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

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

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

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

DR. JOSEE LAVOIE

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

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

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

DR. ROBERT SCHROTH

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

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

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

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

Grant: $200,000 (two years)

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

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

Grant: $321,300 (three years)

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

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

Grant: $100,000 (one year)

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

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

Grant: $960,076 (five years)

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

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

Grant: $822,376 (five years)

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

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

Grant: $470,475 (four years)

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

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

Grant: $233,324 (three years)

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

Grant: $749,700 (five years)

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

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

Grant: $100,000 (one year)

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

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

Grant: $300,000 (three years)

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

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

Grant: $742,050 (five years)

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

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

Grant: $548,890 (five years)

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

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

Grant: $983,026 (five years)

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

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

Grant: $742,050 (five years)

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

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

Grant: $573,751 (two years)

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

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

Grant: $990,676 (five years)

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

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

Grant: $240,976 (two years)

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

The Honourable Patty Hajdu, Canada’s Minister of Health, announced the funding from the Government of Canada, through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), along with provincial partners, that invests more than $109 million over one year in COVID-19 research.

“I congratulate our successful investigators and their partners and collaborators for their essential research to address this global health emergency,” said Dr. Digvir Jayas, Vice-President (Research and International) and Distinguished Professor at UM.

The six UM researchers who are having their projects supported through CIHR and Research Manitoba include five located at the Max Rady College of Medicine and one at the Faculty of Arts.

Faculty of Arts:

Lori Wilkinson (Sociology and Criminology), CIHR – $671,332

Lori Wilkinson

The COVID-19 virus preys on people in vulnerable situations such as overcrowded housing and work stations, these conditions are frequent among racialized persons, Indigenous persons and newcomers, Wilkinson’s project will seeks answers to questions impacting populations of Indigenous, racialized persons and newcomers, in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. The project will seek answers to two central questions: How have COVID-19 related government imposed regulations differentially influenced the mental health and well-being of Indigenous peoples, racialized persons and immigrants? And, to what extent have socioeconomic inequalities faced by Indigenous peoples, racialized persons and immigrants influenced their experience of COVID-19 and its related social and economic restrictions?

Max Rady College of Medicine:

Meghan Azad (Pediatrics & Child Health/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba), Canada Research Chair in Developmental Origins of Chronic Disease, CIHR awarded $1,639,795; Research Manitoba awarded $100,000

Meghan Azad.

Social distancing policies and school and business closures have helped slow the spread of COVID-19, but we don’t know how they will affect mental health and wellbeing (especially in children) in the long term. We also don’t know why some people infected with the novel coronavirus get very sick and others do not, and we don’t know the true rate of infection in the population. These are urgent questions that must be answered quickly to control outbreaks and minimize the unintended consequences of pandemic management policies.  Azad and her team will study the direct effects of coronavirus infection and the indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the existing CHILD Cohort Study.

Kevin Coombs (Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba), CIHR awarded $790,162

Kevin Coombs

All strategies of rapidly developing tools to mitigate this catastrophic SARS-CoV-2 pandemic are fundamentally dependent on identifying and controlling those proteins that execute the cellular mechanisms critical for the virus to infect and replicate in host cells. Coombs will lead a multi-institutional consortium using a powerful novel tool, called SOMAscan, and next-generation sequencing, to rapidly determine how COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus) – and a variety of other coronaviruses – affect large numbers of genes and proteins in different human lung cells, the normal target of the COVID-19 virus.

Josée Lavoie (Community Health Sciences/Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing Ongomiizwin – Research), Leona Star and Wanda Phillips-Beck, First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba, CIHR awarded $475,836

Josée Lavoie

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of modeling in estimating the course of the infection over time, the potential impact of public health measures and the resources required to meet response need. Lavoie—working in full partnership with the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat of Manitoba (FNHSSM)—a seasoned team of First Nations organization-based and university-based researchers with a long history of collaborating, will develop a FNHSSM-based agile platform, for modeling community pandemics. Models will be developed with data from community profiles, evidence of transmission and severity derived from the literature and approaches co-created through knowledge exchange.  This unique project will strengthen an existing platform and be made scalable to other Indigenous contexts.

Nathan Nickel (Community Health Sciences/Manitoba Centre for Health Policy/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba), Leona Star, Wanda Phillips-Beck, Francis Chartrand, Julianne Sanguins, Rachel Dutton, Wayne Clark, CIHR – $317,917

Nathan Nickel

Some groups of Canadians are likely to be harder hit by the COVID-19 pandemic than others. First Nations, Métis and Inuit Canadians are examples of these. These groups have high rates of chronic illnesses (like heart disease and lung disease) that put them at high risk for poor COVID-19 outcomes. Nickel is undertaking this project in partnership with the First Nations Health and Social Secretariat, the Manitoba Metis Federation and the Manitoba Inuit Association. It will provide data on who is being tested for COVID-19, using the province of Manitoba as a sample for the rest of Canada. This information can then be used to direct and scale-up the public health response to COVID-19 where it is most needed.

