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.

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.

In the Fall 2021 funding competition, the CIHR awarded a total of nearly $8 million to UM in the form of 11 grants.

“This is an excellent showing by our faculty members and their research partners in obtaining support for projects that will advance vital knowledge and benefit people’s health and well-being,” said UM Vice-President (Research and International) Dr. Digvir Jayas.

“It’s impressive to see the breadth of health research taking place at UM in areas such as trauma recovery, mental health, kidney disease, HIV, cancer, diabetes and chronic pain.”

Dr. Myrle Ballard

Dr. Myrle Ballard, assistant professor and Indigenous scholar of chemistry in the Faculty of Science, is Anishinaabe from Lake St. Martin First Nation (LSMFN). She leads a research project that received a five-year grant of $2,067,415.

The LSMFN community’s traditional homelands have been uninhabitable since a human-made flood destroyed them in 2011. LSMFN members experienced trauma when they were forced to evacuate.

With input from community members, Ballard’s project will focus on implementing an Elder-Youth mentorship program to promote health and well-being.

“The post-traumatic distress suffered by LSMFN members requires culturally appropriate research interventions to lessen their grief and heal into a healthy community,” the researchers wrote.

Dr. Garry Shen

Dr. Garry Shen, professor of internal medicine in the Max Rady College of Medicine, co-leads a team with First Nations partners that received a five-year grant of $1,155,150.

A recent study by Shen and partners showed that an online and locally broadcast prenatal education program significantly increased participation rates in prenatal programs and breastfeeding when it was piloted in three First Nations communities.

The new project will enhance the program, which is community-based and incorporates both Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge about healthy pregnancy and breastfeeding. The goal is to improve pregnancy outcomes and maternal/child health in rural and remote First Nations communities.

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

Dr. Tracie Afifi, professor, community health sciences/psychiatry, Max Rady College of Medicine; Canada Research Chair in childhood adversity and resilience; researcher, Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM)

Grant: $75,000 (one year)

Afifi’s study focuses on adverse childhood experiences and peer bullying. She seeks to identify which protective factors during adolescence help to reduce the likelihood of substance use problems and mental or physical health conditions among those who have had these negative experiences.

Dr. Robert Lorway, professor, community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine; Canada Research Chair in global intervention politics and social transformation

Grant: $100,000 (one year)

Lorway’s community-based study in Nairobi, Kenya aims to understand and confront the role homophobia plays in men who have sex with men not seeking treatment for HPV-related and other anal diseases until their illness is extremely advanced. 

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

Grant: $320,534 (three years)

MacKay will compare two groups of people with chronic kidney disease in a randomized feasibility trial of methods to reduce 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 and infectious diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $837,675 (five 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. Gerd Prehna, assistant professor, microbiology, Faculty of Science

Grant: $596,700 (five years)

Prehna will investigate how, during an infection, disease-causing bacteria kill beneficial bacteria by loading deadly toxins onto a “crossbow-like” secretion system. A detailed understanding of this process may make it possible to “disarm” many species of bacterial invaders.

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

Grant: $956,250 (five years)

Sharif’s study will build on the finding that metabolism plays a role in how a particular mutated gene promotes the spread of tumor cells in aggressive medulloblastoma brain tumors. His team will investigate using metabolism-targeting agents to suppress this process.

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

Grant: $600,524 (four years)

Woodgate will lead a cross-Canada study in which young people with chronic pain will be engaged as co-researchers. The goal is to better understand the experiences, needs and priorities of young people with chronic pain in order to provide better patient-centred care.

Grant: $546,976 (three years)

Woodgate’s team will also implement a youth mental health program in Winnipeg, partnering high schools in the Seven Oaks School Division with NorWest, a community youth hub. Multiple data collection strategies, including arts-based methods, will be used to evaluate the program.

Dr. Jennifer Yamamoto, assistant professor, internal medicine, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher, CHRIM

Grant: $609,835 (four years)

Yamamoto’s project builds on a previous study of glucose monitoring in mothers with Type I diabetes during pregnancy. It will examine the possible relationship between the blood sugar patterns of these mothers while pregnant and learning difficulties and behaviour problems in their children.

His goal was to understand why male sex workers, who had a high prevalence of HIV infection, weren’t coming to free clinics that were run by UM, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Then one sex worker described how a researcher had asked him and others highly personal questions for a study, then disappeared. The workers never saw the data that was extracted from them and had no idea how it was used. “It made me feel really degraded,” the worker told Lorway.

Other sex workers told him, “You people from Manitoba stay at big hotels. People are making money from studying us. We want to have a place in this research industry.”

It was a turning point for Lorway, now associate director of the UM Institute for Global Public Health and Canada Research Chair in global intervention politics and social transformation.

