CIHR Projects
Browse 3137 CIHR-funded research projects
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PI: Gagnon, Daniel
An important consequence of global warming is more frequent and intense periods of extreme heat events. Over the past 20 years, extreme heat has killed more people worldwide than all other natural di…
In the context of an aging global population, the World Health Organization emphasizes that cardiovascular disease and dementia are closely linked. In 2030, these two diseases will represent the main…
Patients with serious illnesses often receive a breathing tube in order to survive. If the breathing tube is needed for a long period of time, a breathing tube known as a tracheostomy may be inserted…
PI: Soliz, Jorge
Mitochondria are small organelles within cells that generate almost all the energy we need throughout life. The human brain, being the most energy-demanding organ, consumes between 50% (in postnatal …
PI: Ahmed, Sofia B
Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the leading cause of death in women globally. Despite a rapidly increasing understanding that sex and gender play important roles in CV disease manifestations and outco…
PI: Nerenberg, Kara A; Gundy, Serena; Job McIntosh, Christiane
Right now, in Canada, women with a high blood pressure disorder in pregnancy (HDP) are 2-5 times more likely to have a heart attack or stroke before the age of 40 and die prematurely before they reac…
PI: Johnson, Kate M
Asthma is a highly prevalent chronic disease in Canada. Its large burden on patients and the healthcare system is increasingly thought of as avoidable through through early intervention to control sy…
PI: Reed, Jennifer L
Traditional cardiovascular rehabilitation (CR) involving moderate-to-vigorous intensity continuous training (MICT) may not meet the needs or interests of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) g…
PI: Xu, Yan; Le Gal, Grégoire
Venous thromboembolism, comprising of deep vein thrombosis (clots involving veins in the legs) or pulmonary embolism (clots involving lung arteries), is the third leading cause of cardiovascular deat…
PI: Crawshaw, Jacob; McCleary, Nicola; Schwalm, Jon-David R
It is estimated that approximately a third of patients do not take their medications as prescribed following a heart attack. This causes a significant burden among patients, healthcare providers, and…
PI: Reid, Wendy D; Rozenberg, Dmitry
Cognitive and physical impairments are common in individuals with chronic lung diseases, including approximately 3 million Canadians living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and about 40,000…
PI: Martel, Guillaume; Fergusson, Dean A
Blood transfusions are commonly given to patients during surgery. Although blood transfusions can be lifesaving, they can also cause serious side effects such as allergic reactions and infections. Re…
Severe heart failure also known as cardiogenic shock is a condition that, due to an injury to the heart, results in the heart being unable to pump enough blood throughout the body. Cardiogenic shock …
PI: Pibarot, Philippe J; Beaudoin, Jonathan
Narrowing of the aortic heart valve is a frequent and serious cardiovascular disease named Aortic Stenosis: (AS) and the only available treatment is to replace the failing aortic valve by a prostheti…
PI: Liu, Peter P
COVID-19 has disproportionately affected visible minorities in the population, with increased mortality, and major health and socioeconomic consequences with disruptions. Unfortunately most of this i…
PI: Kaminska, Marta
Patients requiring long-term home non-invasive ventilation are a diverse group with different diagnoses leading to chronic respiratory failure. They are amongst the most vulnerable patients requiring…
PI: Yu, Amy Ying Xin; Kamal, Noreen R
Every 9 minutes, someone in Canada experiences a stroke. Stroke is the third most common cause of death among Canadians. The COVID19 pandemic has affected stroke care in many ways. First, infection w…
PI: van Klei, Wilton A; Bartoszko, Justyna; Sun, Louise
During the COVID-19 pandemic, non-urgent surgeries, including many heart surgeries, were delayed to free up hospital staff and space to care for patients with COVID-19. However, waiting for heart sur…
PI: Sun, Louise
The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated a health care crisis that disrupted the care of patients with cardiovascular and other health conditions. Non-emergent procedures were deferred amidst this cris…
PI: Nattel, Stanley
The health problem that we will be studying is cardiac remodeling. In response to heart disease, the properties of the heart adapt, a process called "remodeling". Remodeling can be beneficial, but wh…
PI: Janaudis-Ferreira, Tania; Beauchamp, Marla K; Bourbeau, Jean
The consequences of COVID-19 can be serious for many people, especially for those who are older and have health conditions. Some patients may need to be in hospital and even be admitted in the intens…
Blood-brain Barrier Permeability to the Platelet-secreted Brain-derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF)
PI: Fleury, Samuel
The Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) is a naturally occurring substance that has been discovered in the brain. It is responsible for neuron growth and healing of the brain blood vessels. When…
PI: Potter, Naomi M
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a rare disease affecting over 4300 Canadians caused by a genetic mutation in the gene known as cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) which codes for the C…
PI: Huang, Kate W
Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart rhythm disorder in the world and is linked to an increased risk of life-threatening diseases like stroke and heart failure. When atrial fibrillation occur…
