CIHR Projects
Browse 37 CIHR-funded research projects
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We know that screening mammograms to find breast cancer save lives, from many reliable studies. However, no reliable study has ever been done to find out if the same is true about check-up mammograms…
Role of the atypical ERK3/ERK4-MK5 signaling pathway in cell cycle progression and tumorigenesis
PI: Meloche, Sylvain
MAP kinases are a family of enzymes that play important roles in the control of cell proliferation and survival. Accumulating evidence suggests that these enzymes may be implicated in the pathogenesi…
PI: Fenster, Aaron
With the exception of non-melanomatous skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the third highest cause of cancer related mortality in men. It is found at autopsy in 40%…
PI: Bedell, Barry J
While significant advances have recently been made in the treatment of a variety of cancers, brain tumours called gliomas have generally remained resistant to current drugs. As such, there currently …
PI: Riggs, Wayne K; Grigliatti, Thomas A; Reid, Ronald E
The reductases are metabolic enzymes responsible for the regulation/control of various hormone pathways in the body. One of these is the regulation of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone concentrati…
Identification and functional analysis of a novel metastasis-associated gene in prostate cancer
PI: Wang, Yuzhuo
Most deaths from prostate cancer (PCa) are due to metastases (cancer spread) in a form that is highly resistant to conventional therapies. There is an urgent need for more effective therapy to improv…
PI: Servant, Marc
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), including heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease, is the leading cause of death in Canada and in Western society. When death is not the end point, CVD jeo…
PI: Vance, Dennis E
Lay Abstract Phosphatidylcholine (PC) is the major lipid found in the membranes of mammalian cells. All cells with a nucleus must make PC or the cell will die. Hence, PC is required for life. PC is a…
PI: Murphy, Paul R
Fibroblast growth factor (FGF) is a potent signaling molecule which promotes the growth of many kinds of cells. The expression of FGF is under tight regulatory control, and loss of this regulation ca…
PI: Chabot, Benoit
It takes 15 000 genes to make a fly and 10 000 more genes to make a human. The number of genes is therefore not a good predictor of the complexity of an organism. How is the complexity of the human b…
PI: Rousseau, Marie-Claude; Nicolau, Belinda F
Previous studies have shown that certain types of cancer begin as lesions appearing in different parts of the body. This study aims to investigate these lesions in the mouth and throat to determine w…
PI: Jones, Russell G
Cell division is a highly regulated process. The ability of a cell to successfully grow and divide partly depends on the cell having enough energy and building blocks to complete the task. Cancer is …
PI: Jones, Russell G
Cell division is a highly regulated process. The ability of a cell to successfully grow and divide partly depends on the cell having enough energy and building blocks to complete the task. Cancer is …
PI: Young, James D
A number of nucleoside analogs have anticancer activities and are either in current clinical use or in various stages of preclinical evaluation. Since the pharmacological targets of nucleoside drugs …
PI: Li, Gang
Cutaneous malignant melanoma is a life-threatening skin cancer due to its high metastatic potential. The mechanism behind the high invasive property and metastatic potential of melanoma is still inco…
Mechanisms and consequences of three-dimensional (3D) nuclear remodeling of telomeres in cancer
PI: Mai, Sabine
We have previously shown that the structural order of the cell is changed when cells become tumor cells. To document this, we have studied one central component in the cell that is called the nucleus…
The recent success of Gleevec (imatinib) which targets the BCR-Abl protein kinase for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia provides proof-of-principle for molecular-targeted therapy directed…
For some time we have used human adenoviruses as models to understand the molecular basis of cancer as such studies have provided many critical insights into processes of importance for cancer. In th…
Radiotherapy is an important form of treatment for cancer patients and has been shown to be useful in about 50% of patients with cancer. It can be used alone or in combination with chemotherapy or su…
Protein metabolism and insulin resistance in cancer cachexia: a potential anabolic role of leucine
Protein loss, mostly from muscle, is very common in lung cancer and this affects the patients' physical function, response to treatment and quality of life. We propose that cancer patients are losing…
PI: Sinnett, Daniel
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common pediatric cancer, but little is known about the cause(s) of this disease. We have shown that the origin of childhood ALL could be explained by th…
PI: Marshall, Jean S
A number of bacterial and viral products have been shown to reduce tumor growth in models of cancer and in clincal trials, however we have a poor understadning of how these work. Mast cells are immun…
PI: Spaner, David E
Chemotherapy does not cure most cancers. However, the results with chemotherapy may be improved with treatments that increase the ability of the immune system to kill cancer cells (or immunotherapy).…
PI: Cambrosio, Alberto; Keating, Peter
Promoters of genomic medicine, that is to say, medicine informed by the results of the recent mapping of the human genome, promise a revolution in all areas of clinical practice ranging from diagnosi…
The detection and repair of DNA damage are vital for cell viability. DNA repair defects lead to DNA translocations, deletions/ mutations, chromosome breakage leading to 'genomic instability' and canc…
Few interventions can help breast cancer patients improve their physical strength, stamina, and overall well-being during chemotherapy. Literature is now suggesting that physical activity (PA) is a s…
Few interventions can help breast cancer patients improve their physical strength, stamina, and overall well-being during chemotherapy. Literature is now suggesting that physical activity (PA) is a s…
Muscle contraction is triggered by the release of calcium into muscle cells from a storage compartment inside the cells, referred to as the sarcoplasmic reticulum; relaxation is initiated by return o…
PI: Takser, Larissa
Neurodevelopmental disabilities affect 3-8% of babies born each year in North America, with known etiology for less than 25% of those disabilities. The potential for environmental contaminants to pro…
PI: Janssen, Luke J
A large percentage of Canadians suffer from coronary artery disease; coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery is the treatment of choice for these people. Although the intent of performing CABG is…
PI: Chen, Hsiao-Huei
Sensory neurons are frequently lost in patients with cancer, diabetes or HIV infection. Optimally, cell based therapies to selectively replace the missing sensory neurons will require knowledge of th…
It is generally thought that dendritic cells are playing a pivotal role in HIV-1 transmission as they serve as the first potential targets for virus infection. The central objective of our work is to…
PI: Dumont, Eric C
In spite of intense efforts in research, as well as clinical and field interventions to prevent and treat drug addiction, this health problem is still devastating and worse, is still growing. In part…
PI: Barrett, Sean P
One issue that may hinder our understanding of illicit drug addiction is the tendency for drug users to administer multiple substances at a time, a phenomenon known as simultaneous polysubstance use …
Environmental Scan and Stakeholder Consultation on Electronic Personal Health Records in Canada
PI: Archer, Norman P; Mckibbon, Kathleen Ann; Straus, Sharon E; Willison, Donald J
The Canadian healthcare system is moving towards a reduction of operating cost by an increased emphasis on caring for the elderly and patients with chronic diseases of all ages at home instead of ins…
The implementation of DNA repositories has brought to the forefront certain ethical and legal challenges surrounding genomic research. One such challenge is related to the regulation and control of t…
PI: Speechley, Mark; Adams, Paul C
The use of genetic tests to identify people who face an increased disease risk is growing in Canada. The social marketing of gene tests contains two misleading messages: i) the prices for tests are l…