Félicitations aux récipiendaires des subventions Projet du printemps 2021 des IRSC
Félicitations aux membres du PRDTC et à leur équipe qui ont été retenus dans le cadre du Concours de subventions Projets du printemps des IRSC ! Nous sommes impatients de soutenir ces projets avec des partenariats patients, familles et donneurs, un soutien aux stagiaires, des ressources de gestion ainsi qu’un soutien à la communication et au transfert des connaissances.
Voir ci-dessous la liste des projets financés dans le cadre du Concours de subventions des IRSC.
Titre du projet : The Neurologic Physiology after Removal of Therapy (NeuPaRT) Study
Chercheurs principaux :
- Gofton, Teneille
- Dhanani, Sonny
- Meade, Maureen
- Slessarev, Marat
Résumé (en anglais) :
Public and healthcare provider trust is the cornerstone of deceased organ donation. It is important to ensure that donors are dead and cannot suffer during the organ donation process. In donation after brain death, this is done by confirming that brain function has stopped permanently before organ retrieval. Because brain death is rare, donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD) has become an important strategy for increasing donation opportunities. However, in contrast to donation after brain death, current DCDD protocol does not mandate confirmation of permanent cessation of brain function prior to organ retrieval. Instead, the medical community assumes-based on scientific principals-that brain function stops within 5 minutes of when the heart stops. However, some animal-based research suggests that brain function: (1) may persist beyond when the heart stops; and (2) can be restarted hours after the time of death. Without research in people regarding when brain function stops compared to when the heart stops, these reports may reduce public and healthcare provider trust in DCDD. Research in people is needed to maintain and promote stakeholder trust in the DCDD process, and to ensure that DCDD protocol protects donors from harm. We will determine when brain function stops relative to when the heart stops by monitoring electrical brain activity in patients who are taken off life support and progress to death in the intensive care unit. Our findings will increase trust in DCDD and help to protect donors from harm by providing data from people that will inform the best time for organ procurement in DCDD. This data will be critical for preserving and promoting public and healthcare provider trust in the DCDD process. This will also help address current shortages of organs in Canada, and save the lives of people urgently awaiting transplant.
Titre du projet : Filling Knowledge Gaps for the Success of Ontario Renal Plan 3
Chercheurs principaux :
- Weir, Matthew
- Beaucage, Mary
- Blake, Peter
- Chanchlani, Rahul
- Clark, Edward
- Clemens, Kristin
- Dixon, Stephanie
- Harel, Ziv
- Jain, Arsh
- Molnar, Amber
- Silver, Samuel
- Sood, Manish
Résumé (an anglais)
Improving the health of patients with kidney diseases requires effective partnerships among researchers, patients, doctors, and policy makers. Our Ontario-wide research program (ICES KDT) has been building these partnerships for seven years. Together, we conduct research to improve the health and experiences of patients with kidney disease. In 2012, CIHR awarded our team a five-year grant to provide a coordinated approach to kidney research. With this support, we published 28 studies and 20 policy reports. We also added three important kidney-related data sources to the main holdings at ICES, including data on kidney transplantation. In the current proposal, we are seeking support to continue conducting research that will focus on the issues that matter most to patients. In partnership with the Ontario Renal Network, we are planning to conduct studies that will address knowledge gaps in four areas: Mental health in kidney patients, drug safety, First Nations kidney health, and transplantation.
Titre du projet : Addressing Inequity and Optimizing Prioritization in Liver Transplantation: Application of Artificial Intelligence to Improve Clinical Practice and Survival
Chercheurs principaux :
- Bhat, Mamatha
- Wang, Bo
- Xu, Wei
Résumé (en anglais)
The current organ allocation system for liver transplantation (LT) was developed to prioritize the sickest patients and improve equality. However, access to LT has remained compromised among women and other subgroups. The current prioritization system does not adequately serve the changing LT candidate population, where there has been a dramatic increase in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and older patients with comorbidities. Organ supply is insufficient to meet the demand, and up to 25% die on the waiting list for LT in Canada. There is an urgent need to revise this prioritization system and make it more equitable. We have confirmed the significant inequalities and dynamics for specific patient subgroups (women, NAFLD, frailty, increasing age, cholestatic liver disease) on the waiting list. Additionally, the evolution in patient clinical characteristics is resulting in a predominance of cancer and cardiac complications after transplant. We have recently developed an Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to predict mortality after transplant and personalize patient care. In the proposed project, we will develop a uniquely Canadian framework beyond the MELD Na score using AI for equitable patient prioritization on the waitlist. We will also refine our AI-based algorithm to predict the major complications after LT and provide personalized recommendations for prevention and therapy. Despite a publicly funded health service and a generosity-base organ donation system, there remains an urgent need to reform the current prioritization system, as it is inequitable and results in excessive deaths of specific patient subgroups. We will use Canadian data aligned with new technology to serve patients more equitably on the waiting list and after transplant, and reset survival to normal based on personalized risk profiles.