Lorway, originally from Cape Breton, N.S., had long recognized the importance of engaging with communities. He had worked closely with the AIDS Coalition of Nova Scotia for his master’s research at Dalhousie University, and with activists in Namibia for his PhD thesis at the University of Toronto, later published as a book, Namibia’s Rainbow Project: Gay Rights in an African Nation.

In Mysore, he made a shift: He invited the sex workers to lead the research. Aiming to “de-monopolize expertise,” he trained them in ethical research recruitment, interviewing techniques, and how to record, interpret and present data. They took ownership of the study, which resulted in richer findings, Lorway says.

What’s more, after they learned to analyze patterns of activity at sex work hotspots, the sex worker-researchers transformed that knowledge into security strategies that helped their peers to work more safely.     

“I’m interested in where research intersects with activism and human rights,” says Lorway, who joined the UM faculty in 2009 and is now associate professor of community health sciences.

“I work alongside people from disenfranchised communities on participatory research. We democratize evidence production, so health activists can own and swiftly use the data. My work has really moved toward data justice.”

Since 2010, Lorway has worked alongside male sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya. In his second book, AIDS Activism, Science and Community Across Three Continents, he examined “the complex entanglements between AIDS activism and HIV science.”

Prior to the pandemic, the anthropologist was away from Canada about 10 months per year. Based in Winnipeg for now, he is writing a book about how Kenyan sex workers are reinterpreting HIV science in ways that are productive for them.

Just as colonial regimes extracted resources from Africa, Lorway says, scientists of the past felt entitled to capture data from communities, profit from it and not share it. He and the Institute for Global Public Health are committed to an approach of respect, accountability and partnership.

“Local communities have an interest and a stake in research,” Lorway says. “They have the right to be centrally involved.”

Molecular epidemiological tools are gaining popularity among researchers as they can identify previously unlinked transmissions. The anonymized data can offer many insights, but the data is far removed from the lived experiences of those hindered by the disease, so any program developed from this data may not fit the “real world” circumstances of those needing help.

Robert Lorway, Co-Principal Investigator and professor of community health sciences and Canada Research Chair in Global Intervention Politics and Social Transformation.

Lyle McKinnon, Co-Principal Investigator and an associate professor in medical microbiology and infectious disease.

But for the UM team, led by Lyle McKinnon, an associate professor in medical microbiology and infectious disease in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, the big question is the ethical questions that emerge from using such tools, and how these can be harnessed to guide HIV programs. 

“Do these new powerful techniques for identifying transmission patterns represent a major breakthrough to effectively tackle HIV epidemics, or do they signify the emergence of a highly intrusive surveillance regime in HIV science,” he asks.

This new study, which received $250,000 in support from Canada’s New Frontiers in Research Fund – Exploration, opens a critical and engaged dialogue with a vibrant local activist community in Kenya, Nairobi, and will offer insight into the potential uses and anticipated abuses of using such information to sharpen the focus of HIV epidemic prevention. The outcome of this process holds major importance to the development of policy frameworks that will guide the next generation of the global response.

The UM team has used such molecular tools to analyze several hundred HIV sequences within a large sex worker prevention program and noted several large, mixed transmission networks. Now, with co-lead Robert Lorway, they are directly engaging communities of male and female sex worker activists living in Nairobi, Kenya, in a critical knowledge exchange process. This will answer how, or if, these data can be ethically used to inform existing programs.

The UM has long been a trailblazer in many areas of HIV/AIDS research, including the search for a vaccine against its spread, and this project builds upon this legacy of community partnership to bolster global public health.

This study will draw upon a community based participatory approach employed by feminist and postcolonial scholars. Its multidisciplinary team of basic and social scientists, policy-makers, and local community health activists will 1) work through lay technical summaries of the molecular data to explore the possibilities and limitations of employing network interventions, 2) co-design and test, under carefully controlled conditions, a targeted pilot intervention that combines molecular network data with community knowledge and 3) critically assess and identify the emergent ethical issues, advantages and disadvantages of the tested intervention (when compared to conventional approaches).

Opening up a critical and engaged dialogue with a vibrant local activist community, will offer insight into the potential uses and anticipated abuses of using such information to sharpen the focus of HIV epidemic prevention. The outcome of this process holds major importance to the development of policy frameworks that will guide the next generation of the global response.

Research team includes:

• Robert Lorway – Co-Principal Investigator, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Intervention Politics and Social Transformation, Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Souradet Shaw – Co-Applicant, Assistant Professor and Canada Research Chair in Program Sciences and Global Public Health, Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Parinita Bhattacharjee – Co-Applicant, Senior Technical Advisor, Partners for Health and Development in Africa, Technical Support, Kenya
• Joshua Kimani – Co-Applicant, Clinical Director, Partners for Health and Development in Africa, Key Populations Research, Kenya
• Marissa Becker – Co-Applicant, Associate Professor, Community Health Sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine
• Marianne Mureithi – Co-Applicant, Lecturer, University of Nairobi, Medical microbiology, Kenya

“Congratulations to the U of M applicants who were successful in this highly competitive national funding process,” said Dr. Peter Nickerson, vice-dean research of the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.

