“I congratulate these successful Rady Faculty researchers and their partner networks whose work is contributing to the highest attainable standard of health as a fundamental right here in Manitoba and around the world,” said Dr. Mario Pinto, UM’s vice-president (research and international). 

“It is wonderful to see Manitoba leading the nation with the highest average and median grant values, a testament to the outstanding quality of research conducted at the University of Manitoba.”  

Dr. Peter Nickerson, vice-provost (health sciences) and dean of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, said that the funded projects in the Spring 2024 competition show the diversity of health research taking place across the faculty.  

“The researchers are examining a wide range of topics – from new drug combinations to treat blood cancer to determining how the communication between astrocytes and neurons occurs. This CIHR funding is crucial for advancing science and will inevitably have an impact on the health of patients both locally and globally,” Nickerson said.  

One of the 11 Rady Faculty grant recipients is Dr. Jude Uzonna, professor of immunology at the Max Rady College of Medicine and vice-dean (research) at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. He and his team received $1,005,976 over five years to study what could one day lead to new treatments for leishmaniasis.  

Leishmaniasis is an understudied parasitic disease spread by sand flies that can cause skin sores and even fatal damage to internal organs. The disease affects more than 12 million people worldwide, Uzonna said, and it’s starting to spread to non-endemic countries like Canada.  

“It’s coming,” he said. “It’s really coming because of global warming, increased immigration from endemic countries to Canada and soldiers coming back from peacekeeping duties. The numbers are growing, but if we can develop a vaccine for it, then it becomes a magic bullet used to prevent it.”  

The team has found that leishmaniasis triggers the production of a molecule called pentraxin 3 (PTX3) in infected people. PTX3 weakens a specific part of the immune system that normally helps fight the parasite, so Uzonna suggests that targeting PTX3 might be a good way to develop new treatments for the disease.  

This study aims to better understand the role of PTX3 in the disease. It will also look at whether the level of PTX3 can predict if someone will benefit from treatment or not, which is important because the current drugs used can be toxic.  

“If we can show that PTX3 is causing a problem, then we can develop a molecule that can target and block PTX3 production. We can combine the molecule with a drug to make treatment more efficient and better. That will have a significant impact,” Uzonna said.  

Rady Faculty of Health Sciences CIHR project funding recipients 

Dr. Marissa Becker, professor of community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine 

Grant: $100,000 (one year)  

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

Dr. Sanjiv Dhingra, professor of physiology and pathophysiology, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, St. Boniface Hospital Research Centre 

Grant: $1,067,176 (five years)  

Dhingra will lead a study focused on understanding the reasons for rejecting transplanted donor-derived mesenchymal stem cells in the heart. This research will help to develop strategies to prevent rejection and improve the survival of implanted stem cells in the heart. 

Dr. Jody Haigh, professor of pharmacology and therapeutics, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, Research Institute in Oncology and hematology, CancerCare Manitoba 

Grant: $1,071,000 (five years) 

Haigh aims to identify new drug combinations to treat aggressive forms of blood cancer and to determine ways to avoid drug resistance to these treatments that can sometimes occur during cancer therapy. This project will be important in identifying and confirming new drug approaches that can be used in personalized medical care for childhood and adult blood cancer patients in Canada. 

Dr. Julie Lajoie, assistant professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, and Francis A. Plummer Professorship in Global Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine 

Grant: $1,132,200 (five years)  

Lajoie and the team will follow female sex workers from Nairobi, Kenya, who are using an injectable contraception called depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) for six months and determine the immune activation and inflammatory profile in the blood and at the female genital tract. They will also examine whether using DMPA impacts the capacity to respond to previously exposed viruses and affects the cells’ capacity to respond to the stress hormone cortisol. 

Dr. Aaron Marshall, department head and professor of immunology, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, Research Institute in Oncology and Hematology, CancerCare Manitoba 

Grant: $1,151,326 (five years) 

Marshall’s project deals primarily with B lymphocytes, the immune system cells responsible for producing antibodies. The research aims to define the cellular reprogramming signals that either switch on or switch off B lymphocytes and how these networks are altered in chronic autoimmune disease. 

