Congratulations to all award recipients from the 2023 Research Manitoba Grants & Awards Competition! We were thrilled to see many trainees working with CHRIM researchers receive awards, and proud to fund six awards in different categories. Read below to see the different projects that were funded in this year’s competition.
Master’s Studentship Competition
The Master’s Studentship Awards support highly qualified Master’s students to prepare for careers as independent researchers in industry, within the healthcare system, and in other environments, thus attracting and retaining the best students within Manitoba. In partnership with Research Manitoba, CancerCare Manitoba, and the Manitoba Lung Association, we were thrilled to fund three students in this category.
Deanne Nixie Miao
Project: Mapping Gene Dysregulation in Cisplatin-Induced Ototoxicity at the Single-Cell Level
Supervisor: Britt Drögemöller
Funding amount: $17,850 for 1 year
Funded by: Research Manitoba, CHRIM, and CancerCare Manitoba
Fariba Forozan
Project: Regulation of GPCR T2R14 in the Pulmonary Circulation
Supervisors: Shyamala Dakshinamurti & Prashen Chelikani
Funding amount: $17,850 for 1 year
Funded by: Manitoba Lung Association and CHRIM
Sriyani Ranatunga
Project: Maternal Diabetes and Smoking as Early Life Risk Factors for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Supervisors: Christopher Pascoe
Funding amount: $17,850 for 1 year
Funded by: Manitoba Lung Association and CHRIM
PhD in Health Research Studentship Competition
PhD Health Research Studentships support highly qualified doctoral trainees. These exceptional trainees significantly increase the productivity of the research programs with which they are affiliated. In partnership with the Centre for Healthcare Innovation, we were thrilled to fund one student in this category, in addition to another student fully funded by CHRIM.
Shayna Pierce
Project: Addressing Unmet Perinatal Mental Healthcare Needs in Canada: Next Steps for Integrating Patient-Oriented e-Health Interventions and Referrals into Primary Healthcare
Supervisors: Kristin Reynold & Leslie Roos
Funding amount: $35,000 for 1 year
Funded by: CHRIM + Centre for Healthcare Innovation
Malu Tshikudi
Project: Characterization of the effect of the lack of chromogranin A on colonic epithelial barrier functions in male and female mice during colitis
Supervisors: Jean-Eric Ghia
Funding amount: $17,850 for 1 year
Funded by: CHRIM
Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Competition
Research Postdoctoral Fellowships support highly qualified postdoctoral trainees to prepare for careers as independent researchers. These exceptional trainees significantly increase the productivity of the research programs with which they are affiliated. We were thrilled to fully fund one student in this category.
Emily Cameron
Project: The Striving for Wellness in fatherhood (SWell) parenting program: A pilot randomized control trial to assess feasibility and acceptability of an app-based intervention for fathers of young children
Supervisors: Terry Klassen & Leslie Roos
Funding amount: $44,100 for 1 year
Funded by: CHRIM
Scroll down to see the full list of trainees working with CHRIM PIs who received grants and awards in this year’s competition.
