Congratulations to the BC Children's Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR) and Women's Health Research Institute (WHRI) investigators and their teams who were awarded funding through the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Spring 2022 Project Grant competition. Our research community received around $15 million in new research grants as principal investigators or co-investigators.
Many of the investigators who were successful with these grants benefited from the expertise of Dr. Dawn McArthur, director, Research & Technology Development and the BCCHR Research & Technology Development Office (RTDO) team. On behalf of BCCHR, we would like to thank the RTDO's Dr. Tamara English, senior research development facilitator; Mr. Eric Lussier, research development facilitator (BCCHR/WHRI); Ms. Rita Jekabsons, senior research development coordinator; and the RTDO grants assistants for their dedication and support.
BCCHR and WHRI investigators had a funding success rate of 28 per cent, compared to the national average of 19 per cent. With the success of the spring 2022 competition behind them, the RTDO team is already assisting with resubmissions for the fall 2022 competition.
View the CIHR summary of Spring 2022 Project Grant results.
Project Grants
Dr. Daniel Goldowitz and Dr. Paul Pavlidis (UBC) – Brain, Behaviour & Development
Project: "Pax6 regulation of glutamatergic lineages in cerebellar development"
Funding amount: $841,500/5 years
Dr. Blair Leavitt – Brain, Behaviour & Development
Project: "Lipid Nanoparticle-Mediated Delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing for Neurological Disorders"
Funding amount: $761,176/5 years
Dr. Peter C. Leung and Dr. Alexander G. Beristain – Healthy Starts
Project: "Role of BMP2 signaling at the maternal-fetal interface"
Funding amount: $735,356/5 years
Dr. Sarka Lisonkova and Dr. Neda Razaz (UBC) – Healthy Starts
WHRI and BCCHR Co-investigators: Dr. Ruth Grunau, Dr. K. S. Joseph, Dr. Tim Oberlander, Dr. Joseph Ting
Project: "Health and neurodevelopmental trajectories of children and adolescents born at preterm and term gestation"
Funding amount: $442,170/5 years
Dr. Deborah Money (WHRI)
WHRI and BCCHR Co-investigators: Dr. Arianne Albert, Dr. Manish Sadarangani, Dr. Chelsea Elwood, Dr. Gina Ogilvie, Dr. Elizabeth McClymont
Project: "A study of reduced dosing of the nonavalent HPV Vaccine in Women Living with HIV"
Funding amount: $1,606,500/5 years
Dr. William J. Panenka, Dr. Thalia Field (UBC), Dr. Allen Thornton and Dr. Cheryl Wellington (UBC) – Brain, Behaviour & Development
WHRI and BCCHR Co-investigators: Dr. Alasdair Barr, Dr. William Honer, Dr. Donna Lang, Dr. Jacob Stubbs (BCMHSUS)
Project: "Traumatic brain injury and cerebral small vessel disease in a vulnerably housed cohort, a prelude to early neurodegeneration and dementia"
Funding amount: $1,434,376/5 years
Dr. Alexander Rauscher – Brain, Behaviour & Development
Project: "Quantitative susceptibility mapping from clinical phase data"
Funding amount: $275,400/3 years
Dr. Amanda Slaunwhite (UBC), Dr. Tonia Nicholls and Dr. Christian Schutz (UBC) – Brain, Behaviour & Development
WHRI and BCCHR Co-investigators: Dr. Hasina Samji
Project: "An evaluation of the health, criminal justice and service use outcomes of the Ministry of Health assuming responsibility for prison health care services in BC (PRISM-BC)"
Funding amount: $638,776/4 years
Dr. Patricia Spittal – Healthy Starts
Project: "The Cedar Project: Strengthening our spirit intervention for Indigenous peoples who use drugs in two Canadian cities"
Funding amount: $2,297,191
Dr. Aline Talhouk (UBC/VCHRI), Dr. Michael Anglesio (UBC), Dr. Janet Hill (UBC), Dr. Deborah Money (WHRI) and Dr. Anna Tinker (UBC) – Healthy Starts
WHRI and BCCHR Co-investigators: Dr. Mohamed Bedaiwy (WHRI)
Project: "Digital self-tracking and self-testing for early detection of endometrial cancer"
Funding amount: $879,750/5 years
Dr. Paul Yong, Dr. Michael Anglesio (UBC), Dr. Amanda Howard (MSFHR/UBC), Dr. Mohamed Ali Bedaiwy and Dr. Aline Talhouk (UBC/VCHRI) – Healthy Starts
WHRI and BCCHR Co-investigators: Dr. Gillian Hanley, Natasha Orr
Project: "Clinical-biomarker predictors of outcome after endometriosis surgery"
Funding amount: $784,125/4 years
Dr. Amy Lee (SFU) and Dr. Pascal Lavoie – Healthy Starts
BCCHR Co-investigator: Dr. Matthew Wiens
Project: "Molecular epidemiology of neonatal sepsis in low- and middle-income countries"
Funding amount: $543,152/4 years
Dr. Hongshen Ma (UBC)
BCCHR Co-investigator: Dr. Megan Levings
Project: "Behaviour-based cell separation to interrogate host cell heterogeneity in CAR-T cell therapies"
Funding amount: $864,450/5 years
Dr. Robert Fowler (Sunnybrook Research Institute) and Dr. Srinivas Murthy – Healthy Starts
Project: "The Canadian Severe Acute Respiratory Infection, Prospective, Perpetual Observational Study: Informing Clinical Care and the Public Health Response"
Funding amount: $761,174/3 years
Dr. Todd Woodward, Dr. Michael Best, Dr. Christopher Bowie, Dr. Faye Doell, Dr. George Foussias, Dr. Michael Grossman, Dr. Sean Kidd, Dr. Mahesh Menon and Dr. Wei Wang – Brain, Behaviour & Development
Project: "Efficacy of Combined Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Cognitive Remediation Therapy for Schizophrenia-Spectrum Disorders: A randomized controlled trial"
Funding amount: $956,250/5 years
Dr. Todd Woodward, Dr. Martin Lepage, Dr. Synthia Guimond and Dr. Mahesh Menon – Brain, Behaviour & Development
Project: "From episodic memory to functioning in schizophrenia and related psychoses: A neurocognitive model"
Funding amount: $979,000/5 years
Dr. Hasina Samji – Brain, Behaviour & Development
BCCHR Co-investigators: Dr. Mariana Brussoni, Dr. S. Evelyn Stewart
Project: “The Youth Development Instrument: Engaging stakeholders and linking data to monitor and promote youth mental health and well-being trajectories beyond the pandemic”
Funding amount: $554,624/3 years
