Two infrastructure projects led by UHN researchers were awarded more than $470,000 collectively by the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund. The following projects and teams received funding:
Optimizing balance training for fall prevention
Dr. Avril Mansfield (The KITE Research Institute) was awarded funding for a project to develop new training programs to help prevent falls—a leading cause of injury and hospitalization, especially among older adults. Using an advanced 3D motion capture system, Dr. Mansfield’s research team will determine the most effective strategies to deliver and customize reactive balance training—a training approach in which people's balance is repeatedly challenged so that they can practice and improve the way that they recover from losses of balance. Insights from this work will help reduce the burden of falls and fall-related injuries on patients and the health care system.
Delivering the radiation therapy in very short bursts (the FLASH effect)
Radiation therapy is a common treatment for cancer, but radiation targeted to cancer can also damage healthy tissue. Drs. Daniel Létourneau (Techna), Shane Harding and Marianne Koritzinsky (Princess Margaret Cancer Centre) will examine a new way to deliver radiation therapy that could help reduce damage to normal tissues. The approach relies on a phenomenon known as the FLASH effect, which involves delivering radiation in very short bursts. Before this approach can be used in with patients, many research questions remain. This team will help answer these questions by determining how to properly measure radiation dosing, conduct quality control and examine which types of cancers respond best to FLASH. This multidisciplinary team will also explore how the effect relates to the tumour microenvironment and whether it can stimulate responses from the immune system.
Congratulations to these research teams. They are among a total of 136 infrastructure projects across 31 Canadian universities that received more than $30 million through this funding round.
For more information see the press release.