Sunnybrook researchers awarded more than $12M in CIHR Spring 2022 Project Grants competition

Sunnybrook researchers have been awarded more than $12M in funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Spring 2022 Project Grants competition. More than 30 per cent of SRI applications were funded in the round.

The Project Grant program supports 'ideas with the greatest potential to advance health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health research, health care, health systems, and/or health outcomes.' In total, CIHR funded 405 projects in the competition for an investment of $325M.

Highlights of this funding round include projects focused on precision diagnostics and therapeutics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and infectious disease.

Congratulations to all the successful Sunnybrook-led projects:

Project: Machine learning for healthcare research
Principal investigator: Dr. Peter Austin
Sunnybrook co-investigator: Dr. Douglas Lee
Funding: $198,900 over 3 years

Project: Improving the use of propensity score methods in health research
Principal investigators: Dr. Peter Austin
Sunnybrook co-investigator: Dr. Douglas Lee
Funding: $237,150 over 3 years

Project: Multiomic approaches to identify regenerative pathways for the treatment of inner ear disorders
Principal investigator: Dr. Alain Dabdoub
Sunnybrook co-investigator: Dr. Emilia Luca
Funding: $879,750 over 5 years

Project: The Canadian Severe Acute Respiratory Infection, Prospective, Perpetual Observational Study: Informing Clinical Care and the Public Health Response
Principal investigators: Dr. Rob Fowler, Dr. Srinivas Murthy (University of British Columbia)
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Kevin Katz & Dr. Ruxandra Pinto
Funding: $761,174 over 3 years

Project: Establishing Feasibility & Safety of Providing Critical Care Treatments for Patients with Ebola in a Simulated Ebola Treatment Centre: Phase 2
Principal investigators: Dr. Rob Fowler, Dr. Neill Adhikari
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Ruxandra Pinto, Dr. Nick Daneman, Dr. Samira Mubareka, Dr. Rob Kozak, Dr. Dominique Piquette, Dr. Adrienne Chan
Funding: $248,625 over 2 years

Project: STARS: Surveillance and Testing for Antiviral Resistance in SARS-CoV-2
Principal investigators: Dr. Rob Kozak, Dr. Allison McGeer (Mount Sinai)
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Michelle Hladunewich & Dr. Kevin Katz
Funding: $400,000 over two years

Project: Exercise augmenting cognition tDCS (EXACT) trial: A pilot study of a combined exercise and transcranial direct current stimulation intervention for cognition
Principal investigators: Dr. Krista Lanctôt, Dr. Nathan Herrmann, Dr. Damien Gallagher
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Giovanni Marotta, Dr. Jocelyn Charles, Dr. Purti Papneja, Dr. Alexander Kiss, Dr. Mark Rapoport, Dr. Fuqiang Gao, Dr. Sandra Black, Dr. Brad MacIntosh
Funding: $456,706 over 3 years

Project: 'Two-Step Authentication' for Optimal Prostate Cancer Risk Determination: An "Extracellular Vesicle"-Based Liquid Biopsy Followed by Multi-Parametric MRI
Principal investigators: Dr. Hon Leong, Dr. Christopher Lim
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Stanley Liu, Dr. Michelle Downes, Dr. Laurencee Klotz, Dr. Daniel Vesprini, Dr. Andrew Loblaw
Funding: $1,637,100 over 5 years

Project: Androgen Suppression Combined with Elective Nodal and a Dose Escalated Boost. A Non-Inferiority, Phase 3 Randomized Controlled Trial of Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy versus Brachytherapy Boost (ASCENDE-SBRT)
Principal investigator: Dr. Andrew Loblaw
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Gerard Morton
Funding: $4,475,254 over 9 years

Project: Using AI to predict the presence of occult invasive carcinoma following diagnosis of DCIS on biopsy
Principal investigators: Dr. Anne Martel, Dr. Sharon Nofech-Mozes
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Amanda Roberts, Dr. Lara Richmond
Funding: $887,400 over 5 years

Project: Role of the GPR3-SIK2 Pathway in Human Beta Cell Proliferation
Principal investigator: Dr. Rob Screaton
Funding: $864,450 over 5 years

Project: Intergenerational impacts of diabetes among First Nations mothers and their children
Principal investigators: Dr. Baiju Shah, Dr. Carol Mulder (Queen’s University)
Funding: $443,700 over 3 years

Project: NMR spectroscopy in brain organoids: identifying neurochemical and gene regulatory network signatures of the healthy and Alzheimer's Disease brain
Principal investigators: Dr. Jamie Near, Dr. Carol Schuurmans
Sunnybrook co-investigators: Dr. Sandra Black, Dr. Mario Masellis
Funding: $940,950 over 5 years