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

Grant: $898,876 (five years)  

Using experimental mouse models, Nagy and the team will determine how spinal neurons, called V0c neurons, contribute to force level control in the limbs. He expects the results will challenge current textbook knowledge on force generation during movement and reveal new concepts on how command signals to motoneurons are converted to desired levels of muscle activity. 

Dr. Zulma Rueda, associate professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine; Canada Research Chair in Sexually Transmitted Infection – Resistance and Control 

Grant: $688,501 (four years)  

Rueda will lead a study that will generate a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the knowledge, attitudes and practices about HIV and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI) among people living with HIV and people who face disproportionate risk of acquiring HIV/STBBI (people experiencing houselessness, people who inject drugs) and health and service providers in Manitoba. 

Dr. Tabrez Siddiqui, associate professor of physiology and pathophysiology, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, Kleysen Institute for Advanced Medicine, Health Sciences Centre; researcher, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba 

Grant: $1,143,676 (five years)  

Neurexins are essential proteins that help nerve cells in the brain communicate with each other, and changes in the genes for these proteins can increase the risk of developing autism. Siddiqui’s research highlights the possibility of fixing certain brain communication issues by targeting specific proteins, offering hope for new treatments. 

Dr. Jillian Stobart, assistant professor, College of Pharmacy 

Grant: $944,776 (five years)  

Stobart’s project aims to determine how the communication between astrocytes and neurons occurs. This will be the first evidence that astrocytes can change brain circuits responsible for the sense of touch and is important because astrocyte-neuron communication changes in disease. Problems with astrocytes and their communication with neurons could be the missing link in these disorders. 

Dr. Geoffrey Tranmer, associate professor, College of Pharmacy  

Grant: $730,576 (five years)  

Tranmer and the team plan to create new and improved versions of the ALS drug edaravone and test the drug-like properties of these molecules in test tubes and ALS animal models. This will allow the team to determine and optimize the drug properties of the new ALS drug and will enable them to develop an optimized drug candidate ready for advanced clinical trials. 

Using 10 core facilities, platforms and services created and managed by the faculty, cutting-edge tools and technologies are on hand to help make dreams a reality.

Within labs on the Bannatyne campus, researchers have access to flow cytometry, advanced imaging, transgenic services, histology, big data analysis, Manitoba Centre for Proteomics and Systems Biology, lentiviral vector production, central animal care services and more.

“We’re very proud of what the Rady Faculty has accomplished in establishing these facilities, platforms and services,” said Uzonna, Rady vice dean (research). “Ordinarily, researchers would never have this kind of equipment in their own labs. You simply cannot have it.”

Aside from the initial purchase costs – which can run into the millions – there are also ongoing service contracts and maintenance costs. Even more daunting, added Uzonna, is the challenge of learning to use the ever-changing technologies at the expert level – something the facilities or platforms can either provide or teach with their on-site staff.

“I never want to see a researcher’s proposal turned down because they don’t have access to everything they need,” said Uzonna, adding investing in technology at this level is not unique to UM with many universities, including all the U15, consciously investing in this area.

“It’s required to stay competitive and remain sustainable,” he said. “The more you’re able to allow your researchers to do cutting-edge research, the more funding you can attract.”

Stella Onwah, a PhD candidate in immunology, is working in the flow cytometry facility to find a way to fight leishmaniasis, a disease spread by sandflies infected with a parasite. It’s a problem within 98 tropical and sub-tropical countries around the globe, with the World Health Organization estimating 700,000 to 1 million new cases of leishmaniasis each year.

Some with the disease never know they have it. Others are treated quickly and recover. But in areas with limited access to health care, the disease can be a cause of disfigurement, stigma and even death. Onwah, working under Uzonna, is focusing on prevention.

