CIHR Projects
Browse 3137 CIHR-funded research projects
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PI: Rozenberg, Dmitry; Reid, Wendy D
People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have an increased work of breathing and this extra effort can make them breathless. Breathlessness is sensed by the brain and can dominate bra…
PI: Ganesh, Aravind; Almekhlafi, Mohammed A; Goyal, Mayank
Patients often end up with tiny strokes after surgery or minimally invasive procedures, like coiling for brain aneurysms. These tiny strokes can be seen on MRI scans. When they are caused by a proced…
PI: Goligher, Ewan C; Fan, Eddy
In patients with lung failure and low oxygen levels, mechanical ventilation (the 'breathing machine') can be life-saving. However, mechanical ventilation can also injure the lung and the diaphragm (t…
PI: Turgeon, Ricky D; Harrison, Mark
Over 650,000 Canadians currently live with heart failure (HF). HF is a condition that develops when the heart is not strong enough to move blood around the body. HF causes symptoms like fatigue, brea…
PI: Arnold, Donald M
Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) is a common blood disorder caused by low blood platelets and a high risk for bleeding. Doctors often get the diagnosis wrong because other conditions can mimic ITP. This…
PI: Boulos, Mark I; Asztalos, Elizabeth V; Yunusova, Yana
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is characterized by repeated pauses in breathing during sleep caused by loss of muscle tone in the throat. OSA occurs in approximately 20% of the general population and …
Asthma impacts 3.4 million Canadians. Asthma is characterized by reversible airflow obstruction, wheezing, dyspnea, and disability due to bronchoconstriction and lower airway inflammation. Asthma has…
PI: Leung, Janice
People living with HIV (PLWH) have a higher chance of developing lung disease similar to people who have smoked for a very long time. We believe that PLWH age faster than people without HIV and that …
Background: Every 10 minutes a Canadian suffers a stroke. Strokes are caused by the build-up of fatty deposits (plaques) in the arteries of the neck, which can become unstable, break-off, and block b…
PI: Zhao, Yimu
Patients with viral infections, especially COVID 19, frequently developed myocarditis, an inflammation of the myocardium that can result in severe morbidity and mortality. However, the underlying mec…
The brain and retina are protected by barriers, formed by cells called endothelial cells, which prevent molecules and cells that may be harmful to these tissues from leaking from blood vessels. Highl…
Heart failure is a crucial issue for both patients and the healthcare system. The cost associated with heart failure (HF) is approximated to be $2.8 billion in Canada. HF patients have the highest ra…
PI: Yeh, Calvin H
Canadians who suffer from severe traumatic injuries are dying from bleeding and clotting defects because critical illness disrupts the body's natural clotting system. This process, called coagulopath…
PI: Xia, Jiahao
Cardiomyopathy, a major contributor to heart failure, is a heart muscle disease that reduces the heart's ability to pump blood. The elastic properties of the cardiac muscle protein titin are thought …
With over 17 million annual deaths, cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of mortality worldwide, and in Canada alone are responsible for one-third of the total annual deaths. A heart atta…
We all know someone who has fainted, but some people faint regularly (even daily) which negatively impacts quality of life and increases healthcare burden (repeated emergency room visits, large manag…
Remembering how to breathe - can progesterone rescue breathing in rat models of hypoventilation?
PI: Janes, Tara
Congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) is a respiratory disease that few people have heard about. Yet, it is among the most serious and often fatal diseases that a person can be born with…
PI: Iannetta, Danilo
Individuals who are born with a single functional ventricle undergo the Fontan surgical procedure. This procedure redirects blood flow from the lower body directly to the lungs. However, although inc…
PI: Wright, Stephen
The heart is a pump that must both fill and empty effectively to move blood; if it cannot move enough, heart failure may ensue. Heart failure affects ~600,000 Canadians and half of these individuals …
Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) are serious conditions that result in scarring of the lungs, breathing difficulties, and often a severely shortened lifespan. Recent evidence suggests that air pollu…
PI: Dorey, Tristan W
Paralysis is often regarded as the most devastating consequence of spinal cord injury (SCI), but what is less apparent is the widespread dysfunction of unconscious bodily systems that many of us take…
PI: Turner, Mandy E
Millions of Canadians are affected by disease of the blood vessels whereby blood vessels accumulate crystals and calcify. These calcified vessels cause heart disease and have been linked to increased…
The aorta is the largest blood vessel in the body. It receives all of the blood from the heart, each and every heartbeat. The wall of the aorta is designed to withstand this profound and repetitive f…
PI: Tuana, Balwant S
As some people age the heart becomes less efficient in pumping blood out of the ventricles and fills with blood to dilate like a balloon. This defect may also be observed and accelerated if the heart…
Using Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Imaging to Improve Stroke Risk Assessment and Management
PI: Tsang, Teresa S; Abolmaesumi, Purang
Identification of patients at increased risk for stroke is most often based on clinical factors including the age of the patient and the presence or absence of conditions such as abnormal heart rhyth…
PI: Fremes, Stephen E; Gaudino, Mario; Jolicoeur, Marc E; Rouleau, Jean-Lucien
