Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) awarded VCHRI Investigators 11 operating grants and 6 trainee awards worth over $4.3 million dollars from the March 2008 Competitions, announced in July 2008. Congratulations to the investigators who were successful in this round of funding (our apologies if we have missed anyone).

Operating Grants:

• Dr. Yu Tian Wang, Brain Research Centre, received a five-year grant of over $1 million dollars for his research on regulation of postsynaptic expression and function of GABA-A receptors.
• Dr. Neil R. Cashman, Brain Research Centre, received a one-year grant of $750,000 from CIHR and industry partner, Amorfix Life Sciences Inc., for investigating immunotherapy targets for Alzheimer's disease.
• Dr. Jolanda Cibere, Arthritis Research Centre, received over $520,000 for three years for her longitudinal study of early knee osteoarthritis in Vancouver.
• Dr. Piotr Kozlowski, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Unit, received over $440,000 for three years for developing MRI techniques for animal models of Spinal Cord Injury.
• Dr. Janet E. McElhaney, Infection & Immunity Research Centre / VITALiTY Research Centre, received over $385,000 for three years for studying the effects on T-Cell responses to influenza.
• Dr. Kenneth M. Madden, VITALiTY Research Centre, received over $280,000 for three years for investigating the use of a home-based walking program to treat orthstatic hypotension in older adults with Type 2 Diabetes.
• Dr. Diane V. Lacaille, Arthritis Research Centre, received over $230,000 over two years for assessing the quality of care for rheumatoid arthritis at a population level.
• Dr. Elton T. Ngan, Brain Research Centre, received nearly $220,000 over four years for his research on dual stream information processing in delusional schizophrenic patients
• Dr. Yu Tian Wang, Brain Research Centre, received a one-year award of $150,000 for development of a new therapeutic technique that protects the brain against excitotoxic and ischemic neuronal injuries.
• Dr. Vincent Duronio, Centre for Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, received $100,000 for one year for his work on Mcl-1: Cell cycle regulatory properties.
• Dr. Karim Miran-Khan, Centre for Hip Health & Mobility, and Dr. Vincent Duronio, Centre for Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, received a one-year award of $50,000 for their studies of apoptosis and age-related tendon degeneration.

Fellowships:

• Dr. Zhifang Dong, Brain Research Centre, and supervisor Dr. Yu Tian Wang, received $135,000 over three years for studying the role of hippocampal synaptic plasticity in cue-induced relapsing.
• Dr. Marcus W. Koch, Brain Research Centre, and supervisor Dr. Helen M. Tremlett, received a one-year award of $45,000 for investigating the epidemiological aspects of progression in Multiple Sclerosis.

Master's Awards:

One-year awards of $17,500

• Alicia Alstad, Infection & Immunity Research Centre, and supervisor Dr. Megan K. Levings, for studying ex vivo generation of antigen-specific human T regulatory cells with in vivo suppressive capacity.
• Megan E. Himmel, Infection & Immunity Research Centre, and supervisor Dr. Megan K. Levings, for investigating characterization of CD4+CD25+ T cells in the regulation of intestinal inflammation.
• Giorgia Tropini, Brain Research Centre, and supervisor Dr. Martin J. McKeown, for research on suppression of pathological brain oscillations in Parkinson's disease with visual stimuli.
• Dennis Wong, Infection & Immunity Research Centre, and supervisor Dr. Yossef Av-Gay, for investigating Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase A (PtpA) dependent mycobacterial manipulation of host response to infection.