Health-care researchers from across London were awarded almost $18 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to help drive forward groundbreaking initiatives. In total, 23 research projects are being funded, with over $2 million through LHSCRI and over $16 million through Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.
CIHR’s Project Grant program is designed to capture ideas with the greatest potential to advance health research and knowledge. It supports research projects proposed and conducted by individual researchers or groups of researchers, at any career stage, in all areas of health.
Funding from this competition will help researchers at LHSCRI test and drive forward new innovations in medicine.
Regulating heart rates with pacemakers could improve heart failure symptoms and quality of life
Dr. Habib Khan: recipient of $2,007,055
Irregular heartbeats – also known as atrial fibrillation – occur when the electrical signals in the heart become disorganized, causing the heart to beat irregularly and quickly. This can lead to poor blood flow, increased risk of blood clots, stroke, heart failure, and other complications. Patients with atrial fibrillation experience symptoms that affect their daily lives, including palpitations, shortness of breath, dizziness, and fatigue.
With this $2 million grant, Dr. Habib Khan, Associate Scientist at LHSCRI and Cardiologist at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), and his team will lead a study with hospitals across Canada to understand whether regulating the heart rate with a pacemaker could improve heart failure symptoms and their quality of life compared to those patients who are using medications alone.
“We’re aiming to understand whether the pacemaker can regulate the heartbeats of patients with chronic atrial fibrillation and improve quality of life,” says Dr. Khan. “We plan to use our findings to establish guidelines that can benefit patients not only here at home, but around the world.”
Investigating medications for patients with advanced kidney disease undergoing surgery could help avoid the need for blood transfusion
Dr. Pavel Roshanov: recipient of $130,050
Patients with advanced kidney disease are 16 times more likely to require surgery than the general population and are at particularly high risk of bleeding complications that require blood transfusions. Although blood transfusions can be lifesaving, receiving a blood transfusion can delay or even prevent a potential kidney transplant because they may no longer be a match.
In a world-first, Dr. Pavel Roshanov, Scientist at LHSCRI and Nephrologist at LHSC, will investigate whether two medications given just before surgery can reduce bleeding and help avoid the need for blood transfusions in patients with advanced kidney disease. Supported by Academic Medical Organization of Southwestern Ontario (AMOSO) and CIHR, the first phase of this study is set to include patients from approximately 10 hospitals across Canada before expanding to a large global trial in the second phase.
“This will be the first large trial addressing the increased risk of bleeding faced by people with advanced kidney disease who undergo major operations. We hope that what we learn will help inform new standards of care and make surgeries safer for these patients,” says Dr. Roshanov.
Projects through Schulich Medicine & Dentistry:
Kelly Anderson, PhD
Understanding the Evolution of Psychotic Disorders and Related Outcomes among First-Generation Migrant Groups
Eric Arts, PhD
Development of an HIV-1 vaccine with enhanced CD4 engagement and inducing broadly neutralizing antibodies
Lauren Flynn, PhD
Delivery of induced pluripotent stem cells in cell-instructive composite hydrogels for nucleus pulposus regeneration
Paula Foster, PhD
Developing Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) Lymphography
Douglas Hamilton, PhD
Resetting the Chronic Skin Wound Edges: Investigating Contact Guidance and Suppression of Oxidative Stress Signaling to Enhance Keratinocyte Migration in Skin Re-epithelialization
David Heinrichs, PhD
The intersection of nutrient sensing and virulence potential in Staphylococcus aureus
Wataru Inoue, PhD
Elucidating the roles of the prefrontal cortex in behavioural selection under stress
Marlys Koschinsky, PhD
Mechanisms of hepatic biosynthesis and catabolism of lipoprotein(a)
John McCormick, PhD
Staphylococcal superantigens at the commensal-pathogen interface
Ravi Menon, PhD
Benchmarking SASS: a new paradigm for laminar functional magnetic resonance imaging
Patrick O’Donoghue, PhD
Precision therapeutics for genetic disorders with transfer ribonucleic acids
Vania Prado, PhD
The interplay of cholinergic dysfunction and APOE4 in Alzheimer’s disease
David Seminowicz, PhD
Peak Alpha Frequency and Pain Sensitivity
Trevor Shepherd, PhD
Evaluation of pharmacologic LKB1 inhibition as a new therapeutic strategy against ovarian cancer metastasis
CIHR Priority Announcement
Jibran Khokhar, PhD
Sex Differences in Cannabis Use as a Risk Factor for Schizophrenia: A Role for Microglia?
Steven Laviolette, PhD
Understanding the Impacts of Prenatal Cannabinoid Exposure on the Prefrontal-Hippocampal Network and Developing Neurolipidome: Implications for Long-Term Neuropsychiatric Risk and Intervention Strategies
Caroline Schild-Poulter, PhD
Investigating the molecular pathology of WDR26 deficiency
Krishna Singh, PhD, David Hess, PhD
Novel Mechanisms in Doxorubicin-induced Cardiomyopathy
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