“These projects represent a number of colleges and departments across the Rady Faculty. They demonstrate innovative and collaborative approaches to health research. Each of these exciting studies has the potential to advance health care in meaningful ways.”        

Here’s a look at the projects:

Dr. Allan Becker, professor, pediatrics and child health, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher with Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM)

Dr. Meghan Azad, Canada Research Chair in Developmental Origins of Chronic Disease; assistant professor, pediatrics and child health; researcher with CHRIM

Project Grant: $1,220,940

Becker and Azad seek to understand why asthma is more common in boys than girls, but shifts to being more common in women than men. The researchers will assess 1,000 children who are part of an ongoing cohort study, measuring whether changes in body fat, inflammation or sex hormones in puberty explain the “sex shift.” This knowledge will contribute to better prevention and treatment of asthma in all children.

Dr. Christine Kelly, assistant professor, community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine

Project Grant: $726,750

Kelly will study directly funded (also known as “self-managed”) home care, which is expanding across Canada. Under this model, individuals receive government funds to pay for their own home care. Kelly will examine policy issues such as the role of home-care agencies in delivering these services and how this kind of home care can best be adapted to rural contexts. The aim is to generate insights about how directly funded home care can most equitably serve users, their families/supporters and home-care workers.

Dr. Gilbert Kirouac, neuroscientist; professor, oral biology, Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry

Project Grant: $707,625

Kirouac will study how a region of the brain called the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus interacts with other brain regions to produce excessive anxiety. Using rodent models, Kirouac will apply innovative techniques to better understand the neural circuitry of stress-induced anxiety. The goal is to gain knowledge that will lead to new treatments for anxiety disorders.

Dr. Lily Lim, assistant professor, pediatrics and child health, Max Rady College of Medicine; researcher with CHRIM

Project Grant: $321,300

Lim will study employment experiences and challenges among young adults aged 18 to 30 who have lupus. People with lupus often deal with fatigue, chronic pain and mental health issues that can make working difficult. Lim’s findings will contribute to developing new ways to help young people with lupus obtain and keep employment. Dr. Eleanor Pullenayegum of the University of Toronto is co-principal investigator.

Dr. Jillian Stobart, assistant professor, College of Pharmacy

Project Grant: $504,900

Stobart will use advanced fluorescence microscopes and genetic tools to study pericytes – blood vessel cells – and blood flow in animal models. Blood flow in the brain decreases with age, and this may cause cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Abnormal pericytes may account for these blood flow changes. Stobart’s objective is to understand how pericyte signaling changes with age or during Alzheimer’s disease, and how this affects blood flow.  

Dr. Dan Chateau, assistant professor, community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine; research scientist, Manitoba Centre for Health Policy

Priority Announcement Bridge Grant: $100,000

Chateau will use anonymized health data to investigate the effects of prescription opioid and psychotropic medication use during pregnancy. The study will look at patterns of prescription opioid use among pregnant women, short-term effects on children exposed in the womb (such as neonatal abstinence syndrome) and longer-term outcomes for these children, such as readiness for school.

Dr. Robert Lorway, Canada Research Chair in Global Intervention Politics and Social Transformation; associate professor, community health sciences, Max Rady College of Medicine

Dr. Lyle McKinnon, assistant professor, medical microbiology/infectious diseases and community health sciences; researcher with CHRIM

Dr. James Blanchard, Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology and Global Public Health; professor, community health sciences

Dr. Marissa Becker, associate professor, medical microbiology/infectious diseases and community health sciences

Priority Announcement Bridge Grant: $100,000

Lorway’s team will study human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among men who have sex with men in Nairobi, Kenya. Members of this group are stigmatized and are often diagnosed with HPV-related disease, including anal cancer, at a late stage of illness. This research will provide evidence to support a community-led early screening, prevention and treatment program.

Dr. Frederick Zeiler, assistant professor, neurosurgery, Max Rady College of Medicine

Dr. Jai Jai Shankar, professor, radiology, Max Rady College of Medicine

Priority Announcement Bridge Grant: $100,000

Zeiler and Shankar will research the use of an advanced type of brain scan, computed tomographic perfusion, to diagnose brain death in patients with severe traumatic brain injury at the time of hospital admission. Currently, patients with this kind of injury often receive intensive treatment because it is not recognized that their injuries are fatal. The goal is to better understand patients’ prognosis and optimize the use of health-care resources.