July 31, 2007 - Issue Twenty
|
There's been a flurry of funding announcements the last few months, so we've dedicated this issue of Research Reporting Online to celebrating the successes of CFRI researchers and trainees in these grants and awards competitions. Please join us in congratulating them all. |
|
 |
|
| :: CFRI Enjoys High Success Rate in CIHR Grants Competition Eleven CFRI investigators received funding in the March 2007 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Operating Grants Competition. CFRI investigators attained a success rate of 42.3%, surpassing the competition's overall success rate of 26.5%. The results were announced June 29. Congratulations to the successful CFRI investigators. Their three- and five-year grants are worth almost $6.5 million. Dr. Jaki Chantler Dr. Leigh Field Dr. Geoff Hammond Dr. Michael Hayden Drs. Michael Hayden and Bruce Verchere Dr. Sheila Innis Dr. Dan Rurak Dr. Poul Sorenson Dr. Bruce Vallance Dr. Casey van Breemen Dr. Peter von Dadelszen |
|
|
|
|
Also on June 29, CIHR announced results of the April 2007 Postdoctoral Fellowship competition. Congratulations to: • Dr. Hagit Katzov (Supervisor: Dr. Michael Hayden) • Dr. Whitney Weikum (Supervisor: Dr. Tim Oberlander) This spring CIHR announced results its fall 2006 Salary Awards competition, as well as a number of targeted awards. • Dr. Rusung Tan and co-applicants Drs. David Cabral, Jan Dutz, Dina Panagiotopoulos, Lori Tucker, Stuart Turvey, Paul Utz, and Peter van den Elzen were awarded a CIHR New Emerging Team Grant - Clinical Autoimmunity. Their project "Cellular mechanisms of childhood autoimmunity: From T1D to SLE and back" will consider autoimmune diseases childhood onset type 1 diabetes (T1D) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The investigators will focus on three streams of inquiry: cell death, inflammation and innate autoimmunity; natural killer (NK) cells bridge innate and cellular autoimmunity; and HLA class I epitopes for SLE autoantigens. The five-year award is worth more than $2.4 million. • Dr. Elizabeth Conibear was awarded a CIHR New Investigator award. Her project is "Molecular mechanisms of protein and lipid sorting in the endocytic pathway." • Drs. Jan Dutz and David Scheifele were awarded an International Opportunities Program - Development/Planning Grant (December 2006 competition) for their project "Topical enhancement of vaccination." • Dr. Sandra Dunn is recipient of a Proof of Principle Grant (November 2006 competition) for her project, "Targeting YB-1 with rationale small molecules for the treatment of cancer." |
|
|
|
| :: Seven CFRI Researchers Achieve Career Investigator Status The Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research announced recipients of its seventh annual Career Investigator Awards at the beginning of June. Congratulations to the successful CFRI investigators: Clinical - Senior Scholar Health Services - Senior Scholar Biomedical - Scholar Dr. Peter van den Elzen Clinical - Scholar Dr. Evica Rajcan-Separovic Population Health Scholar |
|
|
|
:: Record Number of CFRI Trainees Receive MSFHR Awards Congratulations to the 22 CFRI trainees (Master's, PhD and Postdoctoral trainees) who received Research Trainee Awards from the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). A record 174 awards, worth a total of approximately $8.6 million over three years, were granted in this competition. Funding for two of the 22 awards given to CFRI trainees are jointly funded by CFRI, through the MSFHR partnership program.
