“I’m extremely happy to win this prestigious award,” she said. “It’s an achievement.”

Research Day, which took place earlier this month, gave participants the opportunity to show off the projects they’ve been working tirelessly on. Aboulatta was one of four learners who took part in the invited oral presentation, and 18 participants in the poster competition.

Aboulatta, who received her doctor of pharmacy from Alexandria University in Egypt, is examining the impact that COVID-19 measures and restrictions in Manitoba had on pregnant individuals and perinatal care. She’s working to determine whether adverse perinatal outcomes, like preterm births and stillbirths, can be caused by factors exaggerated by the pandemic measures – like stress, anxiety and socioeconomic factors.

“The actual causes of preterm births and stillbirths have puzzled researchers for decades,” she said. “With the measures that took place during the pandemic, it gives us an opportunity to dig more and find the real causes.”

Aboulatta’s advisors are College of Pharmacy assistant professors Dr. Sherif Eltonsy and Dr. Kaarina Kowalec.

Dr. Luis Perez Davalos won the poster competition at the College of Pharmacy’s Research Day.

For College of Pharmacy master’s student Dr. Luis Perez Davalos, winning the poster competition was unexpected.

“I was trying to really tell a story that portrayed the work we’re doing,” he said. “It went well, and that led to winning the award. I wasn’t aiming for that.”

What Perez Davalos is aiming at is the development of a placenta-on-a-chip model to test nanodrugs to treat preeclampsia, a high blood pressure disorder that can occur during pregnancy. Perez Davalos, who received his medical degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, is working to replicate the conditions that happen in preeclampsia in the placenta, but on a chip.

“By creating a placenta-on-a-chip it will possibly accelerate the development of an intervention and instead of taking us 15 years to develop a new drug, maybe we can do it in a third of the time,” he said.

Perez Davalos’ advisor is Dr. Hagar Labouta, an assistant professor at the College of Pharmacy.

“I wish to congratulate the winners of the College of Pharmacy Research Day Presentation competition,” said Kowalec, who chaired Research Day and helped organize the event. “I would also like to say a warm congratulations to all the students, trainees and postdocs who contributed to an engaging and high level of scholarship during the day’s presentations.”

Research Day was combined with the College of Pharmacy’s annual graduate studies celebration and the Morris D. Faiman Lectureship. Dr. Christine Allen, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, gave the lecture on the technological approaches to accelerate development of advanced drug delivery strategies. Allen is an expert in drug formulation and the co-founder of Nanovista Inc., a company focused on high-precision, image-guided cancer therapy.

Dr. Hagar Labouta, assistant professor, College of Pharmacy, received $300,000 for her research into nanotherapies to treat pregnancy-associated breast cancer, a challenging clinical condition that currently lacks an efficient treatment option without fetal health concerns.

“I’m trying to develop a safe and effective therapy for pregnant women with challenging diseases, like cancer, without having the nanoparticles cross the placenta, which separates the baby’s organ’s from the mother’s,” Labouta says.

Her team is developing a model called ‘placenta on a chip’ that will mimic human pregnancy in a lab. The goal is to learn how nanoparticles interact with the placenta so drugs can safely be administered without affecting the fetus.

“It’s so different from testing on animals, because the placenta is formed very differently in animals,” she says.

Labouta has a PhD in pharmaceutical nanotechnology from Saarland University in Germany. She completed several postdoctoral fellowships at Helmholtz Institute in Germany and the University of Calgary. She joined UM in 2019.

Dr. Mandy Archibald, assistant professor, College of Nursing, also received nearly $300,000 to co-design a living lab platform and participant registry for youth onset type 2 diabetes. Living labs offer a unique and adaptable way of doing user-centered research and working with stakeholders, like youth and caregivers, to create new solutions to pressing problems.

 “The interactive platform will allow us to embed a registry of youth and then use that registry to generate a robust understanding of youth experiences of comorbid mental health challenges,” Archibald said.

“We know that mental health is a priority for youth, is affecting self-management, and is implicated in youth not meeting their treatment targets. However, we are lacking an in-depth understanding of youth mental health experiences and care priorities.”

