SickKids researchers awarded CIHR Project Grants worth more than $15.5 million

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) are leading 23 projects awarded a total of $15,513,819 million in the latest Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grants: Spring 2022 competition, including five priority announcement grants.

The SickKids Research Institute had a success rate of 27.27 per cent in the Project Grant competition compared to the national average of 19.3 per cent. The funded projects will advance research in areas related to precision oncology, heart disease, chronic pain, global child health, patient-oriented research and more, and are led by investigators from across the seven SickKids research programs.

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. Priority announcement grants are additional sources of funding for highly ranked applications submitted to the competition. The Spring 2022 competition approved 405 research grants and two bridge grants for a total investment of approximately $325 million in Canadian research. In addition, 61 priority announcement grants were funded for a total amount of $10.7 million. Learn more on the CIHR website.

The funded Project Grant projects include: 

Neonatal and perinatal mortality in relation to maternal sepsis in Canada: a nationwide population-based observational study - $105,000 
Principal Investigator: Kazuyoshi Aoyama (Child Health Evaluative Sciences), Joel Ray (Child Health Evaluative Sciences) 
 
A New Approach to Vascular Reconstruction using Graphical 3D Printing and Flow Modelling to create personalised precision engineered surgery - $692,326 
Principal Investigator: David Barron (Division of Cardiovascular Surgery) 
 
An adapted early warning signs and symptoms (EWSS) intervention to improve early recognition and referral of childhood cancers in Kenya and Cameroon: An Effectiveness Implementation Study - $1,250,776 
Principal Investigators: Avram Denburg (Child Health Evaluative Sciences), Melanie Barwick (Child Health Evaluative Sciences), Sumit Gupta (Child Health Evaluative Sciences) 
 
The role of SPEG (Striated muscle preferentially expressed protein kinase) in skeletal muscle development and human muscle disease - $918,000 
Principal Investigator: Jim Dowling (Genetics & Genome Biology) 

Next generation precision oncology for pediatric-type AYA gliomas - $1,342,576 
Principal Investigator: Cynthia Hawkins (Cell Biology) 

Role of NBEAL2 in alpha granule formation and maturation in megakaryocytes and platelets - $914,176 
Principal Investigator: Walter Kahr (Cell Biology) 

Mechanisms of intercellular communications in gut homeostasis and disease - $990,676 
Principal Investigator: Tae-Hee Kim (Developmental & Stem Cell Biology) 
 
Renal ultrasound after first febrile urinary tract infection in hospitalized children: reducing overdiagnosis and cascade effects - $527,851 
Principal Investigator: Sanjay Mahant (Child Health Evaluative Sciences), Peter Gill (Child Health Evaluative Sciences) 

Regenerative Therapies for Ischemic Heart Disease - $883,576 
Principal Investigators: Jason Maynes (Molecular Medicine), Hai-Ling Cheng (Translational Medicine) and John Coles (Translational Medicine) 
 
Using heart rhythm detection as a prototype to translate machine learning equitably and reproducibly to the point of care - $657,900 
Principal Investigators: Mjaye Mazwi (Translational Medicine), Sebastian Goodfellow (Genetics & Genome Biology) 
 
ImplemeNting a Sudden cardiac dEath Risk assessment Tool in childhood hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (INSERT-HCM) - $631,126 
Principal Investigators: Seema Mital (Genetics & Genome Biology) and Melanie Barwick (Child Health Evaluative Sciences) 
 
ICU-ROOM : Intensive Care Unit Rooms, Objectified, Observed and Measured - $1,392,301 
Principal Investigator: Christopher Parshuram (Child Health Evaluative Sciences) 
 
FAN1, a DNA repair nuclease, as a modifier of disease-associated repeat instability - $956,250 
Principal Investigator: Christopher Pearson (Genetics & Genome Biology) 
 
Development of miniaturized robotic tools for cleft palate repair - $742,050 
Principal Investigator: Dale Podolsky (Translational Medicine) 
 
Evaluating a virtual stepped care portal in youth awaiting tertiary chronic pain care: An Implementation-Effectiveness Hybrid Type III study - $546,209 
Principal Investigators: Jennifer Stinson (Child Health Evaluative Sciences), Kathryn Birnie  
 
Understanding of the Genotype-Phenotype Profile in Pediatric Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy using the Myocardial Stiffness Assessment by Ultrafast Ultrasound Imaging - $478,125 
Principal Investigator: Olivier Villemain (Translational Medicine) 
 
The contribution of white matter vulnerability to persistent symptoms after concussion in adolescents - $573,750 
Principal Investigator: Anne Wheeler (Neurosciences & Mental Health) 

Molecular fundamentals of TDP-43 dysregulation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - $830,026 
Principal Investigator: Ji-Young Youn (Molecular Medicine)

The funded Priority Announcement projects include:

Pediatric Cancer Research 

Imaging-based classification and treatment response prediction of pediatric low-grade gliomas for precision child health - $235,500 
Principal Investigators: Farzad Khalvati (Neurosciences & Mental Health), Birgit Ertl-Wagner (Neurosciences & Mental Health) 

OPTIMISE: Optimal precision therapies to customise care in childhood and adolescent cancer - $545,625 
Principal Investigator: Daniel Morgenstern (Translational Medicine) 

Patient-Oriented Research 

The Brain after Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO): Long-Term Outcomes in Survivors Treated During Childhood - $100,000 
Principal Investigator: Anne-Marie Guerguerian (Neurosciences & Mental Health) 

Patient-Oriented Research: Early-Career Investigator 

A Data-driven Approach to Identify High Priority Research Topics for Pediatric Hospital Care - $100,000 
Principal Investigators: Peter Gill (Child Health Evaluative Sciences), Sanjay Mahant (Child Health Evaluative Sciences), Teresa To (Child Health Evaluative Sciences)
 
Parenteral veRsus Enteral Fluids for infants hospitalizEd with bRonchiolitis: the PREFER shared decision making study - $100,000 
Principal Investigators: Peter Gill (Child Health Evaluative Sciences), Francine Buchanan, Sanjay Mahant (Child Health Evaluative Sciences)