“My competitors and I were struggling with overheating,” says Cowley (then known as Kristine Harder), who had sustained a spinal cord injury in 1987 at the age of 20.

“Our autonomic nervous systems couldn’t transmit the signals to increase our heart rates and make us sweat. I started to wonder if there was some way to activate neural pathways in the absence of transmission from the brain.”

Today, the Winnipeg-born neurophysiologist – who set two world records at those Paralympics – is a leading researcher on how to increase exercise capacity in people living with spinal cord injury.

In 2021, she received five years of funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as a Canada Research Chair in function and health after spinal cord injury.

“When you exercise, activating something like the heart normally involves co-ordination between your brain, areas in your brain stem and the spinal cord. But in spinal cord injury, that communication is lost,” says Cowley, associate professor of physiology and pathophysiology and director of the Spinal Cord Research Centre at UM.

Cowley has developed a new conceptual framework, published in 2018 in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, to explain the integration between spinal locomotor-related neurons that produce movement, like walking, and spinal autonomic-related neurons that control functions needed to support exercise, like sweating and increasing heart rate and blood pressure.

In her lab, she uses both human and animal models to study how this type of information is transmitted. She aims to learn more about artificially activating neurons that remain functional below a person’s injury.

“There’s quite a bit of promise that we could trick the neurons below the level of injury into becoming rhythmically active. Even if people aren’t going to walk, necessarily, they might be able to perform rhythmic movements, which is a form of exercise.”

One promising approach, Cowley says, is to activate neurons through neural electrical stimulation, which has already been used to induce rudimentary standing and stepping movements in people with long-standing spinal cord injury.

“There have been reports, which are mainly anecdotal, that spinal electrical stimulation to induce stepping also improves some autonomic functions, but the pathways and neurotransmitters involved are completely unknown,” she says.

People with spinal cord injury are at high risk for secondary complications, including obesity, bone fractures, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Cowley’s research with people like herself who have tetraplegia (paralysis of all four limbs, also known as quadriplegia) has looked at questions such as how many calories they expend while exercising.

Within the next 10 years, Cowley predicts, research will allow people with this form of disability to exercise for longer periods at higher intensity. That will support better overall health.

“If you could have the body function in a way that reduces the risk of sedentary-related disease, that would be a win,” she says.

“The most satisfying thing about this research is attempting to find answers to currently unsolved research problems that may help people in the long run.”

The cover story highlights recent initiatives to support Indigenous inclusion, equity and advancement across the Rady Faculty. These include partnerships with Indigenous communities, efforts to increase the enrolment of Indigenous learners in Rady programs, and recognition of Indigenous achievement in research, education, health services and student leadership.     

The twice-yearly magazine, published in print and online, covers the latest news and student, faculty and alumni accomplishments from the five colleges of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences: the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry, Max Rady College of Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Pharmacy and College of Rehabilitation Sciences.

Rady researchers profiled in the Winter 2022 issue include Canada Research Chair Dr. Kristine Cowley, a neurophysiologist who studies exercise capacity in people with spinal cord injury; Dr. Christine Leong, an associate professor of pharmacy who uses health databases to reveal patterns in prescriptions; and Dr. Em Pijl, an assistant professor of nursing whose research focuses on harm reduction for people experiencing problematic substance use. 

Rady alumni showcased in this issue include Winnipeg dentist Dr. Carla Cohn, whose practice is devoted to children’s treatment under general anesthetic; pathology professor Dr. Yvonne Myal, whose lab investigates proteins involved in breast cancer; and Elizabeth Stoesz, a rehabilitation counsellor whose occupational therapy degree prepared her well for working with youth clients.

Other features include a Q and A with Dr. Peter Nickerson, the new dean of the Rady Faculty; a look at a pilot study of non-invasive brain stimulation paired with cognitive behavioural therapy; and a report on the new “smart suite” at Health Sciences Centre, a model apartment equipped with assistive living technologies, developed by the College of Rehabilitation Sciences.

Explore the Awards and Honours earned by faculty members and stay current on recent happenings in the Rady Faculty by checking out the Notable News section.

