2020 is a year of opportunity for our network. Many of you will remember our roots, as we together founded the Canadian National Transplantation Research Program in 2013. The goal was to bring together our country’s diverse donation and transplantation research communities, an ongoing effort that we are just as passionate about today. Over the last 6 years, our network has grown to include more than 300 scientists, students, collaborators, patient/family/donor partners and knowledge users at 33 sites across Canada, working together on our shared goals through research, innovation, and knowledge translation projects.
In 2018, we refreshed the vision of our network and articulated the next steps towards our mission of achieving One-Transplant-for-Life: that Canada fulfills every donation opportunity and realizes the potential of transplantation as a true, cost-effective and final cure for many chronic diseases and refractory blood cancers. We also renamed the network the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program, recognizing the importance and equal weight of the donation communities with the transplant communities, together with patients, families and donors. With a redesigned structure, we are now offering enhanced research support and infrastructure to the community, to help accelerate research and innovation projects, leverage the vast interdisciplinary expertise of the network, grow funding opportunities and success rates for our members, and position our trainees and early career researchers for successful careers in the field. We encourage all of you to explore the many resources available and reach out to network staff for more information.
With our members’ and partners’ collective and coordinated efforts, we are moving the field forward in an array of new and exciting ways. Here are just a few highlights of work going on across the network:
- Theme 1 (Create a culture of donation) will be hosting a conference call on March 18, 2020 to review the new amendment to the Medical Assistance in Dying bill. The review will be led by Jennifer Chandler, with contributions from Matthew Weiss and perspectives from Laurie Blackstock, Theme 1 patient, family, donor lead. For more information and to join the call, contact us at info@cdtrp.ca.
- Members of Theme 2 (Inform universal practices for donation) recently met with Dr. Caroline Tait and others to better understand the Métis, Inuit and First Nations perspective on the differences of neurological and circulatory death and how that can better inform practices for donation nationwide.
- Members of Theme 3 (Engineer and allocate better grafts) were recently awarded CIHR funding to study a novel cell death pathway and its role in long-term graft survival. Inhibiting this pathway could be a strategy to prevent cell death, organ injury and thus transplant rejection, as well as increasing the possibility for donation after circulatory determined death.
- Members of Theme 4 (Tailor an optimized immune system for each patient) are trialling photopheresis-based cell therapy for the treatment of chronic graft vs host disease in a national multi-center clinical trial (CARE). Patient recruitment and sample collection are now complete, and the analysis phases, involving collaborations across the network, are underway.
- Members of Theme 5 (Restore long-term health) are working with patients and families to implement tools to capture patient-reported outcomes in solid-organ transplant recipients. The overarching objective is to improve health outcomes by implementing ePROMs into standard clinical practice.
CIHR has been an outstanding supporter of our vision for donation and transplantation research in Canada since our inception. Now in 2020, it is time for our maturing network to work toward become self-sustaining, and find new ways to continue developing the resources and supports that can help bring our communities together and increase the quality of our research and training. We are looking forward to further strengthening the relationships among members and with our partners to achieve this goal. Over the course of the year, we will be evaluating the CDTRP’s progress, assessing what activities and supports are offering the most value to the community, and considering what may need recalibration. You may be contacted in the coming months for your thoughts, and we look forward to engaging with you in these ongoing conversations. As always, we are grateful for all of our members’ and partners’ perspectives and contributions as we work toward our shared goal of enhancing collaboration, supporting high quality training, advancing the quality of donation and transplantation research, and transforming research into an improved quality of life for Canadians.
Lori West, Scientific Director
Marie-Josée Hébert, Scientific Co-Director
Sonny Dhanani, Associate Director
Jean-Sébastien Delisle, Associate Director
In pursuit of our revised, bold vision to achieve the One-Transplant-for-Life Challenge by fulfilling every donation opportunity and turning transplantation into a cure, the CDTRP recently restructured the research supported within the network into 5 inter-related and comprehensive Themes. Over the past two years, the CDTRP has successfully transitioned from a national network that funds a selected group of research projects to a national structure that supports, enables and fosters the development, execution, implementation and translation of new research ideas and collaborations. In support of our growing community, we are fostering collaborations across disciplines, including basic science, clinical research, engineering, chemistry, law, ethics, economics, social sciences and machine learning, amongst others.