ity of Alberta and has received training in patient-oriented research through the University of Calgary’s PACER (Patient and Community Engagement Research) Program. He is the Patient, Family, and Donor Partnerships & Education Manager with the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program. In this role, Manuel builds relationships patient partners with investigators and strengthens capacity among CDTRP patient partners.
Anders Billström 
Gareth Wiltshire
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Sherrie Logan 
born and raised in Edmonton, AB. With a degree in Music Performance (saxophone performance) and Education, Lindsey has taught for over a decade in the Edmonton Public School system. When she is not teaching, she is very involved in the music community, performing in the Edmonton Winds, conducting her own community ensemble (The Beer League Band) and on numerous musical boards across the province. For the past 5 years, Lindsey has had to take a break from teaching after having her amazing son, George. Maternity leave did not goes as expected as George was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy at 5 months old and required 2 heart transplants before the age of 4. During this time, Lindsey has also began to dedicate her time building and expanding her charity: Big Gifts for Little Lives, where they raise money to fund Pediatric Heart Transplant research at the Stollery.
Dr. Caigan Du is a scientist at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute and an assistant professor in the Department of Urologic Sciences at the University of British Columbia. He received a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry in UK and postdoctoral training in Immunology in USA. He is interested in the pathogenesis of kidney ischemia-reperfusion injury and transplant rejection, and molecular control of urinary malignancies. He has been studying the impact of kidney donor-derived factors on renal allograft rejection, and the molecular pathways of kidney injury and regeneration in experimental models. He is also interested in developing medical solution including drugs made from natural compounds for all kinds of health problems, including immune disorders, organ preservation, kidney failure and urinary cancer. He is the PI of many grant supports from the Kidney Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Heather Badenoch is a non-directed living liver donor and communications strategist. As the president of Village PR, she provides strategic communications direction and training to not-for-profit clients in community and health. An active transplant volunteer, Heather helps transplant candidates find living donors by running their public appeals, small and large, pro-bono. She also mentors potential living donors on the path to living donation. Heather is a volunteer with the UHN Centre for Living Organ Donation and the Canadian Donation and Transplant Research Program. She and her spouse adopt rescue dogs and volunteer together with Community Veterinary Outreach, a group providing free veterinary care to the pets of people who are homeless.
Sean Dicks is a clinical psychologist who has 20 years’ experience supporting both families of organ donors and transplant recipients. While it is rare for him to have contact with a donor family and recipient linked to the same organ donation-transplantation event, his contact with families who have lived experience with organ donation on the one hand, and patients who have received transplants on the other hand has provided opportunities to explore how their journeys become linked when they attempt to make sense of and find meaning in their respective crises.
Terri Hansen-Gardiner is a Cree speaking Metis woman from Northern Saskatchewan as well as a 10 year Breast Cancer Survivor. Her tireless spirit and dedication to her community is undeniable. Terri is a cancer survivor who travels around the province to provide assistance, information, and support to Indigenous patients who are trying to access and navigate the cancer care system.
Dr. Golnaz Karoubi is Assistant Scientist at the Toronto General HospitalResearch Institute and principal investigator in the Latner Thoracic Research Labs. She currently holds an Assistant Professor appointment in the department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology and a cross-appointment in the department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Toronto. Dr. Karoubi received her PhD in Applied Science and Engineering at the University of Toronto and joined the Lung Regenerative Medicine Program in the Department of Clinical Research in Berne University, Switzerland for a post-doctoral research fellowship. She stayed on as a Group Leader in 2008 to direct the basic and transitional science as related to Cancer Stem Cell and Lung Regenerative Medicine in the Department of Biomedical Research at the University of Berne until 2012. In early 2012, she joined the team of Dr. Tom Waddell at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute as a Senior Scientific Associate and was appointed to Assistant Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (University Health Network) in November 2019 and to Assistant Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology in July 2020.