The project will begin with a 12-month data collection phase, with approximately 50 youth sharing their needs and experiences. Youth mental health priorities will be identified, and Archibald, with a team of youth co-researchers, will collaborate to create knowledge translation resources to communicate these findings.

“We intend to use creative methods and arts-based approaches, like storytelling or video, but that will be determined by the youth we’re working with,” Archibald said.

Archibald received her PhD from the University of Alberta with fellowship support from the Canadian Child Health Clinician Scientist program, and completed a three-year Canadian Institutes of Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship at Flinders University in South Australia. She also joined UM in 2019.

The grants will support their research for up to three years.

Women leaders in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences say it’s also a day for recognizing the inequities that remain, particularly for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and other people of colour) women and girls.

Reflecting on the 2022 International Women’s Day theme, #BreakTheBias, Dr. Marcia Anderson, the Cree-Anishinaabe physician who is the Rady Faculty vice-dean of Indigenous health, social justice and anti-racism, notes that it’s been more than 30 years since employment equity initiatives were introduced at Canadian universities.

Yet a 2019 study by Dr. Malinda Smith of the University of Alberta shows that the senior leadership at Canada’s U15 group of research-intensive universities, including UM, is still overwhelmingly white and largely male. 

At those 15 institutions, the study found, university presidents were 80 per cent white and 87 per cent male. Provosts and vice-presidents (academic) were 100 per cent white and 67 per cent male. Deans of faculties and schools at the universities were 92 per cent white and 68 per cent male.

“The work that has been done has not adequately removed the barriers to the advancement of Black, Indigenous and other racialized women,” Anderson says. “The theme ‘break the bias’ presents an opportunity to question why advancements have mainly benefited White women, and to refocus on continuing progress for Black, Indigenous and other racialized women.

“Anti-racism is a core foundation of our work at this time. Explicitly identifying the obstacles experienced by Black, Indigenous and other racialized women and intervening in structural ways is how we will work to break the bias.”

We asked other women leaders in the Rady Faculty to reflect on the theme of “break the bias” and how it connects with the Rady Faculty’s commitment to approaching equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) through an anti-racism and social justice lens. Here’s how they responded:

Dr. Vanessa Van Bewer, assistant professor, College of Nursing:

Bent

The bias is not broken

Maybe slightly bent

Measure not the breaks

But the bias of the bend

 

Underneath this skirt

Moccasins well bent

But like bias not broken

Warrior sisters hell bent

Dr. Ming-Ka Chan, co-director, Office of Leadership Education, Max Rady College of Medicine:

“Equity means that everyone is provided with what they need to succeed, and everyone has a sense of belonging. Intersectionality is so critical – considering all the axes of power and privilege. I’m motivated by seeing groups and individuals working together to co-create and think about how our spheres of influence overlap and intersect.

“For example, wellness requires being and feeling welcome. That sense of belonging and how we foster that is being explored in the context of oppressed individuals and groups. That is encouraging.”

Raman Dhaliwal, associate vice-president (administration) and executive director, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences:

“Gender equality is an important piece, but there are many other factors that contribute to barriers for women. Breaking the bias in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences means providing an environment where all individuals feel supported and have equitable opportunities, without being disadvantaged.

“Although I personally have felt supported in my career growth and progression at UM, when I’m participating in leadership discussions, I do notice that sometimes I’m the only person around the table who looks like me or has had a similar path in life. I look forward to being part of further advancing a workplace free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination.”

Dr. Delia Douglas, anti-racism practice lead, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences:

“Our policies, strategies and collective actions for social justice should speak to the complex ways in which gender diversity, race, class, disability and sexuality intersect. It’s imperative that we implement policies and practices that address the integrative nature of women’s lives, namely the different histories and particular vulnerabilities that inform the specific nature of their oppression.

“It’s important to avoid either/or approaches to addressing social justice, so that we don’t reinforce white supremacy while challenging gender inequality.”

