Armstrong is the 2024 recipient of the Terry G. Falconer Memorial Rh Institute Foundation Emerging Researcher Award in the Health Sciences category, recognized for research on developing precision nutrition tools to support people with inflammatory bowel disease and other gut-related conditions. 

UM Today caught up with Armstrong to learn more about her and the research she is undertaking. 

Tell us a bit about yourself and your research.  

Our research focuses on understanding how the environment—particularly diet—shapes our gut microbiome, the host immune system and overall gut health. While our primary emphasis is on gastroenterology and diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other common gastrointestinal conditions, we’ve also explored the gut-brain axis (the two-way communication network between your brain and digestive system). For example, we’ve collaborated on research into multiple sclerosis with Dr. Ruth Ann Marie and other clinicians and researchers, many of whom were previously based in internal medicine at the University of Manitoba.

A major highlight from our work is that the gut microbiome is crucial for nutrient absorption. Even with a healthy diet, an unhealthy microbiome can limit nutritional benefits and worsen health, particularly in people with chronic diseases.  

Why is this research important? 

There are so many reasons this research is important. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is the primary condition our team focuses on. One of the biggest challenges patients face after diagnosis is the lack of clear clinical guidance around diet. Many patients report experiencing “trigger foods” but don’t understand why, and the trial-and-error process of adjusting their diet—often over the course of several years—can be stressful and frustrating. 

The clinical system has fallen short in supporting these patients, largely because we haven’t fully understood what constitutes a safe, healthy diet for those with gastrointestinal diseases. A large part of our research program aims to change that. We’re working to identify which foods are beneficial and safe—especially during flare-ups or early stages of diagnosis—and which ones could be harmful. We’re also advancing toward a precision medicine approach, recognizing that dietary needs are highly individual. What’s safe for one patient may not be safe for another. 

What does the Rh Award mean to you? 

This is not a one-person award. We are a very big team with amazing collaborators, and the work we’ve done is part of a much broader team effort. This award speaks to the strength of the staff we’ve had in Manitoba and at Health Sciences Centre, and all their hard work. I also have IBD myself, so when we make big discoveries, it really hits home. A number of our staff also have IBD or other illnesses, and this award is a true testament to their passion and drive to excel in our work together. The award is a recognition not just of myself but of our team and the effort everyone has put into making these projects successful.  

What do you hope to achieve in the future? 

Among the many studies our team is working towards, we have a really neat study running right now that we expect to complete in the next two to three years. The goal is to translate a precision nutrition model that uses the microbiome and different host markers as biomarkers of what someone’s ideal nutrition should look like to benefit their gastrointestinal health.

The tool has been created, and we are working on consolidating it and pushing it forward with different provincial health units to have it covered by health care for patients.

In five to 10 years, we hope it will be available for not just gastrointestinal patients but other illnesses and even for general health. In the next couple of years, we hope to see it in clinics. 

What about you might people find surprising? 

Thanks to research, I’ve traveled to over 50 countries—six out of the seven continents. I’ve had the pleasure of living in over 30 places now in several countries also. Excitingly, we have an Antarctic trip coming up soon to do microbiome research in unique geographical locations. I’ve been a lot of places, but flying into Cape Town takes your breath away. It’s such a beautiful city and the region is so different from what we’re used to here. 

Any advice for early-career researchers and students? 

I think the best advice and the most meaningful for me is to collaborate and get to know people. Everyone’s happy to support you if you find the right people. Once you find the right mentors and collaborators, stick with them. It doesn’t have to be all about work every day—building community, relationships and friendships makes everything a lot more fun. 

Over the past couple of years, Armstrong, assistant professor of internal medicine at the Max Rady College of Medicine and UM Canada Research Chair in integrative bioscience, and her collaborators have discovered that a more personalized approach should be taken when it comes to diet and IBD, which is a chronic inflammation of tissues in the digestive tract.

Dr. Heather Armstrong

“Historically, clinical studies have assessed all IBD patients together, treating them as similar,” said Armstrong, who is also a researcher with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba. “We can’t expect diet to work the same for everyone, and as our studies and others have shown, there is a need to push towards personalizing these approaches.”

