We fund innovation in Manitoban health care.
The HSC Foundation is proud of the researchers we fund. The work they do ultimately leads to improved patient care at Manitoba’s flagship hospital. Research is the key to deepening our understanding of health matters, and often leads to new technology, medicine, or practices.
The HSC Foundation 2025 grants were awarded through four different competitions and applications were reviewed by experts in their fields from HSC.
Name: Dr. Michael Jackson
Project Title: Development of a novel approach to mitigate pathology and cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s Disease
Amount Awarded: $ 70, 000
Category: Neuroscience
Lay of Summary: The Alzheimer’s Society of Manitoba Reports that 19,600 Manitobans have Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) or another dementia. This will increase to over 39,100 by 2025. The impact on patients and caregivers is made worse by the fact that existing treatments provide only modest symptomatic relief. The proposed research is focused on validating a novel approach for the development of a disease modifying treatment in AD. The potential to advance patient care and/or patient outcomes within Manitoba by slowing the onset on AD is highlighted by the findings from the Landmark study by the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada, which reported that treatments able to delay the onset of dementia by 5 years would reduce the projected number of Manitobans living with dementia by over 40%.
Name: Dr. James Bolton
Project Title: Off-Label Psychotropic Use: A Population-Based Study of Current Trends and Consequences
Amount Awarded: $ 39,600
Category: Mental Health
Lay of Summary: Antipsychotic medications can effectively treat psychosis but they are also used for other conditions. Gabapentinoids can treat epilepsy and some pain syndromes, but they are used for many other illnesses too. Providers sometimes use these drugs first before trying medications with more research behind them or even non-medication options like therapy. Scientists are now discovering that these drugs are not as harmless as we first thought. Antipsychotics, even at low doses, may lead to heart issues and death, and gabapentinoids may be linked to dementia or cause death when combined with opiates. Because obesity and opiate addiction are so important to public health, we want to see how often these medications are used in Manitoba and test if they are linked to diabetes, dementia, and death.
Name: Dr. Maruf Abdullah
Project Title: Pharmacogenomics-supported psychotropic prescribing trial (PGx-SUPPORT): A feasibility study on inpatient mental health unit at the Health Sciences Center Winnipeg
Amount Awarded: $ 70,000
Category: Mental Health
Lay of Summary: In any given year, 1 in 5 people in Canada will experience a mental illness. About half of our population will have or have had a mental illness by age 40. Medications are commonly used to treat these disorders along with therapy. Unfortunately, these medications do not work or cause adverse drug reactions in some individuals. Finding a suitable medicine that works for an individual can take weeks to months. Pharmacogenomic testing has demonstrated efficacy in guiding medication selection and dosing, reducing the number of trials and time needed to choose a suitable medicine. In the proposed study, we will assess the feasibility and acceptability of implementing an evidence-based pharmacogenomic testing service for inpatients at the Health Sciences Center in Winnipeg at no cost to the patient.
Name: Jean-Eric Ghia
Project Title: Transauricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation: A Non-Invasive Approach to Modulating Barrier Integrity, and Smooth Muscle Contraction in Colitis Recovery
Amount Awarded: $ 70,000
Category: Advanced Diagnostics & Therapeutics
Lay of Summary: Ulcerative colitis (UC), cause problems in the gut, such as inflammation, poor gut movement and mucus production. Current treatments don’t always work and can have harmful side effects. Our research focuses on a new, non-invasive method called *transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation* (taVNS). This method gently stimulates a nerve in the ear, which can reduce gut inflammation by calming the immune system. It may also improve gut healing, movement, and mucus production. We will test if taVNS, when combined with a common treatment (anti-TNF therapy), can lower the drug dose needed for recovery while reducing side effects. In the future, taVNS could become a safe, drug-free option to help patients with UC feel better.
Name: Dr. Jatinder Kaur
Project Title: Development of [18F] labelled PET radiotracers to image the oncogenic expression of the USP-14 enzyme in Multiple Myeloma
Amount Awarded: $ 70,000
Category: Advanced Diagnostics & Therapeutics
Lay of Summary: Multiple Myeloma (MM) is an incurable and deadly blood cancer with a five-year survival rate of just 42%. Despite all medical advances, MM cases are rising, making it the 3rd most common and fatal blood cancer. Early detection and better therapies are urgently needed. Cancer cells hijack the ubiquitin-proteasome system, a recycling mechanism that tags harmful proteins for degradation. Enzymes, like USP14, are misused by these cells to remove the tags, allowing harmful proteins to accumulate and promote cancer growth. This project aims to discover PET imaging probes – tiny molecular detectors to detect USP14 activity in MM, offering a tool for early diagnosis and personalized therapies. We aim to shut down cancer’s survival tricks and lay the foundation for new therapeutic approaches.