Dr. Hagar Labouta, assistant professor, College of Pharmacy:

“We still have a long way to go for an equitable world in which differences are celebrated. We have not done enough to combat forms of discrimination such as Islamophobia, anti-Asian racism and xenophobia. The Rady Faculty has made great strides, but we may further need to create a safe environment for students, staff and faculty to give feedback to our leadership on perceived biases and lived experiences.

“I hope that as a female principal investigator (lead researcher), a hijabi and a visible minority, I send a message that scientists have no stereotype.”

Valerie Williams, director, equity, diversity and inclusion, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences:

“Raising awareness of the negative impacts of bias is important, but we also have to recognize that 60 minutes of implicit bias training will do little to change people’s decision-making. I suggest we focus less on attitudes and more on our policies and systems, as these play a key role in creating the conditions that influence behaviour.

“Let’s create a call-in (as opposed to call-out) culture at Rady and hold one another accountable. If we see someone making a decision based on a bias, let’s speak up and ‘call it in’ with kindness, respect and compassion.”

The grants are part of a $30-million federal government investment in research infrastructure at 31 Canadian universities through the CFI’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), recently announced by François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry.

Funding provided through JELF helps institutions attract and retain outstanding researchers and acquire cutting-edge tools for innovative work.

“Our UM recipients are pushing scientific boundaries and keeping UM at the forefront of innovation in fields ranging from food science to antiviral immunity,” said UM Vice-President (Research and International) and Distinguished Professor Dr. Digvir Jayas.  

Here’s a look at the projects:

DR. NANDIKA BANDERA

Dr. Nandika Bandara, assistant professor, food and human nutritional sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences; Canada Research Chair in food proteins and bioproducts

JELF grant: $160,000

With new analytical and processing equipment, Bandara’s team will develop novel protein ingredients and protein extraction and processing technologies to help meet the growing demand for sustainable protein products. They will also develop protein polymer-based bioproduct applications.

DR. FUJI JIAN

Dr. Fuji Jian, assistant professor, biosystems engineering, Price Faculty of Engineering

JELF grant: $149,945

Jian’s team will create a world-class grain-drying research lab to address challenges in Canada’s grain handling, storage and export industries. They will test methods of grain drying and develop new methods that take advantage of Canada’s winter temperatures. They aim to refine technologies that dry grain for safe storage while using less energy.

DR. HAGAR LABOUTA

Dr. Hagar Labouta, assistant professor, College of Pharmacy; researcher, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM)

JELF grant: $160,000

Nanoparticles (super-tiny particles of materials such as gold or iron oxide) have strong potential as carriers for targeted drugs. Labouta, an expert in nanotechnologies, will analyze the behaviour of nanoparticles in the human body. Her lab will acquire new high-resolution tools to examine how nanoparticles bind to cells, proteins and other biomolecules.

DR. CHRISTOPHER PASCOE

DR. TANVEER SHARIF

Dr. Christopher Pascoe, assistant professor, physiology and pathophysiology, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, CHRIM

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

JELF grant: $328,744

Pascoe, who studies lung diseases, and Sharif, who studies brain tumours, aim to understand how the structural complexity of lung and tumour microenvironments contributes to disease progression. They will acquire “digital spatial profiler” technology to examine relationships between cell-specific RNA profiles and structural changes that occur in chronic disease.

DR. ELHAM SALIMI

Dr. Elham Salimi, assistant professor, electrical and computer engineering, Price Faculty of Engineering

JELF grant: $159,731      

Salimi uses electrical analysis techniques integrated into microfluidics to develop rapid, low-cost, portable “lab-on-a-chip” devices for medical diagnostic testing and biopharmaceutical applications. With new equipment for device fabrication, electronic measurement and cell culturing, Salimi’s team will advance these point-of-care technologies.

DR. DEANNA SANTER

DR. THOMAS MUROOKA

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

Dr. Thomas Murooka, assistant professor, immunology and medical microbiology, Max Rady College of Medicine

JELF grant: $344,376

Santer and Murooka study the immune response to viruses such as HIV, influenza and the virus that causes COVID-19. They will use cutting-edge technologies, including automated confocal microscopy, cell sorting, gene analysis and mouse models of infection, to better understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of antiviral immunity.