Read the latest issue of RadyUM now.

 Tell us about your research.

The spinal cord is like the bandleader who keeps the band members playing together, on time and in the proper sequence so that the music doesn’t go off the rails and start to sound awful. It is responsible for initiating and coordinating our movements, how intensely we can exercise because it controls how we sweat, increasing our heart rate and all the other functions needed to maintain ongoing movements. When you sustain a spinal cord injury (SCI), all these functions are either lost or disordered. My research has three main themes or areas, all focused on increasing health, function and life quality after SCI: to increase the exercise capacity and health benefits of exercise in those living with SCI, to identify means to activate spinal neurons ‘below injury’ to increase function and exercise responses after SCI, and to identify strategies to reduce the currently inevitable musculoskeletal deterioration that occurs after SCI and that leads to many health problems (like bone fracture, pressure ulcers, obesity and type II diabetes). For each research theme, I have – and will continue to – translate new knowledge findings for use by those living with SCI in Canada, and beyond.

Tell us a bit about yourself.

I am not new to the UM, I am a ‘home-grown’ researcher, which in my area of research interest provides some benefits as I am aware of the policies, supports and resources available within the healthcare and wider community for people living with spinal cord injury. In particular, I sustained a spinal cord injury at age 20 and have been living with cervical level tetraplegia since then.

I competed at an international level in wheelchair track, including setting two world records and receiving three medals at the Barcelona Paralympics in 1992 (under the surname Harder). As such, this experience gave me a unique insight into the impact of SCI on motor performance, beginning with observations of how my and fellow SCI athletes’ performances were severely impaired by our ‘autonomic status’, including an inability to increase heart rate or sweat. This insight and my motor control research led me to create a new conceptual framework to explain the integration between spinal locomotor-related neurons that produce movement and spinal autonomic-related neurons that control metabolic and homeostatic body functions needed to support ongoing movement (exercise).

In addition, I served for three years as Executive Director of the Manitoba division of the Canadian Paraplegic Association, which provided insight into the myriad problems and SCI-related complications experienced by people living with SCI. This non-academic professional experience also served to increase my understanding of the policies, supports available for persons trying to re-integrate into the wider community and return to full community participation. It also made me aware of many of the shortcomings that exacerbate many of the secondary health complications commonly experienced by persons living with SCI. As such, finding better ways to translate new knowledge into either healthcare, social policy, or individual practice is key to improving the outcomes of persons living with SCI, and that is why knowledge translation has been a foundation of what I have done for several years as it relates to spinal cord injury-specific research and policy information.

What does CRC funding mean to you as a researcher?

As a researcher, the tremendous value of the CRC is to provide multi-year and stable funding that provides continuity and the ability to develop research themes that simply cannot be met within one or two-year research grant timelines. It means that rather than spending my efforts writing multiple grant applications, I have some consistent baseline funding to enable research in more complicated areas. As a pleasant side effect, it also signifies that my work has been externally evaluated and determined to be of significance to my research field. The value of this is in increasing my ability to attract external research funding, which is essential to advancing research in our current funding climate.

How did you feel when you learned you were awarded your Canada Research Chair?

First, I was very excited. It’s a great deal of work to go through this process and format your information and contributions in a way that would have meaning to someone outside your research field and also to those not involved in research. Also, because I fit into the group of researchers that has been trained and disciplined to not ‘over-value’ my contributions, I tend to write with a very conservative view, tending to ‘undervalue’ my own contributions, whereas the type of application required of the CRC program requires one to leave no doubt as to the strength of the applicant and I find it difficult to write in this way. Nonetheless, it was a valuable experience, because I came away with a strengthened view and sense of my contributions to the health and life quality of Canadians living with SCI, as well as how this research might affect the health and lives of those living without injury as well.

What inspires you? 

