U of S researchers get $1.37m in CIHR grants

U of S researchers were recently awarded a total of almost $1.37 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for five innovative and wide-ranging projects. 

Geography professor Allison Williams will receive a $275,000 ‘new investigator’ award — one of only 11 given out nationally — to explore the relationship between environment and health.

Though it’s well-known that social and physical environment affect health, precisely how this happens is not well understood. Williams’ project will explore how socio-economic status and environments determine health and quality of life both at the individual and community level.

“The results will help Canadians establish and nurture environments that are supportive of health in homes, neighborhoods, communities, cities and regions,” says Williams who is also a research faculty member of the Saskatchewan Population Health & Evaluation Research Unit (SPHERU).

Part of her research is a spin-off from the SPHERU-CUISR (Community-University Institute for Social Research) quality-of-life project. “This illustrates how collaborative research at the U of S builds ongoing research initiatives,” she says.

Bernie Juurlink, professor of anatomy and cell biology, was awarded $311,476 over three years under CIHR’s Neuromuscular Research Partnership Program.

Along with U of S collaborators Ben Rosser (Anatomy & Cell Biology) and Deborah Saucier (Psychology), Juurlink will explore whether dietary interventions can delay the onset of degenerative muscle and nervous tissue changes in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), Lou Gehrig’s disease.

It’s known that the body’s inability to adequately scavenge free radicals of oxygen contributes to the development of ALS and other degenerative diseases. It’s also known that certain components of our diet can help the body to scavenge free radicals.

Juurlink’s team will test the hypothesis that certain compounds called “phase 2 enzyme inducers” can better enable the body to scavenge free radicals, thereby decreasing oxidative stress and delaying the onset of diseases such as ALS. These compounds are found in foods such as soy products, flax seed, kale, broccoli, blueberries, cranberries, strawberries and raspberries.

Juurlink’s lab is thought to be the only one looking at this particular therapeutic approach.

“This area of research has greatly influenced my graduate course dealing with neurodegenerative diseases, and to a lesser extent some of my undergraduate teaching,” he said, noting that graduate students will be involved in the project.

As well, CIHR awarded three operating grants totalling $780,844 over three years : 

• Jim Dosman, director of the Centre for Agricultural Medicine, will receive $247,829 to extend his team’s work on why poultry workers get lung trouble and ways to prevent it.
• Oncologist Keith Bonham will receive $264,215 over three years to study how a particular  gene that induces or promotes uncontrolled cell growth — the c-src oncogene — is inappropriately activated or “turned on” in human cancer, contributing to the development of serious malignancies such as colon and breast cancer. 

“Ultimately, we hope to interfere with this process and turn c-src off in cancer cells as a treatment for these tumors,” Bonham said. “We are the only lab in Canada which studies this aspect of the c-src gene.”

The team has already identified and isolated regions of the gene called promoters which, like a volume control on a stereo, regulate the level of c-src produced in a cell.

Bonham’s work was previously supported by a CIHR-Saskatchewan Regional Partnership Program (RPP) grant. “This is an example of how important the RPP program is for building research expertise,” he said.

• Cell biologist Nicholas Ovsenek is interested in how cells in our bodies respond to stress such as heat, fever, toxic metals, disease or even aging. He will receive $268,800 to study how “molecular chaperones”, cell proteins which fold other proteins into their proper conformation, are involved in regulating the stress response and protecting cells against harmful agents.

U of S garnered one per cent of the operating grants awarded nationally. The U of S success rate for operating grants in this competition was nine per cent (three out of 33 applications), down from 13 per cent (three out of 23) in the September 2000 competition.  The overall national success rate was 32 per cent.

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