Name: Dr. Brenda Tittlemier
Project Title: Building Allied Health Research Partnerships
Amount Awarded: $20,000
Lay of Summary: The overall aim of this project is to facilitate research and quality improvement opportunities in the field of Allied Health at Health Sciences Centre. The funding will enable Brenda to establish centralized oversight and support to lead events and initiatives that bring together allied health professionals from Shared Health, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and researchers from the College of Rehabilitation Sciences to facilitate knowledge exchange, create cross-disciplinary research opportunities, and build sustainable research communities within the Health Sciences Centre. The funding will also go towards supporting the Health Sciences Centre Allied Health Research Network, which, in turn, supports Allied Health opportunities in quality improvement and research projects, education, conference presentations and attendance, and publications.
Student Name: Agata Marcinow
Advisor: Dr. Janilyn Arsenio
Project Title: Characterization of cell dynamics of early and late sepsis in a pre-clinical mouse model and patient samples
Amount Awarded: $5,000
Lay Summary: Uncontrolled infections can lead to a life-threatening disease called sepsis. Sepsis causes organs like the heart, kidneys, or liver to fail. Each year, more than 48 million people get sepsis. We are protected from disease by an immune system, made up of many kinds of cells, including T cells. T cells kill microbes directly and given other immune cell instructions. The T cells of sepsis patients are worse at killing microbes and their other functions. Females get sepsis more often than males and are more likely to survive it. This project will research what T cells do during sepsis, why they become weakened and if there are any differences between cells of males and females. To study this, I will use a mouse model of sepsis to examine what changes occur in T cells during sepsis. I will analyze the T cells outside of the body to observe their responses to bacteria. I will examine the blood of septic patients to see how their T cells change. All experiments will compare females and males. This project is important because understanding the behavior of T cells during sepsis can help find ways to prevent weakening of immunity after sepsis.
Student Name: Ramiza Zaman
Advisor: Dr. Liam O’Neil
Project Title: Influence of Post-Translational Modifications in Neutrophil Proteases in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Amount Awarded: $5,000
Lay Summary: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term disease where the immune system attacks the body’s joints, causing pain, swelling, and damage. Before people feel any symptoms, certain changes can happen in their bodies that may trigger RA later on, especially with those with a family history or specific genes. One important player in RA is a type of immune cell called a neutrophil. Neutrophils release powerful enzymes that normally fight infections. But in RA, these enzymes – Proteinase-3, Cathepsin-G, and Neutrophil Elastase – can become overactive and start harming healthy joint issue instead. Before this happens, protein in the body can go through small chemical changes, known as post-translational modifications (PTMs). These changes can confuse the immune system into thinking these proteins are foreign, leading to the production of harmful autoantibodies. This study looks at how these chemical changes affect neutrophil enzymes, making them more active and more likely to cause inflammation. It also explores how these modified enzymes interact with joint cells and may help start the disease process. Understanding this could help researchers find new ways to stop or slow down RA before it fully develops.
Student Name: Ramiza Nausheen Zaman
Advisor: Dr. Liam O’Neil
Project Title: Influence of Post-Translational Modifications in Neutrophil Proteases in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Amount Awarded: $5,000
Category: Masters
Lay Summary: Rheumatoid Arthritis is a common disease that can cause pain and swelling in the joints. If people do not get treated, it can cause problems and make it hard for them to move. This disease happens when, for unknown reasons, our body’s defense system, which normally protects us from getting ill, mistakenly attacks the joints. One type of cell in our immune system is called neutrophils. These cells are the first to fight off germs when we are sick. They release special proteins called proteases. These proteins help protect us from germs, but in people with RA, they can turn harmful and can end up hurting the joints instead. In our lab, we believe that a big part of what causes this harm is a change in the proteases that happens in RA. This can increase their activity and make them work too much. It can also make more stable and act longer. This change can hence confuse the immune system to see the proteins as threats that can harm us. In turn, it leads to new antibodies that are seen in RA patients. These antibodies are the markers of RA. Hence, through our studies, we want to know how these changes in proteins can cause joint damage and problems linked to RA. If we can learn more, our study could help patients know why they have RA and find new ways to help treat it in the future.