Since Labouta began working from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she spends most of the daytime caring for her two young children. Throughout the day, she is also writing emails and taking part in meetings over Zoom, a videoconferencing service.

Dr. Hagar Labouta, assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy, is collaborating on COVID-19 research with teams around the world while she works from home.

However, her focused research time takes place after she puts her children to sleep. Labouta, who is also a research scientist with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM), has been scheduling meetings with her team at 9 p.m. and working until 2 a.m.

“It took some time at the beginning to get a rhythm, but it’s something we have to accept and we are doing our best to deal with the changes,” she said.

Like Labouta, researchers across the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences are adapting to working from home.

For Dr. Meaghan Jones, assistant professor of biochemistry and medical genetics, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, her research looking at the impact of pre-natal exposure to inhaled particulate matter, like cigarette smoke or air pollution, has been put on hold with the temporary shuttering of her lab. But there is still plenty to do.

“My work really hasn’t changed at all,” said Jones, who is an investigator with CHRIM. “I’m still writing papers, writing grants and reading literature. I also have a couple of presentations coming up that I’m preparing for.”

To keep in touch with her team, Jones is holding weekly individual meetings and three lab meetings each week via Zoom. This is up from one weekly lab meeting because it’s a chance for everyone to check-in with each other, she said. It is also a chance to have a bit of fun. They are holding cooking contests where the team members each prepare the same recipe for lunch and they judge the dishes based on presentation.

While Jones has adjusted to working from home, one thing she misses about her Bannatyne campus office is her huge whiteboard. To adapt, she is using a large window in her home office to write on.

“I don’t know what the people who walk by my house think – a bunch of weird drawings and stuff on it – but it works,” she said.

Dr. Christina West, associate professor in the College of Nursing, (bottom) in a Zoom meeting with colleagues Dr. Kendra Rieger, assistant professor in the College of Nursing, (left) and Dr. Amanda Kenny, professor of rural health at LaTrobe University in Australia.

Dr. Christina West, associate professor in the College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, has had to put the data collection of her main project on hold. Her research uses expressive arts activities and digital storytelling to help children and families express their experiences of going through pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant. This qualitative research requires her team to spend time with children and their parents in the hospital, which they currently can’t do.

However, West has data that has already been collected to analyze, so she is focusing on that part of her research. She is also working on several systematic reviews, research papers and the creation of a new research website where family members, clinicians and administrator partners will be able to interact with her team in a private area of the website.

“It’s a very difficult situation for everybody,” said West, who is an investigator with CHRIM. “I think we have to think about how we care for ourselves in the midst of continuing on with our work so that we’re emotionally well enough to do that work, and to support others.”

To do that, West is building yoga and mindfulness practices into her day. She maintains a work routine and non-work routine, and has a space in her home dedicated to her work life.

For Labouta, an expert in using nanoparticles for drug delivery, her work relies on conducting experiments in her lab so her research is on hold. However, she has shifted her focus to work on COVID-19-related research with scientists at the University of Manitoba, in the United States and in Germany. One project she is working on is with a group from Georgia Tech on simulation experiments that hopefully can help with the creation of a new therapeutic strategy for COVID-19.

“Not everyone is a virologist, but all scientists have something they can contribute,” Labouta said. “What we really need right now from the scientific community is that everyone should contribute their own expertise. I see it as a cross-disciplinary initiative and collaboration in order to find a solution for this crisis.”

“I love science,” said the third-year student with an infectious smile. “I could have spent my summer on a beach somewhere, but that would get boring really fast.”

As part of summer research program, Upreti and 17 other undergraduate pharmacy students took the opportunity to soak up plenty of information and data, partnering with College of Pharmacy faculty members on a wide area of studies.

Working under Dr. Hagar Labouta, Upreti explored how to create gold nanoparticles. “They are so small that you can’t see them with the eye – not even with a regular microscope,” he explained, gesturing to the electron microscope he works with. “A nanometer versus a metre is equivalent of a marble compared to the diameter of the earth.”