Ryan Zarychanski (Internal Medicine/Research Institute of Oncology and Hematology), CIHR – $3,573,336

Ryan Zarychanski

COVID-19 is associated with inflammation and an unusually high risk of blood clots. Small studies have suggested that anticoagulant (blood thinning) medications reduce inflammation and prevent blood clots from forming and may improve the health and survival of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The goal of this randomized trial is to establish whether anticoagulants called heparins can improve outcomes in hospitalized patients with COVID-19. This international trial will enroll patients from Canada, the U.S., Brazil and Mexico. Zarychanski is also a co-principal investigator with Dr. Alexis Turgeon (Université Laval) on another CIHR COVID-19 Rapid Response grant ($2.1 million) to further investigate heparin anticoagulation in patients who are critically ill.

It’s not necessary, say some UM COVID-19 experts.

In an interview with CBC, Drs. Kevin Coombs and Andrew Halayko said that the possibility of contracting COVID-19 from a passing encounter with others on a sidewalk or street is very small.

Halayko said the risk of contracting COVID-19 outdoors is minute, compared to the risk of exposure indoors. He said the virus would disperse in the breeze, while the tiny nanodroplets that hold the pathogen would quickly evaporate.

Coombs, a medical microbiologist and virology expert in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, said:

“If someone is exhaling once or twice while they’re passing you — that’s quite a bit different than if they’re sitting down next to you, having a discussion, and you’re breathing on each other for half an hour.”

Halayko is UM chair in Chronic Lung Disease Pathology and Treatment, and physiologist at the Max Rady College of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

He and Coombs both advise staying two metres apart from people you don’t live with, and when passing them on a sidewalk or path, don’t veer into traffic or pff the beaten track with the idea it will be better than just passing by.

The entire CBC story is here.

About 80 people attended the noon-hour session at the Frederic Gaspard Theatre on the Bannatyne campus. Representatives of the College of Nursing, located on the Fort Garry campus, attended via webcast.

Dr. Brian Postl, dean, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences and vice-provost (health sciences), began by outlining the decentralized budget model that the university will implement on April 1. Moving to current priorities, Postl pointed to interprofessional collaboration across the faculty’s five colleges (Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Rehabilitation Sciences) as a strong focus.

“We are working hard to establish a new (faculty) chair to promote interprofessional education and innovation,” he said.

Postl said the Rady Faculty’s planned Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing is nearing approval by the U of M Senate and, it is hoped, will be launched in the coming months. He went on to summarize the five-year strategic framework for the Rady Faculty, encouraging all stakeholders to read the plan in draft form and send feedback to fhscomm@umanitoba.ca.

Dr. Sara Israels, vice-dean, academic affairs, reported on the Rady Faculty’s new Office of Educational and Faculty Development and on the transition to a faculty-wide process for promotion and tenure. She also noted the establishment of an awards committee that spans the five colleges. “We need to nominate more people in our faculty for external awards,” she said.

Dr. Jeff Sisler, vice-dean, continuing competency and assessment, spoke about the recent creation of a new web platform which features online registration, learning and event management for high-quality continuing professional development programs. Sisler noted that a faculty-wide working group on internationally educated health professionals is exploring “the work we need to do around helping new Canadians enter practice in their chosen professions.”

Dr. Christine Ateah, vice-dean, education, reported on topics including the new interprofessional collaborative care (IPCC) curriculum for all Rady Faculty students. First-year students are now assigned to small faculty-wide cohorts that complete certain assignments as a team. In response to a question about interprofessional clinical practice opportunities, Ateah said the scheduling of the five colleges poses a challenge, but there is strong potential for student-led learning.

Dr. Catherine Cook, vice-dean, Indigenous health, gave an update on the Rady Faculty’s draft Truth and Reconciliation Commission Action Plan. Among the key themes of the nearly finalized plan are honouring traditional knowledge systems and ensuring support, mentorship and retention of Indigenous students. Of the latter, Cook said, “We do have a faculty-wide working group . . . and it’s our hope to address any gaps and build on strengths.”

Dr. Kevin Coombs, assistant dean, research, spoke on behalf of Dr. Peter Nickerson, vice-dean, research. From a funding perspective, Coombs said, there is a growing emphasis on collaborative health research conducted by teams and clusters. Coombs presented graphs showing positive results, such as the fact that the Rady Faculty’s research funding increased by 16 per cent in the past year. “Keep up the good work,” he said.

View the full PowerPoint presentation for the Town Hall.