Student Name: Claire Hibbert
Advisor: Dr. Sachin Katyal
Project Title: Use of a DNA-PK inhibitor as a potential adjunct to targeted therapy in treatment-resistant CLL
Amount Awarded: $20,000
Category: Masters
Lay Summary: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a common blood cancer that remains incurable. The disease is initially treatable, but drug resistance develops over time requiring new approaches for these patients. One important new treatment is venetoclax, which inhibits a protein, called BCL-2, that normally stops the cell from dying. In the CLL cell, mitochondria produce energy and BCL-2 prevents cell death by interacting with the outer part of the mitochondria. M3814 is a new drug which inhibits a protein, called DNA-PK, that normally repairs DNA. We have shown that M3814 can kill CLL cells when used alone, and can improve the activity of venetoclax, even in resistant patients. For my masters, I will determine why some patient samples respond to M3814 and others don’t, and why M3814 improves the activity of venetoclax in most patients. These studies will involve examining the mitochondria and BCL-2 family members in different patients after treatment with M3814 and venetoclax, alone and together. Finally, we will determine if M3814 +/- venetoclax is only affecting CLL cells by examining the activity of the drugs against normal cells.
Student Name: Courtney Marshall
Advisor: Dr. Neeloffer Mookherjee
Project Title: Sex as a Biological Variable in the Modulation of Airway Inflammation by Innate Defence Regulator (IDR) Peptides.
Amount Awarded: $12,500
Category: PhD
Lay Summary: Asthma is the most common long-term lung disease, affecting nearly 3 million Canadians, including children. Unfortunately, about 15% of people with asthma don’t respond to the available steroid treatments. This group of ‘non-responsive’ individuals develop severe uncontrolled asthma and make up the biggest share of asthma-related healthcare costs of around $2 billion each year in Canada. Steroid treatments can also increase the risk of lung infections, which can worsen asthma symptoms. Thus, there is an urgent need for new treatments for asthma, especially for those who don’t respond to steroids, that does not increase the risk of lung infections. Asthma also affects people differently based on their sex. Adult females are more likely than males to have severe asthma and not respond to standard steroid treatments. However, these sex-related differences are often overlooked when developing treatments. To create more effective treatments, it is essential to consider how response to therapy vary between females and males. This study will focus on new molecules called innate defense regulator (IDR) peptides, which help control both inflammation and infection in the lungs. Our research has shown that these IDR peptides can improve breathing in asthma models and has the potential to control cellular processes linked to steroid-resistant asthma. This research aims to develop IDR peptides as a new asthma treatment by studying their effects in both females and males. This research will help guide the development of an IDR peptide-based therapy, and it may even lead to tailored treatment plans for females and males to provide the best possible asthma care.
Student Name: Alana Slike
Advisor: Dr. Galen Wright
Project Title: FAN1 as a Genetic Modifier in Rett Syndrome
Amount Awarded: $12,500
Category: PhD
Lay Summary: Rett syndrome (RTT) is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder which primarily effects females and is characterized by loss of motor, coordination and communication abilities. Over 95% of individuals with RTT have a mutation in the MECP2 gene, resulting in the gene not functioning properly, leading to disease. However, variable severity is observed in patients with RTT. One possible explanation for this observation are modifier genes. Such modifiers are genes that do not directly cause disease but can alter the severity and age of onset of genetic diseases. In addition to explaining the variable severity seen in RTT, modifier genes may aid in the discovery of new treatment options. This is of particular importance in RTT, as there is currently no cure for the disease. One recent study in mice found that a mutation in the FAN1 gene improved the health and life span of mice with classic RTT Mecp2 mutations. The FAN1 gene is involved in DNA repair and has previously been shown to influence the age of onset of the neurodegenerative disease, Huntington disease. It is therefore the goal of this project to determine if the FAN1 modifier effect for RTT detected in mice, also has beneficial consequences in human RTT cells that resemble those found in the brain. Specifically, if there is a beneficial effect of FAN1 loss at the molecular level in patient-derived cells.
Student Name: Havva Afshari
Advisor: Dr. Rene Zahedi
Project Title: Determining kinase activation states in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) through multiplexed mass SPECTOMETRY
Amount Awarded: $12,500
Category: PhD
Lay Summary: Kinases are a group of about 500 important proteins that control many processes in human cells, like cell growth. Overly active kinases can cause cells to multiply too fast, which can lead to cancer. Many cancer drugs work by lowering the activity of certain kinases, but with current technology it is difficult to tell which kinases are overactive in a tumour and need to be targeted. I plan to combine a powerful and precise technology called ‘mass spectrometry’ with artificial intelligence to create a new method for measuring the activity of multiple kinases in cancer cells and tumors. I will use this method to determine which kinases are out of balance in individual chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients. CLL is the most common type of leukemia in older adults and cannot be cured. CLL patients require life-long management and/or treatment with costly drugs that can have side-effects. This puts a heavy and growing strain on healthcare. It is important to find new treatments and improve CLL patient care. My hope is that my new method will help doctors to find alternative and more personalized treatments for individual CLL patients. This will improve their quality of life and ease the burden on their families and the healthcare system.
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