Photo: (from left) Dr. Simon Sutcliffe, Chair, MSFHR Board of Directors; CFRI award recipient Ms. Eman Hassan; Dr. Stuart MacLeod, Executive Director, CFRI; CFRI award recipient Dr. Sanjoy Ghosh; and Dr. Martin Schechter, MSFHR Chief Scientific Officer. Biomedical - Postdoctoral Fellowship Dr. Sanjoy Gosh (Supervisor: Dr. Sheila Innis) (*** award jointly funded by the Child & Family Research Institute) Dr. Deanna Gibson (Supervisor: Dr. Bruce Vallance) Dr. Leslie Grad (Supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Conibear) Dr. Rona Graham (Supervisor: Dr. Michael Hayden) Dr. Joanna Karasinska (Supervisor: Dr. Michael Hayden) Project: Role of ABCA1 in brain cholesterol metabolism and brain function Dr. Benjamen Montpetit (Supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Conibear) Clinical - Postdoctoral Fellowship Biomedical - Senior Graduate Studentship Karen Lam (Supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Conibear) Nicole Quenneville (Supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Conibear) Population Health - Senior Graduate Studentship (*** award jointly funded by the Child & Family Research Institute) Biomedical - Junior Graduate Studentship Helen Burston (Supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Conibear) Agatha Jassem (Supervisor: Dr. David Speert) Andrew Lee (Supervisor: Dr. Jan Dutz) Chiu-Hsiang Liao (Supervisor: Dr. Cornelis van Breemen) Yijun Alice Wang (Supervisor: Dr. Michael Kobor) Fiona Young (Supervisor: Dr. Michael Hayden) Clinical - Junior Graduate Studentship Health Services - Junior Graduate Studentship Population Health - Junior Graduate Studentship |
|
|
|
|
CFRI congratulates recipients of recently announced awards from the Canadian Diabetes Association and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada: • CFRI Diabetes researcher Dr. Lucy Marzban, who received a Scholar Award from the Canadian Diabetes Association. Her project is "Molecular mechanisms of islet amyloid-induced beta cell death." Funding for this salary award is for five years. The CDA offered only two of these awards in Canada. • Dr. Sanjoy Ghosh, postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Sheila Innis, awarded a three-year Canadian Diabetes Association Postdoctoral Fellowship, for the project "Dietary modulation of mitochondrial function in the prevention of diabetic heart disease. Dr. Ghosh is the sole candidate to receive an award for working on heart disease. Dr. Ghosh is also a recipient of a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship. • Dr. Scott Lear, with the Nutrition Research Program, who received a Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada New Investigator Award, for his project "Multicultural community health assessment trial (M-CHAT): a longitudinal study of body fat distribution and cardiovascular risk in four ethnic populations." • Dr. Mitra Esfandiarei, awarded a Heart & Stroke Foundation Research Fellowship for the project, "The role of integrin-linked kinase in modulation of vascular smooth muscle migration and atherosclerotic intimal thickening in type II diabetes" (Supervisor: Cornelis van Breemen). Dr. Esfandiarei is also a recipient of a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Biomedical Postdoctoral Fellowship. • Ranji Singh, recipient of a Heart & Stroke Foundation Doctoral Research Award, for the project, "Hyperhomocysteinemia and epigenetic regulation of hepatic lipid metabolism" (Supervisor: Angela Devlin). The institute also congratulates CFRI researchers: • Dr. Nelly Auersperg, whose work was recognized in May by the UBC Faculty of Medicine when she was awarded the 2007 Faculty of Medicine Bill and Marilyn Webber Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes an extraordinary faculty member who has sustained a distinguished career in the areas of research, teaching and/or service. • Dr. Wendy Robinson, who was also recognized at the UBC awards event for being one of the recipients of the 2006 UBC Killam Teaching Prize. Recipients are selected from each UBC faculty based on nominations from students, colleagues, and alumni in recognition of excellence in teaching. • Dr. Patricia Janssen, who has been awarded a Canadian Foundation for Women's Health grant for her work on violence. Only two awards are granted in the annual competition. • Dr. Janusz Kaczorowski, whose project P. PROMPT (Provider-Patient Reminders in Ontario Multi-strategy Prevention) received a Celebrating Innovations in Health Care Expo 2007 Award from the Ontario Ministry of Health. The two-year demonstration P. PROMPT project is aimed at boosting screening rates in Ontario for mammograms, PAP smears/testings, influenza vaccinations and childhood primary vaccinations. Dr. Janusz Kaczorowski, who is co-investigator on the P-PROMPT project, is a recent recruit to the Child & Family Research Institute and the UBC Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Practice. GRANTS & AWARDS LISTING