Armstrong received two prestigious awards last year for her research developing and investigating personalized approaches.

She received the Crohn’s and Colitis Canada Women in IBD Emerging Researcher Award and received $15,000 to support her team’s continued progress toward personalized nutritional interventions. The honour acknowledges an outstanding female researcher who has served as an inspirational leader and role model in IBD research.

She also received the Crohn’s and Colitis Canada Rising Star Award recognizing Armstrong as an outstanding, innovative and productive leader, in the early stages of her career in the Canadian gastroenterology field.

“I’m an IBD patient myself, so it means a lot to receive these awards for the work that we’re doing,” Armstrong said. “I hope this shows young women and other persons with IBD that they too can reach their dreams and goals, and that their disease does not define them.”

Armstrong and her team aim to better understand how the gut microbiome and changes in the microbes that live in the gut of IBD patients can impact the way the body interacts with their diet.

“A lot of IBD patients are sensitive to foods that would typically be considered healthy, and some of these foods can even cause serious damage to the gut in these individuals,”  Armstrong said, adding that she’s trying to understand why they’re experiencing sensitivities and how to personalize diet in these patients to make sure they’re still getting a well-rounded, healthy diet, while avoiding the foods that worsen their disease.

“We’re really hoping in the next three to five years to be able to develop and clinically utilize stool tests in these patients to use their gut microbiome as a biomarker to determine what diet will work best for them as an individual,” Armstrong said. “This research is the first step towards that.”

The funding for 10 UM research projects was awarded through the CIHR’s Project Grant Program, which is designed to support ideas with the greatest potential to advance health research, health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health systems, health care or health outcomes.   

“Congratulations to the individuals from the Rady Faculty that secured funding for their important research,” said Dr. Mario Pinto, UM vice-president (research and international). “I’m thrilled to see that three of the teams were ranked No. 1 by their respective peer review committees. This demonstrates the leading-edge health research being conducted at UM.”

Dr. Peter Nickerson, dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, said the projects also reflect the diversity of health research taking place at UM.

“The studies are led by scientists from many different fields – from community health sciences to oral biology to pharmacology and therapeutics. This funding will help our researchers carry out their projects which will inevitably have an impact on the health of Manitobans, Canadians and people around the world,” Nickerson said.  

One of the UM grant recipients is Dr. Soheila Karimi, professor of physiology and pathophysiology, Max Rady College of Medicine, and founding director of the Manitoba Multiple Sclerosis Research Centre. She and her team received $1,143,675 over five years to study what could one day be a new treatment for progressive multiple sclerosis (MS).

“MS happens when the body’s immune system attacks and damages myelin, a protective layer around nerve fibers of the brain and spinal cord. My research group has identified that Neuregulin-1, which is an important protein for proper function of the brain and spinal cord, is depleted in MS lesions. We have strong evidence that Neuregulin-1 holds promise as a potential treatment to promote myelin repair in progressive MS when repair fails, resulting in increased neurological impairments,” said Karimi, who is also a researcher with the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM).

Karimi’s project will evaluate Neuregulin-1 as a future treatment to prevent the progression of MS and support tissue repair. A new treatment is much needed, Karimi said, because Canada is home to the world’s highest prevalence of MS and current medications are minimally effective for the progressive phase of the disease.

“We are really hoping that this research will set the groundwork for conclusive findings which would justify going to clinical trials, especially for progressive MS, because there is a critical treatment gap,” Karimi said.

Learn about the other UM projects funded through the latest round of CIHR’s Project Grant Program. More information about the research teams and the work they’ll be doing is available here.

Dr. Tracie Afifi, professor of community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine; Canada Research Chair in childhood adversity and resilience; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $100,000 (one year)

Afifi will focus on updating and expanding her 10-year-old study related to child maltreatment across Canada. The team will update national and provincial prevalence of child abuse statistics and aim to understand the experiences of child abuse among those with different gender and sexual identities and how this impacts mental health and substance use outcome across age groups.

