CIHR Projects
Browse 1905 CIHR-funded research projects
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Leukodystrophies (LDs) are a group of rare genetic neurological diseases that primarily affect children, resulting in progressive disability and ultimately death. Although individually rare, altogeth…
Investigating sex as a biological variable (SABV) to better understand the role of sex in trait and disease development is critical for enhanced and personalized medicine. To date, sex differences in…
PI: Ni, Anjie
Kabuki Syndrome is a rare genetic disease that affects 1 in 40,000 individuals and is characterized by intellectual disability, abnormal development of the brain and heart, and malformations of the f…
PI: Schmilovich, Zoe
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an early onset and life-long disorder that results in difficulties in social interaction and communication, and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour, whic…
PI: Tung, Lin Tze
Chemotherapy and radiotherapy, designed to kill cancer cells, can also damage normal cells of the body, resulting in short-term and long-term side-effects and toxicities. This is particularly problem…
Addressing Missing Heritability in Synucleinopathies with Bioinformatics and Machine Learning
PI: Yu, Eric
Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, affecting 1 to 2% of the population older than 60 years. It belongs to a group of diseases called synucleinopathies which…
Introduction: COVID-19 has had a disastrous impact on Canada and the world. I will focus my research on investigating genetic features that could contribute to disease severity: human leukocyte antig…
PI: Lali, Ricky
Coronary artery disease (CAD) and late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) are prevalent disorders that collectively encompass the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide while also having a …
PI: Reilly, Aoife
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a devastating genetic childhood neurodegenerative disorder caused by the degeneration of lower motor neurons. Motor neurons connect the spinal cord to muscle, allowin…
PI: Misaghi, Ehsan
While the eye is developing, a temporary opening forms below the eye that guides blood vessels and nerves into the eye. If this opening doesn't close properly, it can cause a pinhole-like defect and …
PI: Babaha, Fateme
Hemophilia A (HA) is an X-linked bleeding disorder caused by a mutation in the factor 8 (F8) gene that codes for FVIII coagulation protein. FVIII is naturally synthesized in the liver and the mutatio…
PI: Elbatarny, Malak
Aortic dilation can be deadly and often needs surgery, but is unpredictable. We will derive computer-generated comparisons between gene sequences, gene activity level, proteins, and strength of dilat…
PI: Kim, Yun-Kyo
The growth of an organ requires production of the correct shape with the correct identity of cells. When the embryo develops, it accomplishes both processes in a remarkably synchronized fashion. How …
Elucidating the relationship between molecular biomarkers of aging and metabolic multimorbidity
PI: Wu, Jianhan
Our healthcare system is overburdened by the increasing prevalence of metabolic multimorbidity, a condition characterized by the co-occurrence of different, yet related, metabolic diseases. Approxima…
PI: Amin, Atia B
Tick-borne diseases are an almost invisible fast-growing threat in North America due to the lack of effective diagnostic tests; I aim to tackle this epidemic by developing a rapid diagnostic method. …
PI: Côté, Jacques
All cells in a multicellular organism contain the same genetic material. Despite this fact, different cell types must carry out different functions. How each cell expresses the required proteins at t…
As cancer grows and progresses, tumor cells have increased demand for nutrients and this need is met by altering the metabolic activity. Indeed, recent studies have shown that the tumor cells have re…
PI: Leavitt, Blair R
Brain disease is a leading cause of death and disability in the Canadian population representing an immense economic and societal burden. Most brain diseases have no cure, progressively decrease qual…
PI: Shakiba, Nika; Goyal, Sidhartha
Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) have the special ability to "expand" - make copies of themselves - and give rise to all cell types of the body. Since their discovery over 20 years ago, hPSCs hav…
Movement disorders are a subcategory of neurodegenerative diseases caused by progressive deterioration of brain cells and resulting in muscle weakness, abnormal movements, and/or tremors. The disorde…
PI: Galenza, Anthony
Digestive tract disorders affect more than half of Canadians, who incur one of the highest prevalence of inflammatory bowel disease in the world. This fact argues that we need better treatments for d…
The diversification of cell types within the developing embryo is one of the most fascinating paradigms in modern developmental biology. Starting as a fertilized egg, a series of coordinated genetic …
Genetic variation is associated with susceptibility to infectious diseases and is also a likely key determinant of how well the immune system responds to vaccination. Since genetics can help design b…
If you've read a news article about the "largest genetic study" of a disease like depression or Alzheimer's disease, it was probably a genome-wide association study (GWAS). GWAS have found hundreds o…
Leveraging large-scale sequencing to identify and validate genetic influences of movement disorders.