I guess I am a naturally curious person. I want to know ‘how the story turns out’ and really enjoy analyzing data and thinking about ‘what it means.’ I am not so much interested in the details of a particular phenomena or cellular pathway, but rather I want to know ‘how the system works.’ How do we communicate to the body tissues that support ongoing movement, like the heart or sweat glands, when we start walking or running, and what spinal neural pathways are key to these functions? Why are they impaired by SCI, even when they can make rhythmic exercise movements? I want to know, at a spinal neural mechanism-level and a spinal cord communication-level is ‘what is the purpose of the spinal cord?’ Why is it so important and what does it tell us about the basic organization of the nervous system? What commonalities are there between species, and how can we use these commonalities to better the health and lives of those living with damage to their spinal cords?

What about you would people find surprising?

I really don’t know. Perhaps that, despite my apparent inadequacies in the artistic realm, I continue attempting to draw or work with other media to increase my creative abilities. Even if I never succeed at advancing my creative talent, I find the time spent in these pursuits of value because they help clarify and focus my ability to create within the basic science research realm.

Do you have any advice for students/young grad students starting their career?

Yes, the current research climate is extremely tough. If you wish to succeed you have to have a strong work ethic, luck (or being in the right place at the right time), the ability to receive critical feedback and resistance to letting failure stop you from continuing on your path. It will be very rare that everything you thought would happen in research actually does, and you need to be carefully prepared to recognize and document these differences and to try to make sense of them.

“Investments like today’s in Canada’s research infrastructure are incredibly important to the nation’s future. They give Canadian researchers the tools they need to make new discoveries that will better the lives of Canadians today and for years to come,” says federal Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan.

The investment made by the Government of Canada is part of the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund. This fund helps universities attract and retain the best and brightest researchers from around the world by giving them access to cutting-edge research tools.

“These investments will inspire a new generation of young explorers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics,” says federal Minister of Natural Resources Jim Carr.

“These diverse investments will support researchers in a wide range of cutting-edge scientific endeavours that will help solve problems and benefit people from this province and beyond,” says Manitoba’s Minister of Growth, Enterprise and Trade Cliff Cullen.

Canada is committed to providing strong support for new research innovation and infrastructure and University of Manitoba researchers tackle issues that matter to the lives of everyday Canadians—from spinal cord research to near real-time electromagnetic imaging that will expand the capabilities of Canada’s healthcare, agricultural, and wireless technology industries.

“This funding provides important infrastructure to allow the University’s research laboratories to be both state-of-the-art and world-class. It also enhances the educational experience for students by giving them the opportunity to work and learn from some of the best researchers in Canada and, indeed, the world,” says Digvir Jayas, Vice-President (Research and International) and Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba.

The funded nine

Researchers: Kristine Cowley (and Katinka Stecina), Physiology
Funded: Human Spinal Cord Injury Research Centre for Health, Balance and Motor Control

Impact: Research in the proposed Human Spinal Cord Injury Research Centre for Health, Balance and Motor Control will identify how neurons in the human spinal cord contribute to movement and how we can enhance this function after spinal cord injury (SCI). Thus a major goal of this research program is to develop novel training and rehabilitation strategies based on a better understanding of spinal cord function. Another important goal is to reduce obesity and thereby improve health after SCI. This will be achieved by developing and scientifically validating novel exercise-based strategies designed for those with impaired motor function.

Thus, “state of the art” testing facilities will be developed, including non-invasive brain stimulation, muscle recording, and a suite of specialized exercise equipment designed for use by those with reduced muscle function. This program will also train highly skilled researchers. The knowledge gained will lead to new rehabilitation guidelines and be translated to health personnel and Canadians living with SCI, ultimately reducing societal costs related to SCI: There are over 80, 000 Canadians living with SCI and the average paralyzed person requires over $1.5 million in health care because of medical issues stemming from lost basic functions like standing and walking and running.