|
|
|
|
:: CFRI Investigators Key to Provincial Platforms This spring, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research approved funding for the initial development of six provincial health research technology and methodology platforms. Funding is through Phase II of the MSFHR Networking Infrastructure Program. CFRI researchers are co-leaders in three of the platforms: Drs. Jan Friedman and Michael Hayden are co-leaders of the BC Clinical Genomics Network (BCCGN). This platform is designed to link clinicians and clinician scientists with genomics researchers. It proposes a process to make the most up-to-date findings from genotyping, genomic sequencing, bioinformatics, genetic epidemiology and family studies available to assist clinicians and clinician research teams in the diagnosis, care and support of people with complex genetic disorders. Dr. Bruce Carleton is one of the co-leaders of PLATPhORM for Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Rapid Monitoring, designed to provide evaluation services to determine the population-based effects of implementing pharmaceutical policies and therapies across the health system. This resource is essential for supporting clinical trials assessing the safety and effectiveness of new drugs, and for understanding the implications of policies on patterns of pharmaceutical use and the implication of these patterns on the health of British Columbians and health system costs. Dr. Ying MacNab is a co-leader of the Population Health Data Access and Analysis Platform, which aims to improve the ability to access a range of data sources to trace and evaluate the effectiveness of health strategies at the community level. Successful implementation of the platform would position BC as a world leader in the use and protection of health data, and the production of analyses to support public policy development. Also, CFRI's Associate Director, Clinical Research Dr. Anne Junker is a member of the BC BioLibrary's executive team. The goal of the BioLibrary is to improve access to biological specimens, such as tumour samples, within a framework that supports appropriate standards of quality, security, ethics and privacy in relation to the collection, storage and use of these specimens. |
|
|
|
:: CIHR News: Funding Database & Changes to Submission Process • The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) recently launched a new Funding Opportunities Database (http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/780.html). The new database includes a search engine to find opportunities of interest and provide more browsing options, viewing of a master list of all current funding opportunities, and features that enable researchers to "watch" selected opportunities so they receive more timely information on changes to opportunities and notification of upcoming deadlines. The database also provides better integration with ResearchNet features such as e-Submission and e-Review. |
|
|
 |
||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
CFRI is pleased to announce the recipients of its annual Postdoctoral Fellowships and Graduate Studentships. These scholarships are intended to give promising trainees the start they need in their research careers. Past scholarship holders have an impressive record of quickly garnering external support. Postdoctoral Fellowship Awards Dr. Benjamen Montpetit Dr. Anna Stratford Graduate Studentship Awards Meredith Hamilton Eui-Ju Hong York Hunt Ng |
||||||||||
NEW: Updated Fees for Laboratory Services The Children's & Women's Health Centre of BC Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine has implemented a new fee schedule as of March 1, 2007. For details, please see the attached Study Fees Description and the Fee Schedule. These are also included on the CFRI website, under Research Support/Clinical Research Support. For more information or for laboratory services not included on the list, please contact Sara Garcha, Laboratory Research Coordinator at 604-875-2000 ext. 7989. |
||||||||||
|
CFRI's new research building is proceeding on schedule, and is expected to be complete January 2008. Planning is currently underway for the interior of level five, which will house the facilities of the Centre for Understanding and Preventing Infection in Children (CUPIC), including wet labs and level III containment facilities. This spring, Dr. David Speert was awarded $3,226,617 in funding through the Canada Foundation for Innovation's New Initiatives Fund for infrastructure for this unique research facility, which will bring together a team of biomedical, clinical and population health scientists to focus on childhood infectious diseases. The fourth level is slated for the Centre for Research in Childhood Diabetes, headed by Dr. Bruce Verchere, which in 2002 was awarded $7 million in infrastructure funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the BC Knowledge Development Fund. Layout of that space - with labs constructed on an open model, with bigger bays, and equipment tucked away into alcoves - is serving as the prototype for other floors. Another floor will be designated specifically for researchers associated with BC Mental Health and Addictions Services (BCMHAS), an agency of the Provincial Health Services Authority. By investing in these enhanced resources, BCMHAS will facilitate new opportunities for collaboration and networking in the program area of "brain science" - neurobiology and its impact on mental health in children and adolescents. |
||||||||||
Foundation Miracle Weekend Surpasses Fundraising Goal A record $14.6 million was raised during the annual BC Children's Hospital Miracle Weekend, sponsored by the BC Children's Hospital Foundation. This was the event's 20th anniversary. It was hosted on Global TV on June 2-3. The Chinese-Canadian Telethon and Radiothon, airing on Fairchild TV, CHMB AM 1320 and Fairchild Radio AM 1470 on June 2, contributed $840,000 to the total. Mining for Miracles, representing BC's mining community, contributed $1.9 million. The largest industry contributor, the retail/wholesale division, contributed $3.1 million. Annual events, such as Jeans Day, Slo-Pitch, HSBC Childrun, A World of Smiles Multicultural Telethon and Radiothons on 98.5 The Ocean (Victoria), and Silk FM (Kelowna) also contributed to the total. The money raised during the Miracle Weekend goes to the Excellence in Child Health Fund, to purchase vital equipment and support clinical care, research and development, and staff and family education programs. Much of CFRI's annual operating budget, which is provided by the Foundation, comes from telethon dollars. |
||||||||||
KUDOS: Institute Researchers and Staff Gear Up 4 CF Ride
This summer, CFRI members Dr. David Speert (Head, Infectious & Inflammatory Diseases), Dr. James Zlosnik (Postdoctoral Fellow in Microbiology), and Ms. Jennifer Kohm (Director, Communications) joined the Gear Up 4 CF fundraiser for the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The team of more than 20 cyclists rode 1287 km over ten days and climbed the Cascade, Kootenay, and Rocky mountains. The team's efforts raised more than $150,000 to support research for improved treatments and a cure for cystic fibrosis. For more information see: www.gearup4cf.org |
||||||||||
CFRI Board Member Named to Order of Canada CFRI is proud to recognize and congratulate institute Board Member Dr. Donald Rix, who was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada on June 29. Esteemed businessman, generous philanthropist and dedicated volunteer, Dr. Rix has had a longstanding involvement in science and technology, is a member of the Premier's Technology Council and sits on numerous technology and health research boards. He is also chairman and co-founder of MDS Metro Laboratory Services. Dr. Rix has been honoured with numerous awards, including the BC Medical Association Silver Medal of Service Award, the Queen's Golden Jubilee Award, being named to the Order of British Columbia, and others. Over the years Dr. Rix has served in various capacities, at many of the province's postsecondary institutions, including the BC Institute of Technology, Simon Fraser University, the University of Northern BC, and the University of British Columbia (UBC). Dr. Rix and his family have donated millions of dollars for education, health and arts in BC. In June 2007, MDS Inc. and Dr. Rix announced a gift of $2 million to the BC Children's Hospital Foundation. The money will support research into Huntington disease at the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics. In 2005, Dr. Rix gave $4 million to support medical students in financial need at UBC. His previous gifts to the university include a major contribution toward a technology enterprise facility, the Donald Rix Building. |
||||||||||
|
CFRI extends a warm welcome to Jaskiran Uppal, who joined the institute as Communications Associate on July 10. Her portfolio will include developing CFRI's website, building internal communications, and supporting the institute's media and external relations. Jaskiran is a recent graduate of the Bachelor of Arts Communication Co-op Program at Simon Fraser University. She's worked in communications at Public Works and Government Services Canada, Western Economic Diversificiation Canada, and BC Hydro. Jaskiran can be reached at 604-875-3885 or juppal2@cw.bc.ca Welcome also to: |
||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