“We are trying to show that when you delete a particular enzyme from the parasite, it will not be as pathogenic as the normal parasite,” said Onwah. “That means it can be used as a vaccine.” Using flow cytometry, Onwah can perform tests that show how individual cells infected with these enzyme deficient parasites are affected and track the results to deduce a course of action for these enzyme-deficient parasites.

In addition to serving University of Manitoba researchers, the core platforms are also available for external clients – and not just in medicine. Dr. Christine Zhang, the flow cytometry core facility manager, says applications also exist for other industries such as food sciences, biotech or even agriculture. The flow cytometry lab recently helped save a global farmer-to-farmer company significant time and money.  

“They wanted to run their plant samples on our flow cytometry instrument to determine which plants are reproducible and which ones are sterile,” said Zhang. “Ultimately it saved them the cost, resources and manpower of growing thousands and thousands of non-reproducing plants.”

For more information, a full list of RFHS cores is provided here:

 https://umanitoba.ca/health-sciences/research/core-facilities-platforms-and-services

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.

Dr. Christine Zhang, manager of the Flow Cytometry Core Facility at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, was one of six scientists and administrators recently recognized by the Canadian Network of Scientific Platforms (CNSP).

Flow cytometry is a laser-based tool for rapid detection and characterization of cells and other microbial particles based on their light scatter and fluoresence properties, routinely used in basic research for disease immunity profiling and clinical diagnosis of conditions like blood leukemia. Zhang’s facility has five state-of-the-art flow cytometry machines available for researchers. It is the only facility of its kind in Manitoba.

“This means quite a lot because it’s an acknowledgement of the work I do as well as the guidance and support of my two directors, Dr. Keith Fowke and Dr. Aaron Marshall and the Max Rady College of Medicine,” Zhang said. “This award lets people across Canada know that we have very strong research and a good supporting team.”

Zhang joined the University of Manitoba in 2012 after completing her Ph.D. in the University of Toronto, and was heavily involved in the initial establishment of facility. In that time the facility grew from offering support to the departments of immunology and the medical microbiology and infectious diseases to a wide range of clients, including the St. Boniface Hospital Albrechsten Research Centre and CancerCare Manitoba.

In 2013, Zhang established the first symposium dedicated to flow cytometry in Manitoba. The event attracts a wide range of disciplines in biomedical research, clinical laboratories, biotechnological companies and government laboratories.

“We had three successful symposiums that attracted over 100 people. We also brought in people from across Canada and the United States to show researchers in Manitoba the latest techniques,” she said, noting the next edition of the symposium may need to be held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Jude Uzonna, associate dean of research, Max Rady College of Medicine, said Zhang’s expertise is an important part of the facility’s success.

“Even if you don’t have the training, she will walk you through and help you analyze your results,” he said. “This award shows that not only do we have an outstanding core platform, but we have someone who is very capable of managing it. You can have all the technologies you want, but you need the right individual to be able to deliver the services. If not, it would be like someone who has an iPhone 11 but can only use it to make phone calls.”

The paper, published in the journal Antibiotics, found that UM professors were linked to five of the 100 most-cited papers that span the past 60 years. This is more contributions than larger institutions like Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Toronto and The University of British Columbia.

The analysis looked at keywords related to the field of antibiotics to compile the most-cited papers.

“I think it really shows the great work that the University of Manitoba infectious diseases and microbiology has done over time,” said Dr. Anand Kumar, professor of internal medicine in critical care and infectious diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences. “I think there are a lot of places that demonstrate excellence for a decade or so, but really what this is indicating is that there has been a high level of excellence at the University of Manitoba for a very long time.”

Dr. Jude Uzonna, associate dean (research), Max Rady College of Medicine, said he was pleasantly surprised to discover that the University of Manitoba had the most contributions.

“Thinking about it, ‘I should not be surprised because we are doing good science here,” Uzonna said. “We’re doing great work so this reflects the overall excellence in the kind of research being conducted at the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences and the University of Manitoba.’”

Kumar’s 2006 paper demonstrating that the faster a patient with septic shock is treated with antibiotics, the better the survival, was ranked number seven on the top 100 list and remains highly quoted. The paper, titled Duration of hypotension before initiation of effective antimicrobial therapy is the critical determinant of survival in human septic shock, has been cited more than 5,000 times according to Google Scholar.

“It is one of the most widely quoted papers citing how critically important it is to rapidly treat sepsis,” said Dr. Kelly MacDonald, professor and head of the section of infectious diseases, department of internal medicine and a researcher in medical microbiology/infectious diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine. “It is a very important paper.”

The 33rd most-cited paper was a 2001 Annals of Internal Medicine publication authored by multiple-renowned UM faculty, including dean emeritus of medicine Dr. Nick Anthonisen, demonstrated that when patients with exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were given antibiotics, along with standard treatment, they did significantly better than without antibiotics. The paper, titled Antibiotic therapy in exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, was cited more than 3,000 times according to Google Scholar.

“That paper changed clinical management. It was quoted widely for many years,” MacDonald said. “That was a seminal paper.”

Dr. Eric Bow, professor and past chair of the section of oncology and member of the section of infectious diseases in internal medicine, co-authored two papers in the top 100. As a dual research specialist in treating infections in leukemia, he was involved in Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) guidelines for the use of antimicrobial agents in neutropenic patients with cancer. The 2008 guidelines are ranked 49th (more than 1,700 citations on Google Scholar) and the 2000 guidelines are ranked 58th (more than 2,700 citations on Google Scholar) on the list.

“These guidelines from Dr. Bow and the IDSA committee have been tremendously impactful,” Kumar said.

Former University of Manitoba professor Dr. Marc Gurwith’s 1981 seminal paper was the first to describe clostridium difficile colitis, a now widely-recognized serious cause of hospital-acquired diarrhea. The paper, titled Antibiotic-associated pseudomembranous colitis due to toxin-producing clostridia, is ranked 73rd and was cited more than 1,600 times according to Google Scholar.

“Dr. Gurwith’s paper described a new disease for the first time,” Kumar said. “So that’s pretty cool.”

Bow attributed the success of these papers and their authors to the outstanding leadership the department has had over the decades.

“I think Dr. Allan Ronald is the one who had the insight and vision to put the University of Manitoba on the global map in the area of infectious diseases,” Bow said.

MacDonald said that while the department of microbiology and infectious diseases is well known for its international health work in the field of STDs and HIV, this clinical and translational research shows that infectious disease clinical researchers also have been making an impact internationally in other areas as well.

“I think it’s important that people understand the breadth of expertise that has come and is still coming out of this centre,” MacDonald said. “We have some of the best researchers in the world right here at home in Manitoba.”

The Government of Canada is the country’s largest investor in health research through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

“Some of Canada’s most important health discoveries are being made right here in Winnipeg. This announcement highlights the bright minds and the strong support for research and innovation at the University of Manitoba,” said Ouellette.

Health research leads to discoveries and knowledge that helps improve the health of Canadians through new treatments, health services and health promotion and disease prevention programs.

The funding will support the work of researchers at the University of Manitoba across the spectrum of health research areas, ranging from microbiology and nanoparticles, to healthcare delivery and population-based wellness strategies.

Two U of M researchers shared snapshots of their collaborative research projects.

Dr. Julie Ho, associate professor of internal medicine and immunology in the Max Rady College of Medicine (Rady Faculty) and a team of researchers at the U of M will lead a new clinical trial led that could change the current standard of care for monitoring kidney transplant patients and potentially increase the longevity of successful kidney transplants.

Ho, Principal investigator on the study, says many Canadians don’t realize that kidney disease is a silent killer. “It’s actually really sad.… When patients tell their families they have kidney disease, it doesn’t have the same implication as if they were to say ‘I have cancer.’ But the mortality rate with kidney disease is actually just as bad as with many cancers, although there is less public awareness about it.” [Read more about this study.]