PI: Lee, Yi-Ting TIm
The heart relies on highly regulated electrical signals between heart cells to facilitate coordinated contraction in order to pump blood throughout the body, supplying organs with nutrients and oxyge…
Heart failure affects over 600,000 Canadians, and there are very serious effects: over 50% of patients die within 5 years of diagnosis. Significant damage to the heart can lead to chronic symptoms in…
PI: Dagher, Olina
Le dispositif d'assistance ventriculaire (DAV) est une pompe mécanique implantée dans le cœur. Il est utilisé chez les patients souffrant d'insuffisance cardiaque sévère afin d'assister le cœur en at…
PI: Derish, Ida
Heart attacks remain a leading cause of death worldwide and a major burden on the healthcare system, despite recent advances in medicine. During a heart attack, damage to heart cells can occur from a…
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a deadly disease caused by uncontrolled growth of the cells lining the arteries in the lung. This leads to narrowing of these blood vessels, an increased work…
PI: Assini, Julia M
Diseases of the human cardiovascular system remain leading causes of disability and death worldwide. These diseases largely arise from a process called atherosclerosis, which involves the formation o…
PI: Bak, Jessi
Deadly disturbances of the heart's electrical activity, called arrhythmias, are known to occur with chronic increases of blood pressure, or hypertension. This is thought to occur in part due to the h…
PI: Bierer, Joel D
Congenital heart disease, occurring in roughly 1% of all newborns, is when babies have defects in their heart chambers, walls, or valves. These malformations can cause symptoms in the child, such as …
PI: Carew, Allie S
People with type 2 diabetes have a higher risk of heart disease compared to people without type 2 diabetes. However, studies of strict blood sugar control (aiming for near-normal blood sugar levels) …
Thrombopoietin (TPO) is a hormone that regulates platelet generation which are small cells crucial that mediate cessation of bleeding (hemostasis). Prevailing theory posits that liver hepatocytes con…
PI: Naiel, Safaa
Often, understanding how a disease develops and progresses on the cellular level is a key step in developing cures and preventative measures. In our research laboratory, we work on a specific type of…
PI: Kum, Elena Y
Chronic cough lasting >8 weeks is a common health problem with a global prevalence of 10%. In Canada, chronic cough has a prevalence of 16% and represents one of the most common reasons for referral …
PI: Pun, Matiram
The low levels of oxygen for the human body is called hypoxia. Hypoxia negatively impacts the human body and impairs normal functions. Long-term exposure to hypoxia can lead to disease conditions, an…
PI: Rytz, Chantal
Transgender women (assigned male at birth with woman gender identity) have poor heart health. Yet, they are an understudied population in healthcare and research. To gain feminizing features, transge…
PI: Piquette, Dominique; Fontela, Patricia S; Jaworsky, Denise W
Despite recent innovations, Canadian healthcare research continues to face two major challenges: a lack of translation of new knowledge into beneficial clinical practices; and persistent, unaddressed…
The heart consists of four chambers, two atria and two ventricles, whose contractions must be coordinated for the efficient pumping of blood to the entire body. If this coordination is affected, it c…
The flu leads to about 20,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths per year in Canada - and up to 100 times more globally. We underappreciate that this is mostly due to heart disease complications. Evid…
Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Guided Exploration of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction
PI: Troy, Aaron
Heart failure is a debilitating, complex, and often terminal disease that effects over half a million Canadians. Despite decades of research, our understanding of a large category of heart failure ca…
PI: Smith, Jacob B
Introduction: The recent worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is known for its damaging effects on the lungs of infected patients, however new research is starting to show that it can also damage the heart. U…
Brain arteriovenous malformation (bAVM) is a vascular disease characterized by a tangle of fragile blood vessels formed in the brain of children and young adults. Passage of high-pressure blood throu…
PI: Landry, Chloé
The immune system is essential to protect the body from disease-causing bacteria or viruses. One way that the immune system protects the body is by releasing "extracellular traps". These traps are ma…
PI: Forgie, Keir A
Lung transplantation is the only lifesaving treatment for patients with end-stage lung disease; however, there is a shortage of acceptable lungs for transplant. Forty percent of patients awaiting lun…
Atrial fibrillation (AF), a chronic heart disease, affects nearly 1 million Canadians. Current therapy for AF focusses on controlling the rate and rhythm of the heart. However, these therapies are in…
Disrupted sleep is common during pregnancy and has been thought to be involved in the development of pregnancy complications. Sleep disordered breathing (SDB snoring or pauses in breathing at night) …
Thrombopoietin (TPO) is a hormone required for platelet generation; thus cessation bleeding (hemostasis). Prevailing theory posits that liver hepatocytes constitutively produce TPO, and levels are fi…
PI: Soussi, Sabri M
In Canada, sepsis strikes young and old alike with an incidence of ~100 000 cases per year. Mortality remains between 20 and 40%, and the incidence is rising (8.7%/year). Survivors have long term mor…