Watch the one-hour webcast of the Town Hall.

“Canada is home to exceptional health researchers,” said Dr. Alain Beaudet, President of CIHR. “Our new Foundation Grants will provide stable, long-term support to some of these top minds so that they have the time and resources needed to find new ways of preventing disease, managing chronic conditions and enhancing health care delivery.”

“I congratulate these national leaders in health research on their success in receiving this funding,” says Digvir Jayas, Vice-President (Research and International). “This research will have direct impacts on the health of Manitobans and reach beyond the local community to national and international populations.”

Foundation Grants provide long-term support for Canada’s research leaders to undertake innovative and high impact programs of research. The Open Operating Grants invest in research and knowledge translation projects across the full spectrum of health.

Together, these two programs support the best ideas proposed by Canada’s health researchers. Recipients of these grants were selected through a rigorous peer-review process – the internationally accepted benchmark for ensuring quality and excellence in scientific research.

The Foundation Grants awarded

Tracie Afifi (community health sciences) $883,855 for the project titled “Preventing child maltreatment: Changing a child’s trajectory, improving health, and strengthening families.”

Lisa Lix (community health sciences/George & Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation/Manitoba Centre for Health Policy) $962,920 for the project titled “Advancing the science of data quality for electronic health databases: Applications to chronic disease research and surveillance.”

Jitender Sareen (psychiatry) $1,886,078 for the project titled “Defining the longitudinal course, outcomes, and treatment needs of vulnerable Canadians with posttraumatic stress disorder.”

The Open Operating Grant recipients

Marni Brownell (community health sciences/Manitoba Centre for Health Policy/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba) $116,250 for the project titled “Neonatal and childhood neurodevelopmental, health and educational outcomes of children exposed to antidepressants and maternal depression during pregnancy.”

Kevin Coombs (medical microbiology/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba) $657,715 for the project titled “Signaling perturbations during influenza virus replication and pathogenesis.”

Allison Dart (pediatrics & child health/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba) $881,609 for the project titled “An assessment of psychological factors, inflammatory biomarkers and kidney complications; the improving renal Complications in Adolescents with type 2 diabetes through REsearch (iCARE) cohort study.”

Sanjiv Dhingra (physiology/St-Boniface Hospital Research) $521,185 for the project titled “Preserving the immunoprivilege of transplanted allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells in the ischemic heart.”

Keith Fowke (medical microbiology) $100,000 for the project titled “Understanding HIV-mediated innate immune dysregulation: The role of the immune inhibitory protein LAG-3.”

Phillip Gardiner (Faculty of Kinesiology & Recreation Management) $735,312 for the project titled “Aging effects on components of locomotion, and the impact of increased regular physical activity beginning in late adulthood.”

Jean-Eric Ghia (immunology/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba) $100,000 for the project titled “Semaphorin 3E and Gut Inflammation.”

Lorrie Kirshenbaum (physiology/St-Boniface Hospital Research) $569,850 for the project titled “Targeting cell death signaling pathways in the heart.”

Donna Martin (nursing) $617,855 for the project titled “The micro- and macro-construction of induced displacement: Experiences, health outcomes and future plans of Little Saskatchewan First Nation.”

Leigh Murphy (biochemistry/medical genetics/cell biology/CancerCare Manitoba) $100,000 for the project titled “Beyond the estrogen receptor: Involvement of kinases in estrogen signaling in normal and malignant human breast epithelial cells.”

Tabrez Siddiqui (physiology) $795,210 for the project titled “Regulation of a neuronal synaptic pathway in neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.”

Carolyn Snider (emergency medicine/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba) $100,000 for the project titled “Wraparound care for youth injured by violence: A randomized control trial.”

Roberta Woodgate (nursing/St-Boniface Hospital Research/Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba) $428,986 for the project titled “The Journey for survivors of childhood brain tumours: From post-treatment into adolescence and adulthood.”

“It’s an incredible honour to have my work recognized by the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of Children,” Dr. Afifi said. “I was very moved to find that the selection committee was comprised of young people who reviewed the work of so many deserving nominees. Thank you for this award.”

Afifi’s work to create awareness of the harm caused to children who are victims of violence in their homes has been recognized in Canada and internationally and has also been influential in creating changes in policy and practice for families, organizations and governments.

The CCRC selected out two of Afifi’s papers for particular praise: the first linking harsh physical punishment with a range of mental disorders and the second demonstrating a connection between physical punishment and increased likelihood of cardiovascular disease, arthritis and obesity.

“It’s always gratifying to see one of our colleagues receive recognition for her work,” added Dr. Stephen Moses, Department Head, Community Health Sciences. “It’s even more meaningful when this work is done in the service of children who are victims of violence. I congratulate Tracie on this well-deserved award.”