Marissa Becker [MD/99], an associate professor in community health sciences (U of M) with cross-appointments to internal medicine and medical microbiology,  will lead a project designed to understand how the consequences of conflict, migration and disrupted health services affect risk in the context of HIV, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). The study is being conducted by an international, inter-disciplinary team in order to understand this complex public health issue.

The study will generate important information for its Ukrainian partners, who provide HIV prevention programs in Dnipropetrovsk, and address an important knowledge gap globally.
“We’re working with local program partners, researchers and policy makers,” Becker says. “We’ve been doing work in Ukraine for a number of years now. It’s important to us to sustain and further develop those partnerships for impactful work.” [Read more about this study.]

The following researchers also received funding:

Christopher Anderson | Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Keith Fowke | Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Spencer Gibson | Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Richard Keijzer | Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Christine Kelly | Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Ayush Kumar | Brian Mark | Faculty of Science
Josée Lavoie | Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Brian Mark | Faculty of Science
Lyle Mckinnon | Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Donald Miller | Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
James Nagy | Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Abdelilah Soussi Gounni | Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Jude Uzonna| Rady Faculty of Health Sciences

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease found in parts of the tropics, subtropics and southern Europe and is spread by the bite of infected sandflies. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.3 million cases of leishmaniasis occur annually, leading to 20,000-30,000 deaths. The disease is rapidly spreading to other areas of the world due to increased international travel, globalization and military conflicts.

In an article published this week in Science Translational Medicine, Jude Uzonna, associate professor of immunology and medical microbiology in the College of Medicine, and his research team have isolated an antigen that boosts immunity against the disease.

“There is currently no clinically effective vaccine against leishmaniasis. We identified a cross-species antigen called PEPCK that induces a robust response in both mice and humans,” says Uzonna, Manitoba Health Research Chair Professor in Immunology. “Our vaccination experiments clearly show that PEPCK is an important vaccine candidate for cross-species protection against leishmaniasis.”

“This research is an incredible breakthrough that has the potential to protect millions of people around the world and save lives,” says Digvir Jayas, University of Manitoba vice-president (research and international) and Distinguished Professor.“This study shows, once again, how the innovative research coming out of the U of M is making a positive impact globally.”

The findings are attracting international interest.

“Our study rekindles hope for the potential and real possibility of developing a cross-species protective vaccine against the disease,” says Uzonna. “It also provides a new perspective and approach to assessing and identifying mechanisms of immunity against leishmaniasis and critical new information that could help vaccine designs and vaccination strategies against the disease.”

Phlebotomus papatasi, the sandfly // Photo: Frank Collins

Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease found in parts of the tropics, subtropics and southern Europe and is spread by the bite of infected sandflies. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.3 million cases of leishmaniasis occur annually, leading to 20,000-30,000 deaths. The disease is rapidly spreading to other areas of the world due to increased international travel, globalization and military conflicts.

In an article published this week in Science Translational Medicine, Dr. Jude Uzonna, associate professor, immunology and medical microbiology, College of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences and his research team have isolated an antigen that boosts immunity against the disease.

“There is currently no clinically effective vaccine against leishmaniasis. We identified a cross-species antigen called PEPCK that induces a robust response in both mice and humans,” says Dr. Uzonna, Manitoba Health Research Chair Professor in Immunology. “Our vaccination experiments clearly show that PEPCK is an important vaccine candidate for cross-species protection against leishmaniasis.”

“This research is an incredible breakthrough that has the potential to protect millions of people around the world and save lives,” said Dr. Digvir Jayas, University of Manitoba vice-president (research and international) and Distinguished Professor. “This study shows, once again, how the innovative research coming out of the U of M is making a positive impact globally.”

The findings of the article have already sparked interest from as far away as Brazil and the United Kingdom.

“Our study rekindles hope for the potential and real possibility of developing a cross-species protective vaccine against the disease,” says Dr. Uzonna. “It also provides a new perspective and approach to assessing and identifying mechanisms of immunity against leishmaniasis and critical new information that could help vaccine designs and vaccination strategies against the disease.”

More on the study can be found on the Science Translational Medicine website.