INMD Connections – May 2013

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Message from Philip Sherman, INMD Scientific Director

Congratulations to the Canadian Obesity Network!

Photo: From left: Drs. Arya Sharma, Bill Dietz, Stephanie Atkinson, Jean-Pierre Chanoine, and Dina Panagiotopoulos

Photo: From left: Drs. Nazeem Muhajarine, Louise Masse, Bill Dietz, Phil Sherman, and Michelle Mottola

Congratulations to Dr. Arya Sharma, Scientific Director of the Canadian Obesity Network (CON), Ms. Ximena Ramos Salas, Managing Director-CON, as well as CON staff and members for a hugely successful 3rd Canadian Obesity Summit held in Vancouver May 1-4, 2013. The summit was extremely well attended with ~1,000 individuals registered including: biomedical researchers, clinician-scientists, health services and population health researchers, and a variety of health care practitioners and government representatives with a shared interest in maintaining healthy body weights and in reducing obesity and its attendant complications.

INMD was a proud sponsor of the Summit, and took the opportunity to host a Workshop on Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment. Three CIHR-funded researchers who received operating grants through a targeted competition on Childhood Obesity Prevention and Treatment were featured at the Workshop. Dr. Michelle Mottola (Western Univ.) presented the results of a study on early interventions during pregnancy and the first year of life for the babies of overweight and obese women using a two pronged family-based program. Dr. Louise Mâsse (Child & Family Research Institute, Univ. British Columbia) discussed her research project, Individual and household environmental influences guiding the processes of changing obesogenic behaviours among overweight and obese adolescents and their families. Dr. Nazeem Muhajarine (Univ. Saskatchewan) presented the results of his research project, Working upstream: effecting healthy children through neighbourhood design.

Dr. Bill Dietz was a keynote speaker at the Summit and a discussant for the Childhood Obesity Workshop. Bill is the former Director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Bill discussed the research findings shared at the Workshop in the context of policy and program implications and gaps identified as priorities for future research.

Best wishes for the Spring season,

Philip M. Sherman, MD, FRCPC

Researcher Profile

Dr. Julie Ho, MD, FRCPC
Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training program (KRESCENT) Program New Investigator
Assistant Professor, University of Manitoba

Dr. Ho is an Assistant Professor of Nephrology and Biomedical Proteomics at the University of Manitoba, where she has been on faculty since 2008. She is a New Investigator with the KRESCENT program supported by CIHR INMD, the Kidney Foundation of Canada (KFOC), and the Canadian Society of Nephrology. Dr. Ho graduated from medical school and completed internal medicine residency at the University of Western Ontario, a clinical nephrology fellowship at the University of Manitoba, and post-doctoral research training at the Manitoba Centre for Proteomics and Systems Biology where she evaluated biomarkers of human ischemia-reperfusion injury leading to acute kidney damage.

The overall objective of Dr. Ho’s translational research program is to develop surveillance strategies to monitor renal allografts from implantation to late post-transplant. Optimizing immune suppression therapy to balance the risk of rejection versus the risks of excess immune suppression (infection, malignancy) remains a critical challenge following organ transplantation. Therefore, novel proteomic techniques are being employed to identify urinary biomarkers of ischemia-reperfusion injury and organ rejection in renal allografts. Ultimately, non-invasive monitoring tools could enable health care providers to personalize immune suppressive regimens for organ transplant recipients. Dr. Ho’s research program is supported by operating funds from CIHR, KFOC, and the Coplon Satellite Healthcare Extramural Grant Program.

Vascular 2013 Conference

Are you attending the Vascular 2013 Conference from October 17-20, 2013 in Montreal, Quebec?

INMD and ICRH (Circulatory and Respiratory Health) are pleased to host a breakfast session for researchers on Friday, October 18, 2013. Presentations will outline INMD and ICRH Strategic Priorities and provide a preview of forthcoming CIHR funding opportunities, including SPOR and other Signature Initiatives. Space is limited, so please RSVP to Denise Haggerty by June 27, 2013 if you’re interested in attending.

Nutrient Nomination Process for Future DRI Reviews

The Canadian and U.S. governments are offering the opportunity to nominate nutrients for which Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) values may need to be reviewed. These will be considered by the Federal DRI Committees of both countries as they undertake the task of prioritizing nutrients for future review. The DRI Committees recognize the importance of input from individuals and organizations both within and outside the government in identifying nutrients in need of review. Input from all interested parties is welcome. The opportunity to provide information is limited at this time to nutrients and related substances reviewed in previous DRI reports. The nomination consists of a cover letter and a literature search. Nominations will be accepted between April 29 and July 31, 2013. Detailed nomination requirements are available on the Health Canada website.

Canadian National Transplant Research Program (CNTRP) - Funding Results

INMD congratulates Dr. Lori West (Univ. Alberta) and her team on the funding of the Canadian National Transplant Research Program (CNTRP). The CNTRP brings together over 105 investigators across 9 provinces with the organ donation and critical care research communities to launch the first program in the world to integrate solid organ and bone marrow transplantation. Funding for the CNTRP, in the order of $13.85M, is provided by CIHR’s INMD, III, ICR, ICRH, IGH, and Ethics, and is in partnership with the Canadian Liver Foundation, the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Cystic Fibrosis Canada, Canadian Blood Services, Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé, and Genome BC. For more information on this groundbreaking national research effort, visit the the CNTRP website.

Personalized Medicine Research Initiative

CIHR recently announced the results of a Genome Canada-CIHR partnership to support Personalized Medicine. Seventeen projects were approved for funding, each valued in the range of $3 million to $13 million. The projects focus on the application of genomics to tailor patient treatments and therapies. For more information, please visit the CIHR website. INMD is pleased to be a partner in this initiative, and congratulates all of the successful applicants, including those with projects relevant to the INMD mandate:

  • John Rioux and Alain Bitton, Montreal Heart Institute. “IBD Genomic Medicine Consortium (iGenoMed): Translating genetic discoveries into a personalized approach to treating inflammatory bowel diseases”
  • Alain Stintzi and David Mack, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Univ. Ottawa. “The microbiota at the intestinal mucosa-immune interface: A gateway for personalized health”

New!

The INMD New Investigator Partnership Prizes! For information, visit the CIHR website.

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