Researcher: Rebecca Davis, Chemistry
Funded: Laboratory for Asymmetric Organocatalysis 

Impact: Living organisms are comprised of chiral molecules including amino acids, proteins, and sugars. These molecules are typically present in only one three-dimensional form (enantiomer), and as a result, biological organisms can respond differently to the two enantiomeric forms of a compound. In terms of drug development, this means that the two enantiomers of a single compound can have vastly different activities and side effects. It is an ongoing challenge and requirement to develop robust and reliable catalytic processes that produce a single enantiomer of a compound. With the state of the art equipment requested in this proposal, Dr. Davis proposes to overcome this challenge through the development of novel methods for converting cheap, abundant organic substrates into industrially relevant, single enantiomer compounds. The results of this work will serve to expand the toolbox of enantioselective organic reactions, providing the foundational knowledge and techniques necessary for the efficient production of a wide range of pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals.

Researcher: Chuang Deng, Mechanical Engineering
Funded: In-situ Nano-mechanical and Nano-electrical Characterization of Low-dimensional Nanomaterials

A CRUMPLED GRAPHENE SHEET ON A SILICON WAFER // IMAGE: KONSTANTIN NOVOSELOV

Impact: The requested equipment will be used to perform state-of-the-art mechanical and electrical characterization of 1D and 2D nanomaterials. When materials are reduced to nanoscale, many novel properties emerge. As an example, 1D metal nanowires and nanotubes have the potential to exhibit strength up to 1000X than that of conventional bulk metals. Many novel electronic or photonic properties also emerge in nanowires or nanotubes, which make them ideal for constructing “miniature” devices like nanosensors, nanorobots, and nanogenerators. Nanogenerators, for example, could potentially exploit human body movement to power wearable electronics. Graphene, which is 2D sheet made of a single layer of carbon atoms, holds great promise in the design of flexible batteries that charge faster and last longer than conventional batteries. There is an urgent need to understand how the structures of these materials define their properties, but their small size makes them hard to handle and characterize.

The work enabled by the requested instrumentation will reveal the mechanisms that lead to an extraordinary mechanical and electrical properties of nanomaterials. This will make it possible to optimize their physical properties so that they can be used as building blocks for nano-devices like sensors, transistors for superfast computers, and high efficiency solar cells and battery systems. This will have a direct impact on Canada’s emerging nanotechnology industry.

Researcher: Joseph Gordon, Nursing/CHRIM
Funded: Comprehensive in Vivo and Culture-based Exercise and Metabolic Analysis Platform

Impact: Exposure to maternal diabetes during development is now recognized as a risk factor for early-onset type 2 diabetes in youth. However, the reasons why this occurs are not completely understood. The new equipment will allow research on: 1) how exposure to maternal diabetes causes insulin resistance in developing muscle by changing fetal metabolism; 2) the mechanisms responsible for the higher cardiovascular risk associated with exposure to maternal diabetes during development; and 3) development of several new treatments to prevent youth-onset insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease associated with type 2 diabetes.

This research will improve cardiovascular health and quality of life for youth with type 2 diabetes and benefit the Canadian economy and health care system.

Researcher: Ian Jeffrey, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Funded: Near Real-time Electromagnetic Imaging

Impact: This research concerns three applications of electromagnetic imaging: low-cost and safe microwave imaging for frequent breast cancer screening and monitoring, radio-frequency monitoring of stored grain to prevent spoilage losses, and source reconstruction methods for faster and cheaper testing of new antennas. Electromagnetic imaging algorithms involve huge amounts of computation, and can take hours to produce an image even with powerful and expensive distributed, high-performance computing hardware. This is not cost effective, and because computer systems like this are large and cannot be directly integrated with imaging hardware, electromagnetic imaging is not currently commercially viable.

Gordon’s research will develop entirely new high-order fast algorithms that are compatible with co-processor (graphics card) acceleration. This will result in state-of-the-art software that can produce accurate, 3D images in near realtime (i.e. minutes) on relatively inexpensive, 64-core computers with high end graphics cards that can be fully integrated with imaging system hardware. Gordon and his research team at the University of Manitoba’s Electromagnetic Imaging Lab have over a decade of experience developing tools of this type. New, state-of-the-art imaging algorithms will make electromagnetic imaging technology commercially attractive and unlock its potential to expand the capabilities of Canada’s healthcare, agricultural, and wireless technology industries.