Dr. Heather Armstrong, assistant professor of internal medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine; Canada Research Chair in integrative bioscience; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $814,725 (five years)

Armstrong’s team will study the reasons why some dietary fibres are not well tolerated in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). She hopes these findings support development of personalized dietary fibre guidelines for IBD patients, based on the individual’s gut and microbiome health to ensure only safe fibres are consumed, therefore promoting improved microbe and gut health.

Dr. Prashen Chelikani, professor of oral biology, Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry

Grant: $1,319,625 (five years)

Chelikani and the team will work to understand why some dental fungi are associated with tooth decay in preschool children and the local environmental factors that might influence them. This research on the dental mycobiome associated with severe tooth decay will assist with the development of new tooth decay prevention strategies for young Indigenous children.   

Dr. Keith Fowke, department head and professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine

Grant: $956,250 (five years)

Fowke will partner with organizations and community members in Nairobi, Kenya, to better understand the immune system among women who clear human papilloma virus (HPV) infection. The project aims to identify the immune cells that are important in the natural clearance of HPV with the goal of identifying these HPV clearance associated immune factors that are important for a therapeutic HPV vaccine to mimic.

Dr. Nathan Nickel, associate professor of community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine; director and senior research scientist, Manitoba Centre for Health Policy; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $577,574 (three years)

In partnership with the Manitoba Métis Federation, Nickel and his team’s study will shed light on whether a Manitoba Health campaign that promoted the importance of childhood vaccinations improved childhood vaccination among Métis families. The study’s findings will support the development of strategies aimed at keeping childhood vaccination rates high in Manitoba as well as nation-specific strategies for Red River Métis citizens.

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

Grant: $784,125 (five years)

Pascoe seeks to better understand why exposure to diabetes during pregnancy makes airways twitchier in asthma. The team will learn whether reducing blood glucose levels during pregnancy is an effective way to prevent changes from occurring and this information may allow them the ability to stop asthma in children exposed to diabetes from developing before it’s a problem that requires treatment.

Dr. Joel Pearson, assistant professor of pharmacology and therapeutics, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, Paul Albrechtsen Research Institute, CancerCare Manitoba

Grant: $983,025 (five years)

Pearson will lead a study aimed at understanding the underlying causes of small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and how non-small cell lung cancer can change to SCLC. This research will help them identify new and improved treatments for SCLC so patients living with this cancer will have longer lives and better outcomes.

Dr. Souradet Shaw, assistant professor of community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine; Canada Research Chair in program science and global public health

Grant: $883,576 (four years)

Shaw’s study seeks to develop a deeper understanding of trends, determinants and responses to sexually transmitted and bloodborne infections (STBBI) in Manitoba over a 30-year period. Collaborations between community, public health and academics will be at the forefront of this project, with the goal of co-learning and co-designing interventions to ensure no one is left behind while addressing current and future STBBI outbreaks.

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

Grant: $768,824 (four years)

Woodgate will lead a study to gather evidence to inform the co-design of policies and research priorities meant to enhance the health and well-being of young people who care for family members or other loved ones. Young carers will co-design the policy recommendations and research priorities by gathering evidence grounded in their experiences and providing them with a leadership role in the process.

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.

On June 2, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry, announced an investment of more than $102 million, in support of 119 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at 35 Canadian research institutions.

“Congratulations to our Canada Research Chairs on this most prestigious appointment or reinstatement,” said Digvir Jayas, vice-president (research and international) and Distinguished Professor at the U of M. “Their successful appointment recognizes them among the best in Canada in their respective fields, enhancing our collective effort to drive discovery, and greatly benefiting the experience of their students.”

The Research Chairs

Lori Wilkinson

Lori Wilkinson, Faculty of Arts, Sociology and Criminology, Peace and Conflict Studies, Canada Research Chair in Migration Futures, Tier 1

Dr. Wilkinson’s research as a public sociologist is profoundly integrated with the communities with which she works, and her results have demonstrable, significant impact both within the academy and far beyond. As a founder of Immigration Research West, she has undertaken significant research on the settlement experiences of immigrants and refugees. Some of these findings have been used to change national immigration policies, inform governments internationally, and most importantly, has helped introduce new programing in the immigration community.

