Multidisciplinary research in the fields of prostate surgery, scar tissue reduction, drug monitoring and vascular disease monitoring at the University of British Columbia received a $1.7-million boost today from the Collaborative Health Research Projects (CHRP) program, and young researchers at UBC were awarded a further $1.6 million from the Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program to help upgrade their skills for a successful transition to the workplace.
The new federal research grants were announced by Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology) and Stockwell Day, President of Treasury Board and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway, during a visit to UBC’s Vancouver campus. They were joined by Suzanne Fortier, President of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), UBC President Stephen Toope and the grant recipients.
“This research funding highlights the quality of UBC graduate students and our strong track record in multidisciplinary collaborations that are aimed at solving real problems in the world while generating economic impact,” said UBC President Stephen Toope. “We are grateful to the Government of Canada for its vision and ongoing support of leading-edge research and graduate education.”
Jointly funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the CHRP program encourages collaboration between researchers from natural sciences or engineering and health sciences.
The four UBC CHRP grants were announced as part of a $13-million investment at 12 universities across Canada. The 31 new research projects will lead to more effective health services for Canadians as well as economic development in health-related areas.
The CREATE grant to UBC is part of a $32-million investment over six years from NSERC, for 20 projects at Canadian universities. The funding will give science and engineering graduates an opportunity to expand their professional and personal skills to prepare them for the workplace.
BACKGROUND | JULY 8, 2010
UBC welcomes $3.3 million from two federal research programs
Collaborative Health Research Projects (CHRP) at UBC
Image-based guidance for robot-assisted radical prostatectomy ($320,000)
Removing the prostate by robot-assisted surgery is a standard treatment for prostate cancer, the leading incident cancer in Canadian men. Tim Salcudean, UBC Electrical and Computer Engineering professor and the C.A. Laszlo Chair of Biomedical Engineering, is working with Dr. Larry Goldenberg, head of UBC’s Department of Urologic Sciences and clinical research director at Vancouver Prostate Centre, to improve the guidance tools available for robot-assisted prostatectomy by developing ultrasound imaging technology that can be used during surgery. This technology will provide doctors with more information about a patient’s prostate region and will help determine the appropriate surgical plans. Other collaborators include Purang Abolmaesumi, Piotr Kozlowski, Christopher Nguan, Robert Rohling and Silvia Chang.
‘Smart’ stents for wireless monitoring of vascular disease ($600,000)
Electrical and Computer Engineering Asst. Prof. Kenichi Takahata is working with Drs. York Hsiang and Joel Gagnon, vascular surgeons at Vancouver General Hospital and UBC’s Faculty of Medicine, to develop “smart” stents to be implanted in patients suffering from coronary artery disease. These stents function as radiofrequency wireless sensors which allow doctors to use a portable reader to monitor the patient’s heart. The stents could allow physicians to detect signs of re-narrowing of the arteries or any complications caused by the stent. Coronary artery disease is the number one killer in Canada, and 90,000 stents are implanted in Canadians each year. The “smart” stent would save lives and improve the lives of Canadians suffering from the disease. Other collaborators of the project include Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu (UBC Dept. of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine), Shahriar Mirabbasi (UBC Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering) and William Wong (Communications Research Centre Canada).
Reducing scar tissue from wounds and burns ($450,000)
The conditions and scarring that can arise from burns and wounds can be devastating to patients. Aziz Ghahary, UBC professor and director of the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn and Wound Healing Lab at Vancouver General Hospital and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, and Frank Ko, a material engineering professor and an expert in biomaterials and nanotechnology, are joining together to develop three products that will improve and prevent this painful scarring from developing. The team believes that a set of proteins is responsible for slowing down or terminating the process of healing burn wounds. The products they plan to assemble – a wound dressing for burn patients, strips for closed wounds and a type of suture – use nanofibres to prevent these proteins from working, and fibrosis from developing.
Microneedle-based painless drug monitoring system in interstitial fluid ($330,000)
Therapeutic drug monitoring is necessary for drugs that are meant to target specific problems in the body, such as Methotrexate, a drug used for cancer chemotherapy and rheumatoid arthritis. Urs Hafeli and Mary Ensom from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Boris Stoeber from the departments of Mechanical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, are developing a painless way of monitoring drugs that is not based on blood sampling. The group plans to create microneedles that will extract interstitial fluid from a patient’s skin. This new method could help health care providers make decisions about drug treatments, and is expected to revolutionize drug monitoring. Ensom is also appointed at the Child & Family Research Institute, BC Children’s Hospital and BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre.
The CREATE-Atmospheric Aerosol Program at UBC
The new $1.6-million NSERC grant will help establish the CREATE-Atmospheric Aerosol Program (CREATE-APP) at UBC. The training program, led by Chemistry Assoc. Prof. Allan Bertram and colleagues, will focus on atmospheric aerosols and the role they play in climate and health. It will include new course offerings, a bi-weekly seminar series and internships, which will provide interdisciplinary training and exposure necessary to respond to some of the most pressing environmental and health challenges we face, including urban air pollution, visibility and climate change.