Master’s Studentship Competition
| Name | Project title | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| Shruti Rathore | Defining associations between vaginal microbiota, chemokines, and CXCR3+ T cells in the female genital tract | Lyle McKinnon |
| Ara Anam | DNA Methylation Changes Induced by Prenatal Cannabis Exposure In Mice | Meaghan Jones |
| Fatemeh Sedaghat | Investigating the role of Semaphorin3E in the regulation of immunoglobulin E in HDM-induced asthma | Abdelilah Soussi Gounni |
| Deanne Nixie Miao | Mapping Gene Dysregulation in Cisplatin-Induced Ototoxicity at the Single-Cell Level | Britt Drögemöller |
| Erin Robert | Development of an effective mRNA-based Classical swine fever vaccine that can differentiate vaccinated from infected animals. | Aruna Ambagala & Jason Kindrachuk |
| Uswat Ogungbola | Identifying dysregulated interferon-lambda responses in pediatric ulcerative colitis | Deanna Santer |
| Stephanie Cheetham | Exploring new targeted therapies for SHH medulloblastoma | Tamra Werbowetski-Ogilvie |
| Fariba Forozan | Regulation of GPCR T2R14 in the Pulmonary Circulation | Shyamala Dakshinamurti & Prashen Chelikani |
| Khushali Trivedi | Role of SIRT3 deficiency in the development of gestational diabetes | Vernon Dolinsky |
| Brielle Martens | Population-based study on antibody thresholds for COVID-19 breakthrough infections | Jason Kindrachuk |
| Obinna Okeke | Elucidating a role of Natural Killer Cells in immune-surveillance of Prolactin Inducible Protein-Expressing Breast Cancer Cells from the Primary and Metastatic Tumor Microenvironments | Sam K.P Kung |
| Sriyani Ranatunga | Maternal Diabetes and Smoking as Early Life Risk Factors for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease | Christopher Pascoe |
PhD in Health Research Studentship Competition
| Name | Project title | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| Shayna Pierce | Addressing Unmet Perinatal Mental Healthcare Needs in Canada: Next Steps for Integrating Patient-Oriented e-Health Interventions and Referrals into Primary Healthcare | Kristin Reynold & Leslie Roos |
| Olubukola Olatosi | Exploring strategies for implementing a culturally informed caries risk assessment tool used by non-dental primary care providers for young First Nations and Metis children in Manitoba, Canada | Robert Schroth |
| Caitlin Menzies | Developmental origins of cardiomyopathy: The role of SIRT3 | Vernon Dolinsky |
| Malu Tshikudi | Characterization of the effect of the lack of chromogranin A on colonic epithelial barrier functions in male and female mice during colitis | Jean-Eric Ghia |
| Folayemi Olayinka-Adefemi | The Role of B cell specific PI3Kδ Signaling in Modulating Pathologic Lung inflammation | Aaron Marshall |
| Fatemeh Hesampour | The impact of non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (NitaVNS) on the development of experimental colitis in mice | Jean-Eric Ghia |
| Patience Obi | Proteomic cargo of skeletal muscle extracellular vesicles after chronic exercise | Ayesha Saleem & Todd Duhame |
| Courtney Marshall | Sex as a biological variable in the modulation of airway inflammation by innate defence regulator (IDR) peptides | Neeloffer Mookherjee |
| Saeid Maghsoudi | Inhibition of Adenylyl Cyclase Isoform 6 by Cysteine Nitrosylation in Hypoxic Pulmonary Hypertension, and Rescue with Novel Forskolin Derivatives | Shyamala Dakshinamurti |
| Benjamin Bydak | Biogenesis and functional effects of extracellular vesicles in senescent pancreatic β-cells | Ayesha Saleem |
| Dheerendra Pandey | Multidimensional role of CD38 in oxidized phosphatidylcholine (OxPCs) in obstructive lung diseases | Andrew Halayko |
| Mojdeh Matloubi | Investigating the role of airway epithelial cell-derived (AEC) semaphorin3E in severe neutrophilic allergic asthma | Abdelilah Soussi Gounni |
| Huda Rajani | Investigate the Role of Semaphorin3E in Inhibition and Reversal of AsthmaInduced Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition Using Primary Human Epithelial Cells | Abdelilah Soussi Gounni |
Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship Competition
| Name | Project title | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| Emily Cameron | The Striving for Wellness in fatherhood (SWell) parenting program: A pilot randomized control trial to assess feasibility and acceptability of an app-based intervention for fathers of young children. | Terry Klassen & Leslie Roos |
| Zahra Khosrowpour | Investigating the disease-associated abnormalities of the brain in Rett Syndrome | Mojgan Rastegar & James Davie |
| Tamiris Souza | Extracellular vesicles in mitochondrial diseases: biomarker and therapeutical intervention | Ayesha Saleem |