Federal funding awards Health Sciences researchers with over $16 million

Smiling McMaster University researchers in white lab coats convene around a computer screen to review lab results

Over $16 million has been awarded to research teams within McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences. (Photo by Georgia Kirkos/McMaster University)

By Mike Ayers

Posted on July 26, 2024

Over $16 million has been awarded to research teams within McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS), as a result of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s (CIHR) Spring 2024 Project Grant competition.

The Project Grant program is designed to capture ideas with the greatest potential to advance health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health research, health care, health systems, and/or health outcomes.

Funded projects across FHS seek to investigate solutions to a variety of health science topics, from preventing infections in cardiac surgery, examining the role of exercise in stroke recovery, to improving access to family medicine.

“Foundationally, it is our mission to facilitate brilliant and impactful science,” says Jonathan Bramson, vice-dean of research for the Faculty of Health Sciences at McMaster University. “It is a great point of pride that our researchers’ success rate for this competition exceeded the national average, and we continue to refine faculty-wide supports to ensure this trend continues.”

FHS projects awarded funding in the Spring 2024 competition include:

PericaRdiotomy IN Cardiac surgEry (PRINCE) Trial ($3,534,300) Richard Whitlock, Department of Surgery
Prevention of Infections in Cardiac Surgery (PICS): a cluster-randomized factorial cross-over trial ($2,142,000) Dominik Mertz, Department of Medicine
Effects of donor-recipient sex-matched versus sex-mismatched red blood cell transfusion on outcomes in critically ill adult patients ($2,084,624) Michelle Zeller, Department of Medicine
The role of the small intestinal microbiota in the development of Irritable Bowel Syndrome ($1,193,400) Premysl Bercik, Department of Medicine
Humoral and cellular immune responses to COVID-19 infections and vaccinations in older and frail adults ($1,028,926) Dawn Bowdish, Department of Medicine
Role of the multi-subunit adaptor protein PDZK1 in atherosclerotic coronary artery disease ($940,950) Bernardo Trigatti, Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences
Investigating the role of inhibin beta C (INHBC) in chronic kidney disease ($860,626) Joan Krepinsky, Department of Medicine
Investigating the mechanisms of disease progression in HIV-TB co-infection to design interventions for better clinical outcomes ($833,850) Amy Gillgrass, Department of Medicine
Pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for management of cannabis use disorder: a clinical practice guideline ($615,824) Behnam Sadeghirad, Department of Anesthesia
Does GERAS DANCE improve physical performance in community-dwelling older adults with frailty: A parallel randomized controlled trial ($569,926) Alexandra Papaioannou, Department of Medicine
Identifying opportunities for increasing access to palliative care across the health care system ($416,924) Michelle Howard, Department of Family Medicine
Power Exercise for Stroke Recovery: A pilot randomized controlled trial (POWER-Pilot) ($374,850) Ada Tang, School of Rehabilitation Science
Primary care for older adults with functional impairment: the role of home visits after the shift to virtual care ($300,000) Aaron Jones, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact
Comparison of Anti-coagulation and anti-Platelet Therapies for Intracranial Vascular Atherostenosis (CAPTIVA) ($248,624) Sashi Perera, Department of Medicine
A living systematic review & network meta-analysis of interventions for post COVID-19 condition ($237,150) Dena Zeraatkar, Department of Anesthesia
Optimizing Indirect Patient Care Activities to Improve Access to Family Medicine ($210,374) Meredith Vanstone, Department of Family Medicine
IAMABLE: Implementation and Evaluation of an App for Evidence-Based Self-Management Rehabilitation Strategies ($164,475) Lori Letts, School of Rehabilitation Science
Phenotyping heart failure with preserved ejection fraction ($110,926) Philip Joseph, Department of Medicine
Understanding the barriers and facilitators for developing and implementing evidence-based practice guidelines during a pandemic: An exploratory sequential mixed-methods study ($100,000) Romina Brignardello, Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact
Mode of operative delivery in the second stage of labour and risk of subsequent spontaneous preterm birth ($100,000) Giulia Muraca, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology