Dennis Bayazitov | Assistant News Editor
Featured Image: The grant money will go towards research in the faculties of Health and Science. | Courtesy of YFile
The Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) has awarded York health professors Yvonne Bohr, Peter Backx, and Chun Peng a collective $2,723,399 in grant funding to further pursue their respective health-centered research projects.
A CIHR Project Grant is designed to capture ideas with the greatest potential in health research, health care, health systems and/or health outcomes. Proposed projects must address an important health issue, and be innovative—yet feasible—when it comes to implementation.
Dr. Bohr, with the Faculty of Health, will receive $1,258,424 over the four-year span of her assignment. “Making I-SPARX fly in Nunavut,” which investigates the use of an award-winning computer program in a cognitive-behavioural intervention, is designed to support Inuit adolescents.
“This research initiative focuses on working together with six communities, and our Nunavut partners, to coordinate the development, dissemination, and evaluation of an Inuit-specific computer-based game,” says Bohr. The game will be modeled after an existing intervention that has been used successfully with Maori youth in New Zealand.
“The game familiarizes youth with strategies that can be helpful in regulating negative thoughts and emotion by supporting problem solving, and in the process reducing catastrophizing and hopelessness,” she adds. The development of the intervention will be both youth and community-led, which involves the input of not just youth leaders, but also community Elders who will be supporting the young people, with a regard to culture-specific content.
“The funds will primarily be used by our Nunavut-based partners to pay trainers, software developers, community facilitators, research participants, and researchers. A number of York graduate and undergraduate assistants will receive research training and be remunerated for their work,” adds Bohr.
Dr. Backx, in York’s Faculty of Science and Department of Biology, will receive $749,700 to fund a five-year project studying circulatory and respiratory health. The study, “Uncovering the mechanisms of atrial fibrillation using lessons from the adverse atrial remodelling induced by intense exercise,” will focus on connections between cardiovascular health and age, heart disease, and exercise.courtesy of yfile
The grant money will go towards research in the faculties of Health and Science.
The occurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF)—the most common cardiac arrhythmia—increases with age, heart disease, and exercise. Backx’s work reveals evidence that the processes guiding AF in exercise are also related to those found in AF incurred by heart disease, and AF as a product of growing age.
His research findings will further examine and identify the molecular and cellular mechanisms that lead broadly to AF, which will enable the detection of novel approaches for treating and preventing abnormal heart rhythms.
Dr. Peng, with the Department of Biology and Faculty of Science, will receive $715,275 over five years to advance “MicroRNA-218s and their regulated signalling networks in placental development and preeclampsia.”
“Our study focuses on the roles of microRNAs—miR-218, specifically—in the development of the placenta,” she says. “Because proper development and placental functioning are critical to the health of the mother and the fetus, the work was funded by CIHR.”
“Abnormal placental development of the placenta is a root cause of a major pregnancy complication, preeclampsia,” Peng elaborates. “We will investigate how miR-218 regulates placental development and function, and how disturbance of miR-218 and its controlled gene network can lead to preeclampsia.”
She plans to use placental cells, organ culture, placenta/uterus co-culture systems, and endothelial cells to look into the functions of miR-218s, and the key molecules that it regulates. “Our work may help identify biomarkers and therapeutic targets for preeclampsia,” she comments.
The funding will be used to support graduate students and a postdoctoral student to conduct the research, as well as the reagents and supplies necessary to conduct the studies.