Instead of synthesizing new particles or new drugs, Labouta’s team is exploring the properties of existing substances at the smallest level. “They have different properties when they reach that size,” he said. “Then we have a whole new drug we can work with.”

“He is a fast learner and has lots of enthusiasm about science,” said Labouta, who is a proponent of early research experiences for students like Upreti. “This way they learn to think in a scientific way and critically analyze the scientific knowledge they hear about in their classes. They learn science by doing science.”

She credits this approach with preparing students for greater success in their future workplaces no matter which path they choose, as they’re developing the ability to make decisions based on evidence and problem-solving.

Upreti hasn’t decided on a career yet, but he knows he wants to dive even deeper into research. He’s been doing in bench-work since the beginning of his undergraduate degree with plans to pursue graduate studies.

“What I love about pharmacy is the flexibility,” he said. Pharmacists engaged in clinical work can still pursue research, or even build a full-time career in academia. “There’s a lot of different ways to help people.”

“Maybe this triggered me,” the new assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy said. It was in her first year of university in her hometown of Alexandria, Egypt, that Labouta realized she was destined to follow in her parents’ scientific footsteps. And she hasn’t looked back since.

Labouta brings more than 15 years of research experience to the University of Manitoba. Her expertise is in the use of nanotechnology in biomedical applications such as drug delivery.

The goal of researchers in this field, she said, is to design nanoparticles to carry drugs to a specific site in the body to maximize the effect and reduce side effects, especially with anti-cancer drugs that have a severe impact on the body. She said there is a lot of excellent research looking into this. However, there has been little success in clinical settings because when nanoparticles enter the body, they change and are no longer what they were in the lab.

“So far we really don’t have a clear understanding of what the behaviour is of nanoparticles inside the body,” she said. “My research is trying to dig into this new identity that the nanoparticles develop and how this identity dictates their behaviour throughout their journey inside the body.”

Labouta is far from a solo scientist working away in a lab alone. She thrives on collaboration. She has worked with multi-disciplinary teams at 15 research institutes around the world – from Germany to Australia to Finland. She enjoys working with researchers in other disciplines because they bring their strengths and expertise to research projects. She also finds it fascinating to work with people from different countries and learn about their cultural backgrounds.

In a recent interview about her latest research study that was published in the journal ACS Nano, Labouta talked enthusiastically about the multi-disciplinary team she worked with – which included chemist Dr. David Cramb, biomedical engineer Dr. Kristina Rinker and computer programmer Nasimeh Asgarian.

“It was a really nice collaborative project where everyone has their own strengths, and it was really fruitful in the end,” she said. “We have really good results.”

She was the co-lead on the study that used machine learning to develop a framework to predict the toxicity of nanoparticles. The journal article states that the results will help future studies to build safe nanoparticles.

“The breakthrough here is that we are several steps closer to really predicting the toxicity of nanoparticles,” she said. “I’m very excited. I’m very happy with the conclusion that we got, and I’m also, of course, very happy with the collaboration.”

The institutions involved in the study include the University of Manitoba, University of Calgary, Alexandria University and Ryerson University.

Labouta earned a bachelor’s in pharmaceutical sciences and a master’s of pharmaceutical sciences from Alexandria University in Egypt. She received her PhD of natural sciences from Saarland University in Germany. She went on to be a postdoctoral associate in the department of drug delivery at Helmholtz Institute of Pharmaceutical Research-Saarland in Germany.

A career highlight came in 2014 when she moved to Canada to become a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Calgary. She went on to become the first postdoctoral appointee in STEM education research in the Faculty of Science at the U of C.

It was the opportunity to return to her comfort zone of pharmacy that attracted her to the University of Manitoba.

“When I read about the job, I was like, ‘oh, yeah, that’s the job I want,’” she said. “And then when I came here and met the people, it felt like a family in the College of Pharmacy. They are very close and very helpful.”

The scientific process that captivated Labouta as an undergrad continues to engage her today.

“There’s no research that’s perfect,” she said. “There’s no research that’s complete. Once you start, it takes over your life. You’re willing, and want to do that, because you like it.”