As the new Executive Director, I am committed to ensuring that the support that we provide to the Donation and Transplantation research community is in line with our One-Transplant-for-Life mission. I am also convinced that our revised CDTRP framework provides essential infrastructure elements to help our community work with partners and stakeholders to increase their competitiveness and launch innovative and collaborative projects. I am very proud that CDTRP now represents the ‘go to’ platform in Canada, where investigators bring new ideas, find collaborators and patient/family/donor partners, make connections to other disciplines and receive individualized resources and infrastructure support to strengthen their research and increase success. At the heart of our work, I would like to underline the dedication, support and ongoing commitment of our partners and founders including CIHR, all of Canada’s large donation and transplantation charities, the federal and provincial governments, start-ups, members of the pharma and technology industry and a growing number of international collaborators.
I am truly honoured to lead an extraordinary team in which each staff member brings dedication and passion to their work. Our fresh new website reflects our ongoing commitment to be an innovative, dynamic force in supporting the research to achieve the One-Transplant-for-Life Challenge. We look forward to the future, and are excited for the development and growth of numerous collaborative initiatives and events throughout 2020!
Mélanie Dieudé, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Coming in 2020
Save the date! The CDTRP Annual Meeting will be held Dec 2-4, 2020 in Kelowna, BC.
Upcoming webinars/training events
The 2019-2020 Webinar Series devoted to Cross Cutting Priorities in Donation and Transplantation Research is well underway! Two priorities have already been covered: (1) Sex and Gender and (2) Pediatric, Adolescent and Elderly Populations. Each priority topic includes multiple webinars. If you missed any since October 2019, see our YouTube page.
Our current featured research priority is Indigenous, Rural and Remote Populations. The first session in this series was entitled “Saskatchewan First Nations and Métis Organ Donation and Transplantation Think Tank: Lessons Learned”, presented by Dr. Caroline Tait, and is available here.
The next webinar to mark on your calendar is:
March 9, 4pm EST – Dr. Karen Yeates
“Setting urgent health research priorities for Indigenous, rural and remote populations in Canada: Can we find a balance between the perspectives and needs of communities with those of health researchers?”
Link to join (open access): https://cdtrp.zoom.us/j/511879620
Research support available from the CDTRP
CDTRP Research Innovation Grant update
The 6th CDTRP Research Innovation Grant competition is now closed! We received 47 applications this year, which will now undergo competitive peer review. Thank you to all our applicants. We are excited to see our community’s innovative new ideas that will help move Canada toward the One-Transplant-for-Life vision.
We are proud to partner with the following organizations to make this year’s competition possible:
- Addison Fund / Transplant Research Foundation of British Columbia
- Alberta Transplant Institute
- The Ashley’s Angels Fund
- Canadian Liver Foundation
- Cystic Fibrosis Canada
- Kidney Foundation of Canada
- Paladin Labs Inc.
- SickKids Transplant & Regenerative Medicine Centre
- Université de Montréal
- University Health Network Multi-Organ Transplant Program
With the generous support of our partners, we are expecting to fund 17 grants of $30,000. Announcements are expected May 7, 2020.
Support available for upcoming funding applications
As you prepare your upcoming grant applications, remember that the CDTRP can offer both in-kind and cash resources via a support letter to help strengthen your application and increase your chance of success. Additionally, the network is always happy to help connect you to experts to review and provide feedback on your grant application prior to the deadline. We would be delighted to work with you to build the most competitive applications possible!
CDTRP resources available include:
- Economic, Legal, Ethics and Social analysis to support your study (up to $10K per study, where applicable)
- Patient/Family/Donor – Researcher Partnerships ($1500 per patient, $500 in remuneration, and $1000 to help support patient/family/donor involvement in our Annual meeting)
- Trainee Support ($1000 per trainee to support attendance at the CDTRP annual meeting. Please note that trainees must be enrolled and participate in our Trainee program to be eligible for travel funds.)
- Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB)
- Access to Biomarker, Immune Monitoring and Artificial Intelligence expertise
- CDTRP Central Management Team and Communication Resources
- Small Meeting Support and Knowledge Dissemination
- Development and production of FAST FACTS as part of your knowledge translation plan
In order to request support from the CDTRP, please complete a support request form and return it to Melanie (mdieude@cntrp.ca) and cc Leanne (lstalker@cdtrp.ca).