Movement disorders are a subcategory of neurodegenerative diseases caused by progressive deterioration of brain cells and resulting in muscle weakness, abnormal movements, and/or tremors. The disorde…
Medulloblastoma is the most common malignant brain tumor in children. Current treatment is nonspecific and causes several side effects, leaving patients with severe and permanent neurological deficit…
This proposal focuses on the role of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) and Netrin-1 in the formation of the nervous system. In particular, we are interested in how Shh and Netrin-1 help direct neurons such that t…
PI: Duchaine, Thomas
Control of gene expression is largely governed by a portion of the genome's messengers, mRNAs, called 3'-untranslated regions (3'UTRs). The sequences and structures of 3'UTRs and the factors that rec…
Pluripotent stem cells have the potential to become any cell type in an adult organism including nerve cells. SOX2 is a critical gene in stem cells and is also required for normal brain development a…
Our major objective is to develop therapies for Sanfilippo disease, a devastating inherited childhood disorder using a novel type of drugs called nootropic peptides. When used in the form of nose dro…
Enhancing the Efficacy of Antisense Oligonucleotide-Mediated Therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy
Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a devastating genetic disease of children. It is the most common genetic cause of infant death in Canada and worldwide. Type 1 SMA is the most frequent and severe for…
PI: Ding, Jun
Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive and fatal scarring lung disease of unknown cause. This disease takes away the lives of 5,000 Canadians every year, and the majority of IPF patient…
PI: Sun, Lei; Paterson, Andrew D
Genetic studies of complex and heritable traits advance our understanding of health and disease. Genome-wide association studies have delivered significant insights into the genetic determinants of c…
PI: Brouhard, Gary J
The outermost layer of the brain, just below the skull, is the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex is the seat of our intellect, and in healthy people it has many deep folds. In unfortunate cases, h…
PI: Lecuyer, Eric
The control of cell division is an essential process for all living organisms, from single-celled bacteria to humans. For example, our body is made up of trillions of cells, all of which arose throug…
PI: Lecuyer, Eric; Chartrand, Pascal
Many degenerative diseases that affect muscles and/or the nervous system are caused by a similar type of genetic mutation involving the amplification of repetitions of short stretches of DNA bases, c…
PI: Calarco, John A
In this proposal, we have developed a strategy for generating inactivating mutations in multiple genes in a multicellular animal. Using this strategy, we will test thousands of combinations of mutati…
PI: Young, Howard S
The control of ion concentrations in our cells is essential for life and defects are known to be associated with many human diseases (for example, heart disease & muscle wasting diseases). A family o…
PI: Mekhail, Karim
Our human body comprises trillions of cells whose DNA is packaged inside a balloon-like nuclear envelope and can be damaged by various factors such as smoking and unsafe exposure to the sun. Therefor…
PI: Bader, Gary D
The recent breakthrough technology of single-cell genomics has vastly improved our capacity to understand how the trillions of cells in our body develop and work together to make us human. This advan…
PI: De Boer, Carl G
Many common diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, are thought to be caused in part by the differences in the DNA sequences of our genomes. Each individual has a unique genetic makeup, and man…
PI: Mizumoto, Kota
In animals, cells exchange information with neighboring cells in order to coordinate numerous biological and cellular processes. This exchange occurs at multiple sites between the cells, including at…
PI: Weidberg, Hilla
Mitochondria are essential factories within cells that manufacture energy and building blocks. A critical requirement for mitochondria to function properly is the ability to deliver proteins, the "fa…
PI: Yamanaka, Yojiro
Oviduct/fallopian tube is a tube-like structure extending from the uterus to the ovary. It is an essential organ for internal fertilization. 30% of infertility in women is linked with the problems in…
Intrinsically disordered regions in disease: from sequence to molecular properties to function
PI: Moses, Alan M
Rapid advances in genomic technologies have led to discoveries of important genes for many diseases. For example, there are now 100s of genes known to be involved in autism, but for the vast majority…
Diamond-Blackfan anemia (DBA) is a rare congenital disease that is usually diagnosed before 2 years of age. Clinical presentation includes severe anemia, growth retardation and failure to thrive. Pat…
Inside each of our cells are a number of specialized compartments called organelles that perform different tasks. These compartments are not simply floating around, but are linked together at "membra…
This project will study the circadian rhythms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Circadian rhythms are 24 hour processes driven by the circadian clock, a conserved molecular pacemaker present in al…
Our genes are encoded on large DNA molecules called chromosomes. Individual cells must compact their chromosomes in a unique way to silence genes not expressed while maintaining an open configuration…
PI: Slim, Rima
Reproductive failure manifests as infertility, recurrent miscarriages and molar pregnancies (pregnancies with no embryos). These conditions affect up to 10% of couples. Little is known about genes re…