Pictured: Dr. Christoph Birkl (left) celebrates with supervisor and Principal Investigator Dr. Alex Rauscher (right) from Innsbruck, Austria. Image source: Dr. Alex Rauscher.
Congratulations to our members who recently received Project Grants from the Canadian Insitutes of Health Research (CIHR). CIHR Project Grants support research projects with a defined endpoint, allowing researchers to pursue innovative, high-risk research questions with potential to improve health outcomes in Canada.
Nine projects led by investigators at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health received a combined total of $5,715,377 in CIHR project grants for brain health research in the Spring 2019 competition.
- Dr. Lara Boyd, Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, received funding for her project, Individualized pathways to recovery after stroke.
- Dr. Mark Cembrowski, Assistant Professor in the Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences, who joined UBC late last year, was awarded funds for his project, Elucidating and disrupting the neural substrates of fear memory.
- Dr. Thalia Field, Professor in the Division of Neurology, was awarded funds for her project, CVT in BC: Incidence, Diagnosis, Treatment Strategies and Prognosis of Cerebral Venous Thrombosis in British Columbia, Canada.
- Dr. Joanne Matsubara, Professor, Department of Opthalmology and Visual Sciences, was awarded funds with colleagues for their project, Multiphoton Photothermolysis Based Laser Therapy for Precision Treatment of Neovascular Eye Diseases.
- Dr. Erin Michalak, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, received funds for her project with co-PI Dr. Steven Barnes for their project, Bipolar Bridges: A Digital Health Innovation Targeting Quality of Life in Bipolar Disorder. Dr. Michalak was also recently awarded a CIHR Gold Leaf Prize for Transformation in Patient Engagement.
- Dr. Catharine Rankin, Professor, Department of Psychology, was awarded funds for her project, High-throughput in vivo functional characterization of Autism Spectrum Disorder associated genes using Caenorhabditis elegans.
- Dr. Alex Rauscher, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, received funding for his project, Imaging markers for tissue damage and disease progression in MS.
- Dr. Weihong Song, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, received funding for his project, The effect of a novel presenilin 1 mutation on Alzheimer’s Disease pathogenesis.
- Dr. Helen Tremlett was funded with colleagues for two projects: Tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis and Hormonal Contraceptives and Risk of Pseudotumor Cerebri Syndrome in Women of Child Bearing Age.