Marcelo Urquia

Marcelo Urquia, Max Rady College of Medicine, Community Health Sciences, Canada Research Chair in Applied Population Health, Tier 2 (Renewed)

Dr. Urquia has advanced his research program focusing on the social determinants of health by building research infrastructure, attracting talented trainees, expanding collaborations, and continuing productivity. He has made various contributions to social epidemiology, reproductive health and understanding of immigrant-specific determinants of health, such as the environments of origin and destination, gender inequities, and the role of partners in shaping health behaviors. He acquired a database of all legal immigrants to Manitoba since 1985 and is completing acquisition of rich and unique family data with the potential to advance multisectoral family- and population-based research in the next five years.

Robert Lorway

Robert Lorway, Max Rady College of Medicine, Community Health Sciences, Canada Research Chair in Global Intervention Politics and Social Transformation, Tier 2 (Renewal)

Dr. Lorway has made significant contributions to the social study of global health through a dynamic blend of community-based and critical ethnographic studies. Through the lens of “evidentiary sovereignty”, a novel conceptual framework he developed, his research sheds light on how knowledge production regimes in global health interventions transform (and become transformed by) the sociopolitical realities of disenfranchised people. His international research program attracted funding from

SSHRC, CIHR, and the Gates Foundation and engages a diversity of global health actors ranging from health activists, community leaders, and health officials to social scientists, epidemiologists, and microbiologists in Canada, South Asia, and Africa.

Jason Kindrachuk

Jason Kindrachuk, Max Rady College of Medicine, Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Canada Research Chair in Molecular Pathogenesis of Emerging Viruses, Tier 2 (Renewal)

Dr. Kindrachuk established a multidisciplinary research program for characterizing emerging virus pathogenesis. This includes: i) identifying the mechanisms underlying Ebola virus testicular persistence and establishment of a disease survivor network in Sierra Leone for assessing long-term reproductive health impacts; ii) established kinome platform providing insights for the role of dysregulated host responses in  influenza-bacterial co-infections; and iii) creation of an international emerging virus consortium for studying emerging virus surveillance at the human-wildlife interface in equatorial Africa. Since 2017, this program has resulted in 19 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 2 book chapters, 2 federal reports, 13 grants and 8 highly qualified personnel trained.

Kristina Brown

Kristina Brown, Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Environment, Earth, and Resources, Canada Research Chair in Arctic Marine Biogeochemistry, Tier 2

As an observational oceanographer, Dr. Brown is motivated by an interest in understanding the role of freshwater in the Polar ocean carbon cycle, and seawater sensitivity to Ocean Acidification, two societally relevant features of the ocean’s inorganic carbon system. Her research integrates the novel application of isotope geochemistry to understand carbon sources, trajectories, and transformation along the land-ice-ocean continuum to address questions that bridge the earth and ocean sciences. Dr. Brown focus has been on the Kitikmeot region of the southern Canadian Arctic Archipelago and has been working with partners in Nunavut to conduct year-round monitoring in local river systems.

Heather Armstrong

Heather Armstrong, Max Rady College of Medicine, Internal Medicine, Canada Research Chair in Integrative Bioscience, Tier 2

Dietary interventions remain an untapped field of research, and while the field typically focusses on the positive impacts of dietary factors in healthy individuals. Dr Armstrong’s work has highlighted a novel twist: the pro-inflammatory impact of select dietary factors in patients with dysbiosis (altered abundance and diversity of gut microbes). With a strong collaborative approach to research, she has established herself as an emerging leader in the development and implementation of organoid and ex vivo biopsy models for use in exhibiting patient response in a highly interdisciplinary laboratory setting. Results from her program will provide innovative opportunities to develop novel dietary and microbe-altering therapeutic interventions based on personalized precision medicine.