowler-Woods, a PhD candidate in the department of community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine, said that there have been clinical trials done with Indigenous people before but this would be the first-ever study to gather their experiences.

“We want to know if Indigenous peoples are feeling like research is still not being done in a good way, because if you look at history, that makes perfect sense,” said Fowler-Woods, who is a lead on the third aim. “Our peoples weren’t treated well. Scientific experiments were done on Indigenous peoples, not with them. And the results of that have been traumatic, so this is an opportunity to actually get constant feedback on what we are doing good, and what we are not doing good on.”

Fowler-Woods said that this is also a chance to build a framework for how to combine Indigenous methodologies with quantitative research so scientists are not only doing research with First Nations people but they’re taking care of their spirits, and protecting and honouring who they are.

“It excites me that the communities will feel respected, and they’ll start to see that there’s a possibility that research is actually working to help,” Fowler-Woods said.

El-Gabalawy said that one of the things that thrills him about this project is that it brings seasoned scientists – like Dr. Aaron Marshall, head of the department of immunology, Dr. John Wilkins, professor of internal medicine and director of the Manitoba Centre for Proteomics and Systems Biology, and Dr. Neeloffer Mookherjee, associate professor within the departments of internal medicine and immunology – together with up-and-comers like Fowler-Woods, Mackay, Dr. Liam O’Neil, assistant professor of internal medicine, and Dr. Vidyanand Anaparti, a post-doctoral fellow in the Max Rady College of Medicine.

“I’m excited because this project leverages lots of different expertise at the University of Manitoba,” Mackay said. “I’m glad that CIHR recognized that and funded the project.”