The Government of Canada has announced the latest round of Canada Research Chair (CRC) funding. A total of nearly $134 million was awarded to support 157 new and renewed research chairs at 35 Canadian institutions.
Congratulations to the following fourteen UHN scientists who received new or renewed funding from the CRC program:
● Dr. Angela Cheung, Tier 1 CRC in Musculoskeletal and Postmenopausal Health (renewal). Dr. Cheung is a Senior Scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. Funding from this chair will enable her to advance her research on the prevention and early diagnosis of postmenopausal osteoporosis and the evaluation of new therapies and technologies.
● Dr. Sarah Crome, Tier 2 CRC in Tissue-Specific Immune Tolerance (new). Dr. Crome is a Scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. This chair will provide funding for her research on the regulation of immune responses and the development of immunotherapies for transplantation.
● Dr. Karen Davis, Tier 1 CRC in Acute and Chronic Pain Research (new). Dr. Davis is a Senior Scientist at Krembil Research Institute. Her research looks at understanding brain abnormalities in chronic pain, treatment responses and predicting how patients with chronic pain will respond to specific treatments.
● Dr. Housheng He, Tier 1 CRC in RNA Medicine (new). Dr. He is a Senior Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. His chair will be used to fund his research on epigenetic regulation in cancer development, progression, drug response and resistance.
● Dr. Margaret Herridge, Tier 1 CRC in Critical Illness Outcomes and the Recovery Continuum (new). Dr. Herridge is a Senior Scientist at Toronto General Research Institute. Funding will go towards advancing her research in evaluating and improving long-term patient and family caregiver outcomes after critical illness.
● Dr. Bowen Li, Tier 2 CRC in RNA Vaccines and Therapeutics (new). Dr. Li is an Affiliate Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. His research focuses on developing RNA-based vaccines and immunotherapies to help fight infectious diseases, cancer and rare diseases.
● Dr. Massieh Moayedi, Tier 2 CRC in Pain Neuroimaging (new). Dr. Moayedi is an Affiliate Scientist at Krembil Research Institute. This chair will fund his research on understanding how pain is encoded in the brain.
● Dr. Faiyaz Notta, Tier 2 CRC in Pancreatic Cancer and Cancer Evolution (new). Dr. Notta is a Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. His research uses genomic, cell biology and single-cell approaches to identify new molecular targets needed to treat pancreatic cancer.
● Dr. Valeria Rac, Tier 2 CRC in Health System and Technology Evaluation (new). Dr. Rac is a Scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. This chair will advance her research on evaluating the technologies (e.g., devices, services, complex interventions and programs) related to chronic disease management.
● Dr. Clinton Robbins, Tier 1 CRC in Cardiovascular Immunology (new). Dr. Robbins is a Senior Scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. His research focuses on the role macrophages play in atherosclerosis progression (i.e., build-up of plaque in the arteries).
● Dr. Trevor Pugh, Tier 2 CRC in Translational Genomics (renewal). Dr. Pugh is a Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. His research involves the study of the cellular make-up of tumours and how this affects patient response to immune-based cancer therapy. This funding will help with the goal of delivering genomic medicine to cancer patients worldwide.
● Dr. Lena Serghides, Tier 1 CRC in Maternal-Child Health and HIV (new). Dr. Serghides is a Senior Scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. This funding will help advance her research on optimizing antiretroviral therapy for pregnant women with HIV and their infants.
● Dr. Catriona Steele, Tier 1 CRC in Swallowing and Food Oral Processing (new). Dr. Steele is a Senior Scientist at KITE Research Institute. Her research focuses on understanding swallowing impairment and identifying successful treatments for restoring functional swallowing.
● Dr. Bo Wang, Tier 2 CRC in Artificial Intelligence for Medicine (new). Dr. Wang is a Scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. This research chair will advance his work on using machine learning to analyze medical images, clinical notes and genomic data in order to help clinicians.
The CRC program provides funding to attract and retain Canada’s most accomplished and promising researchers and promote research and development excellence at Canadian institutions.
See here for a full list of results and here for the press release.