Patients with blockages in the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle can develop heart failure due to a weak heart, a condition where the heart is unable to pump enough blood to supply the body'…
PI: Qadura, Mohammad; Klein, David J; Rotstein, Ori D
Atherosclerosis is the progressive narrowing of blood vessels, which occurs due to the formation of plaque (an accumulation of fat, cholesterol, and other blood products). This buildup of plaque impe…
PI: Liu, Peter P
As COVID-19 vaccination efforts have accelerated in Canada, reports of vaccine-induced complications, including inflammation of the heart have emerged. We have collated the worldwide experience, and …
PI: Liang, Wenbin
Heart attack is a major health issue in Canada and it causes the blockage of heart blood vessels leading to the death of muscle cells in the affected areas of the heart. Unfortunately, the majority o…
PI: Potus, Francois
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a lethal disease affecting the vessels in the lung and for which there is no cure. One of the reasons explaining the absence of treatment is that the mechanis…
PI: Jenne, Craig N; Deniset, Justin F
Recent studies have shown a linkage between severe influenza (the flu) infection and heart attacks. Studies on Canadian patients have determined that individuals with underlying health risks (atheros…
PI: White, James A; Greiner, Russ
Cardiomyopathy is a collection of conditions where abnormal health of the heart muscle can lead to heart failure, arrhythmias and death. It has become critically important to diagnose the cause of ca…
PI: Burns, Karen E; Seely, Andrew J
During the pandemic, an increasing number of critically ill patients require life-saving ventilators. Given that ventilators are limited and prolonged exposure to ventilators is associated with patie…
PI: Horlick, Eric; Abrahamyan, Lusine; Healey, Jeff S
Atrial septal defect (ASD) is one of the most common congenital heart defects. ASD is a hole in the wall that separates left and right sides of heart and prevents the mixing of oxygen-rich and oxygen…
PI: Joseph, Philip G; Lonn, Eva
Inflammation is upregulated when plaques develop within the arterial wall (known as atherosclerosis), and following a heart attack, and when the inflammatory response is persistent this can have nega…
PI: Yipp, Bryan
In 2009, influenza A H1N1 re-emerged as a global pandemic, but now this deadly virus has become endemic and despite 11 years of annual vaccinations against H1N1 this subtype continues to be a major c…
PI: Hill, Michael D; Goyal, Mayank
Stroke remains a major health problem in Canada and globally as the second leading cause of death (globally) and the major cause of adult neurological disability. The ESCAPE-NEXT trial will build upo…
PI: Backx, Peter H
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained abnormal heart rhythm (i.e. arrhythmia) worldwide, affecting 1-2% of the population. AF creates a huge socio-economic burden because of increased…
PI: Ianowski, Juan P; AbuArish, Asmahan; Campanucci, Veronica A; Montgomery, Julia B; Tam, Julian; Tyan, Chung-Chun
Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive disease caused by mutations in the gene encoding for the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane conductance Regulator (CFTR) anion channel. Organs that normally …
PI: Ormiston, Mark L
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a fatal disease that preferentially targets young females. The disease involves a loss of lung blood vessels, leading to increased stress on the right heart a…
PI: Claing, Audrey
The development of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, atherosclerosis and heart failure has often been associated with impaired function of cell surface proteins named receptors. These are…
PI: Connelly, Kim A
High blood pressure on the right side of the heart is known as pulmonary hypertension. This leads to scar tissue formation and ultimately, right heart failure and death. The cells which produce the s…
PI: Li, Hongbin
Whooping cough is a contagious disease of the lungs and airways and continues to be a significant health threat to human, especially infants. The bacterial toxin adenylate cyclase (CyaA) is the key v…
Lipoprotein(a) is a poorly recognized unusual form of cholesterol that is under genetic control. High levels of lipoprotein(a) is a poorly recognized and underappreciated genetic riskfactor for heart…
Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood and its incidence in Canada has doubled in only 25 years. Although familial history can be a predictor of asthma, it fails to explain this sudde…
PI: Fan, Eddy; Burrell, Aidan J; Ferguson, Niall D
Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a devastating condition that results in the loss of normal lung function, and these patients often require life support with a breathing machine (ventila…
PI: Kassiri, Zamaneh
Myocardial infarction (MI), or heart attack, happens when an artery supplying blood to the heart muscle is clogged, the affected heart muscle dies and is replaced by scar tissue (infarct). The heart …
PI: Rose, Robert A
Diabetes mellitus is a growing epidemic that is associated with severe cardiovascular complications. Included amongst these is atrial fibrillation (the most common cardiac arrhythmia), which is a maj…
PI: Liaw, Patricia C; Fox-Robichaud, Alison E; Sirois, Martin G; Tremblay, Jan-Alexis
Sepsis (ie. serious infections of the blood) can cause a vicious cycle of blood clot formation and inflammation, which may lead to multiple organ failure and death. In Canada, there are approximately…
PI: Goyal, Mayank; Hill, Michael D; Menon, Bijoy K; Ospel, Johanna M; Qiu, Wu
Acute ischemic stroke is due to a blockage of blood flow to the brain with often devastating outcomes. With our 2015 ESCAPE study, we helped to establish mechanical clot removal as a safe and effecti…