Dr. Haykal graduated from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine in2007 as class valedictorian and silver medalist, and subsequently completed her residency training in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Toronto in 2016. During her residency, she completed a four-year Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in tissue engineering, regenerative medicine and immunology with a focus on tracheal reconstruction. She obtained numerous grants and awards including a CIHR Vanier Scholarship. Dr. Haykal then pursued fellowship training in microsurgical reconstruction at the Albany Medical Centre in New York. Dr. Haykal joined the University Health Network and the Toronto General Hospital in 2018. Her clinical focus is on complex oncological reconstruction and microsurgical reconstruction of the breast, head and neck and extremity. She started a lymphedema program in 2019 where she offers microsurgical techniques for the treatment of lymphedema.
Dr. Ahmed is a Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. The recipient of the 2022 Hypertension Canada Senior Investigator Award, she is a nephrologist and clinician-scientist with a focus on sex and gender differences in human cardiovascular/kidney physiology and clinical outcomes. Dr. Ahmed is the Vice Chair (Research) for the Department of Medicine, Lead of the Libin Institute Women’s Cardiovascular Health Research Initiative at the University of Calgary and Lead of the Alberta Strategy for Patient Oriented Research Capacity Development Platform. Dr. Ahmed is an Advisory Board member for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Gender and Health, a member of the Canadian Medical Association Journal Governing Council and the President-Elect for the Organization for the Study of Sex Differences.
r. Christopher Nguan is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Urological Sciences, Surgical Head of Kidney Transplantation at Vancouver General Hospital and the Director of the Surgical Technologies Experimental Laboratory & Advanced Robotics (STELLAR) facility at Vancouver General Hospital.
r Caroline Lamarche is a clinician scientist and transplant nephrologist at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital. She is an assistant clinical professor at the Université de Montréal. After her nephrology training at the Université de Montréal (2015), she completed a Master degree on the use of adoptive immunotherapy to treat/prevent BK nephropathy in kidney transplant recipients. She then pursued a post-doctoral fellowship with Dr. Megan Levings at the University of British Columbia on the use of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) regulatory T cells (Tregs) to induce transplant tolerance. Her lab is working on the development of adoptive immunotherapy in nephrology and understanding Treg dysfunction.
Dr. Tandon is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Co-Director of the Cirrhosis Care Clinic, Transplant Hepatologist and lead of the Cirrhosis Care Alberta quality improvement program. She obtained her training at the University of Alberta, the Hospital Clinic in Barcelona and Yale University. Her clinical practice and research are focused on cirrhosis with research interests including cirrhosis related complications, malnutrition, frailty, exercise therapy, palliative care, integrative health approaches such as meditation and knowledge translation. It is her career goal to provide wholistic, interdisciplinary, evidence based, patient-centered care through education, empowerment, engagement and team-work.
Emily is a PhD student at the University of Alberta, where she completed her Master of Science (MSc) degree in medicine. With a passion for patient-oriented research and a commitment to improving health outcomes, Emily’s doctoral project focuses on EMPOWER, a 12-week online mind-body wellness program designed for adults living with chronic health conditions.
Dr Basil S. Nasir, M.B.B.Ch
Dr. Victor Ferreira is an Assistant Scientist in the Ajmera Transplant Centre at the University Health Network (UHN) and the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute (TGHRI). He is also an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology (LMP). He completed his PhD in Medical Sciences – Infection and Immunity Specialization at McMaster University in 2014 and post-doctoral training at UHN. His research program is focused on three pillars: I) using systems vaccinology to reveal insights into vaccine responses in immunocompromised individuals like transplant recipients; II) characterizing the impact of chronic viral infection on host immune responses; and III) developing novel methods for eliminating latent viruses in human organs. His work has been cited >2,500 times and is published in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Immunology, the Lancet Infectious Diseases, Clinical Infectious Diseases, the American Journal of Transplantation and Journal of Infectious Diseases.