From mosquito insecticide to biobank analysis: The Canadian Institutes of Health Research funds four Donnelly projects for over $4.6 million
Announced earlier this week, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has funded four projects which will take place at the Donnelly Centre over the next five years.
“The globally recognized, collaborative research happening at Donnelly simply would not be possible without the support of funding bodies like CIHR,” says Stephane Angers, professor and director of the Donnelly Centre. “At a time when research funding is increasingly scarce, continued investment in science has never been more critical.”
CIHR has funded the following Donnelly Centre projects:
The Bader and Boone labs receive $1.3 million to map biobanks
Amount: $1,304,326 over five years.
Gary Bader with co-investigator Charlie Boone.
There are many challenges with processing the vast amount of information in the “biobank” databases of millions of humans’ genetic information. To process, analyze, and map this wealth of data, researchers like Professor Gary Bader are developing novel computational and statistical methods.
This CIHR-funded project, “Mapping human genetic disease modifiers and biology from biobanks”, will take a statistical framework developed by Bader’s lab and analyze these databases to map biological pathways and identify modifiers of disease.
The Roy Lab secures over $1.2M towards further developing solutions against mosquito-borne diseases
Amount: $1,273,726 over five years.
Peter Roy with co-investigators Mark Lautens, Gareth Lycett, and Mark Paine.
With mosquito-borne illness causing about a million annual deaths—and the mosquito populations likely to spread geographically due to climate change—there is a high global demand for better disease prevention. Past solutions have controlled the population with small-molecule insecticides, but researchers have found modern populations to be resistant. Peter Roy, professor and Donnelly PI, will address this insecticide-resistance with a novel cell-based screening technology that will identify more candidate insecticides.
The groups behind the project, titled “The Further Development of New Compounds to Kill Mosquito Vectors of Disease”, plan to develop an effective insecticide that can be incorporated into bed nets and clothing.
The Angers and Bader labs are funded for $1 million to go to glioblastoma research
Amount: $1,021,276 over five years.
Stephane Angers and co-investigator Gary Bader.
Glioblastoma’s tumours have a high degree of variability both between and within patients, and there is growing evidence of glioblastoma cells changing as they undergo treatment. This variability, and the proposed ability for the “switching” of cell states, is a major driver behind the difficulty to treat glioblastoma.
Using CRIPSR based genome-editing technologies, the project “Functional Genomic Characterization of Glioblastoma Stem Cell state determinants” will attempt to identify the genes that establish cell states in glioblastoma.
The Angers Lab receives $1 million to investigate cerebral cavernous malformations
Amount: $1,021,276 over five years.
Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) are abnormal clusters of blood vessels in the brain that can leak blood and hemorrhage, causing strokes, seizures, and neurological disability.
The second Angers Lab project funded this cycle, “Restoring Endothelial Barrier Function in Cerebral Cavernous Malformations with an FZD4-LRP6 Wnt Surrogate”, aims to use targeted therapy to attempt to restore the brain’s blood vessel barrier. If successful, this research will hopefully lead to new therapies for multiple brain conditions that are characterized by leaky blood vessels.
Congratulations to our hardworking labs!
