Office of the Vice-Dean Research celebrated CoM researchers' tri-council agency funding successes from the past year. Some researchers presented their projects during the celebration, including Dr. Marcel D'Eon, Dr. Scott Widenmaier, Dr. Shahid Ahmed, Dr. Linda Chelico, Dr. Humphrey Fonge and Dr. Maruti Uppalapati.

Researchers celebrate tri-council funding successes

Thirteen researchers within the College of Medicine have successfully received project grants from across the Tri-Council agencies — Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

The projects that were funded in the past year range from a variety of research areas including developing Indigenous approaches to wellness, establishing a medical education scholarly journal and studying how cholesterol works within our cells.

CIHR Grants

Spring Grant 2018

  • Linda Chelico (Dept. of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology) — Role of APOBEC3 deoxycytidine deaminases in somatic mutagenesis.
  • Alexandra King (Department of Medicine) and Renee Masching — Peers4Wellness: Indigenous Approaches to Wellness Support and Research for Indigenous Women with HIV and HCV in British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

Fall Grant 2018

  • Alexandra King (Department of Medicine) and Renee Masching — Decolonizing health and wellness interventions by creating, implementing and evaluating culturally responsive program components with Indigenous women living with HIV and Aging with Wisdom.
  • Linda Chelico (Dept. of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology) — The ongoing conflict between APOBEC3 Immune factors and HIV-1.
  • Humphrey Fonge (Dept. of Medical Imaging) — Alpha particle-labled antibody-drug radioconjugates for radiotherapy of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).
  • Malcolm King (Dept. of Community Health and Epidemiology) and Alexandra King (Department of Medicine) — Indigenous Knowledge Development Centres with a focus on Wellness – miyo-pimâtisiwin.
  • Shahid Ahmed (Division of Oncology) — Conversion from unresectable to resectable liver metastases in patients with liver-only metastatic colorectal cancer treated with FLOLFOXIRI plus bevacizumab. The conversion trial.
  • Kate Dadachova (College of Pharmacy and Nutrition) and Maruti Uppalapati (Dept. of Pathology & Lab Medicine) and — Developing radio immunotherapy of osteosarcoma using comparative oncology approach.

Catalyst Grant

  • Darrell Mousseau and Gheorghita Adams (Dept. of Psychiatry) — Assessing the potential for using cannabidiol as a management option for anxiety in Alzheimer-dementia patients.

SSHRC

  • Marcel D’Eon (Dept. of Community Health and Epidemiology) — received aid from SSHRC to develop the scholarly journal, Canadian Medical Education Journal.

NSERC

Discovery Grants

  • Brian Eames (Dept. of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology) — Evolution of skeletal cell transcriptomes.
  • Scott Widenmaier (Dept. of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology) — Systematic study of cellular cholesterol homeostasis.
  • Yuliang Wu (Dept. of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology) — Understanding the role of KH domain in helicases.
  • Wei Xiao (Dept. of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology) — Transcriptional regulation of the budding yeast DDI2gene in response to environmental stresses.
  • Jim Xiang (Division of Oncology) — Simulated microgravity blocks osteoblastic differentiation and mineralization leading to bone loss via suppressing the FAK/RhoA-regulated Wnt pathway.

Discovery Launch Supplement grant

  • Scott Widenmaier (Dept. of Anatomy, Physiology and Pharmacology) — Systematic study of cellular cholesterol homeostasis.

Congratulations to all of our College of Medicine researchers and we look forward to your future achievements.