Researchers get $15M from CIHR

By Karen Thomas

University of Calgary researchers have attracted more than $15 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Funding for 67 projects was announced by CIHR last month, ranging from research into cancer and aging, to attention deficits and neonatal brain injury.

For details on the projects go to www.ucalgary.ca/oncampus/CIHRBackgrounder.pdf and www.ucalgary.ca/oncampus/Hotchkiss.pdf

Among the projects funded:
• Jennifer Cobb, PhD, is studying the correlation between premature aging and cancer, specifically focusing on enzymes—known as RecQ helicases—that unwind DNA.

• Brent Hagel, PhD, is seeking to determine how much visibility aids (reflective clothing and bicycle reflective devices) reduce the risk of a cyclist or pedestrian being struck by a motor vehicle. Hagel is also looking at whether such aids reduce the severity of an injury when someone is struck by a motor vehicle.

• Bin Hu, PhD, trying to better understand the brain’s cortical attention network in order to pave the way for a new generation of treatments for attention-related disorders, such as those found in children with autism disorders and in people with Parkinson’s disease.

• Richard Leigh, PhD, is studying the effect of Rhinovirus-induced inflammation (the common cold virus) in the upper and lower airways relating to asthma.

• Nigel Shrive, PhD, is examining the loads and motion of normal and injured joints to further understand how osteoarthritis develops.