Researcher: Sachin Katyal, Pharmacology/RIOH-CCMB
Funded: Identification of Novel Therapeutics to Modulate DNA Damage Repair in the Treatment of Cancer

DNA

Impact: Malignant glioma (MG) is one of the most devastating forms of brain cancer. This deadly disease has a dismal survival rate of approximately one year after diagnosis. Treatment includes surgery followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, the chemotherapy of choice only enhances patient survival by 3 months, mainly due the tumour cell becoming resistant, tumour recurrence and metastasis. Despite advances in drug delivery, there is a lack of effective anti-MG therapies and patient treatment ultimately becomes palliative. Furthermore, MG treatment regimens are very taxing on the Canadian public and its health care system.

CFI-sponsored infrastructure will enable Katyal to study the over-activity of the brain tumour’s cellular DNA repair mechanisms using methods that allows analysis of each individual cell’s DNA repair activity. Through these studies, Katyal will be able to discover how these tumours are able to resist chemotherapy. Katyal will also identify new drugs that can combat both the initial brain tumour and subsequent brain tumours that recurs due to resistance to commonly used anti-cancer chemotherapies.

Researcher: Peter Pelka, Microbiology
Funded: Studies of Cellular Reprogramming by Adenovirus

Impact: Adenoviruses are a family of small DNA viruses that cause a variety of diseases in humans, and, importantly, were shown to cause cancer in animals. One of the genes responsible for these properties of the virus is the E1A gene, which is the first gene expressed after cells are infected with the virus.

Pelka will exploit this property of E1A to investigate how E1A modulates the activities of cellular hub regulators, proteins that frequently are involved in cancer and carcinogenesis. The proposed work aims at identifying novel modulators of the cell cycle and differentiation, processes deregulated in cancer. Understanding these processes on a fundamental level, which the proposed experiments enable us to do, is crucial to developing new cancer therapies.

Researcher: Qiuyan Yuan, Civil Engineering
Funded: Infrastructures for Zero Waste Research Program

Photo: Alan Levin, Flickr

Impact: Solid waste in Canada represents both a growing problem as well as an opportunity for economic growth. Solid waste is traditionally disposed of in large landfills. Approximately 24 million tonnes of municipal solid waste are sent to landfills annually. The decomposition of the material being sent to these sites is posing environmental challenges in terms of toxic compounds leaching into and contaminating groundwater, and the production of greenhouse gases like methane, which exacerbate the progression of climate change. In fact, about 20 per cent of Canada’s methane emission comes from landfill. 

CFI has invested in infrastructure to establish a Zero Waste Research Laboratory at the University of Manitoba. This will support the development of new techniques that would allow diversion of the waste materials away from landfills and into processing streams that can produce commercially valuable end products like compost and biogas. As a result, this program will 1) benefit the environment by decreasing the greenhouse emissions from the landfill, 2) promote solid waste industry growth; and 3) advance the technology and training of more high qualified personnel in the solid waste treatment.

Researcher: Adrian West, physiology
Funded: A Tissue Engineering Platform for Fibrotic and Developmental Diseases

Impact: Asthma is a major concern for child health. Severe asthma is difficult to treat because irreversible structural changes in the lung significantly change the way that lung cells function. The effects of these structural changes are difficult to study, because traditional cell culture experiments use stiff plastic substrates that do not accurately replicate the in vivo environment in health or disease.

Three dimensional (3D) bioprinting is an exciting new technology that allows us to build better experimental models of structurally remodelled lung tissue. CFI’s latest investment will allow West to purchase a 3D bioprinter to produce rings of airway smooth muscle, a tissue comprised of cells that are important in the development of asthma. Making these rings softer or stiffer better represents the structural differences between healthy and diseased lungs. The rings will then be tested using a powerful new analysis system to determine why airway smooth muscle behaves differently in asthma.

West will then use the 3D bioprinter to develop disease models of other structurally remodelled tissues including blood vessels, skeletal and heart muscles. These new bioprinted models will allow us to better study how cells behave in healthy and diseased tissue, which will increase our understanding of how changes in organ structure affect cell function. This is an important step towards developing new treatments that improve the health of patients.