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Eight projects awarded more than $2-million by the Canada Foundation for Innovation

By Danelle D'Alvise, Research Communications

January 21, 2011

There are dozens of pieces of state-of-the-art equipment coming to McMaster as a result of Friday's funding announcement by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). Some equipment will be used to repurpose and upgrade facilities conducting research in areas as diverse as cancer cell analysis and plant stress tolerance; equipment suites that will be used in new facilities that range from monitoring greenhouse gases and climate change to digitally modeling the real-time effects of osteoarthritis; while other projects require machines as varied as storage units for malaria parasites, x-ray equipment to examine DNA repair, a specialized MRI for brain scans, to a unique mobile urban video recording system that will track neighbourhoods to better combat poverty. 

“The eight projects awarded exemplify research that crosses disciplines and borders,” says Mo Elbestawi, vice-president, research & international affairs. “This funding provides the infrastructure needed to create new labs and improve existing labs with the latest equipment and tools – all of which will accelerate the cutting edge research we do here at McMaster and maintain an enriched research-training environment for students.”

The researchers were awarded infrastructure costs through the Leaders Opportunity Fund, which provides infrastructure support to Canadian institutions so they can attract and retain the very best of today and tomorrow’s leading researchers at a time of intense international competition for knowledge workers.

“The investments being announced today will further enhance our country’s reputation as a destination of choice for outstanding researchers,” said Dr. Gilles G. Patry, President and CEO of the CFI. “They will make our universities even more competitive when it comes to attracting the best and brightest researchers from around the world.”

 

“These projects are in keeping with McMaster’s strategic reseach objectives, which build the foundation and define a vision of our University as a contributor to society with research that seeks to eradicate disease and poverty, improve and protect the environment, and provide economic benefit locally and nationally,” says Elbestawi.

McMaster’s recipients and their funded projects totaling $2,063,189:

• David Andrews, will use his $200,000 award to purchase advanced robotics, scheduling software and an incubator fluoresence microscope to augment the comprehensive suite of equipment that operates in the McMaster Biophotonic Imaging Facility. While the facility has some of the most andvanced microscopes in the world, there is nothing for multi-sample time lapse studies at high spatial and temporal resolution. His project: Lentiviral-Mediated RNAi Technology and High-Content Screening to Systematically Analyze Programmed Cell Death in Cancer Cells will build upon Andrew's earlier discoveries of the importance of apoptosis -- programed cell death -- in the role of cancer. This project will explore new approaches to optimizing breast cancer treatment and the potential of new drug targets.

• Altaf Arain will be furthering his research in a ‘living’ lab – the forest station at Turkey Point – where he will create a unique field monitoring facility dedicated to assessing the impact of greenhouse gas and climate change on forest ecosystems.  His project Climate Impacts on Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Forested Landscape of Southern Ontario attracted $155,147, which the Director of the McMaster Centre for Climate Change will use to enhance knowledge of the sustainability, biodiversity, health and economic benefits of forests – one of our major economic sectors. Arain's research will help develop ecosystem conservation and forest industry related policies.

• Nicolas Bock , associate professor in the department of medical physics and applied radiation sciences, will be using his $120,000 award to acquire a key piece of equipment – a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) insert and console – to further research in his Brain Metal Imaging Laboratory where he uses imaging techniques to study the results of too little or too much metal in the brain. Better methods for imaging metal depositions in the brains will help better ascertain the role of metals in serious neurological diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimers and multiple sclerosis -- all of which have been associated with abnormal levels of transition metals in the brain.
  
  
• Jim Dunn will be gathering social and visual data with a Mobile Urban Video Recording System (MUVR ) – a van equipped with 11 video cameras with 360 degree views and sound, to track neighbourhoods as they transform over time, capitalizing on this 'natural experiment' to gather sophisticated information to guide pubic policy and community action. An associate professor in the department of health, aging and society and Chair in Research on Urban Neighbourhoods, Community Health and Housing (CRUNCH), Dunn will use his infrastructure funding of $207,423 for the project State-of-the-Art Measurement Systems to Transform the Health and Well-Being of Urban Neighbourhoods. The images collected from the 11 cameras will be collated into one seamless virtual image, which will then be projected onto giant screens, providing a visceral feel of what’s happening in 8-10 selected neighbourhoods around Hamilton. An immediate application will be a study of the changes expected in the neighbourhoods around the Pan-Am Games site.
  
  
• Tim Gilberger  is a microbial biochemist with specialized expertise in molecular parasitology. Gilberger recently came to the department of pathology and molecular medicine from the University of Hamburg, bringing his research team of 2 post-doctoral, 1 PhD and 3 Master’s level students to continue their groundbreaking malaria research here. While the malaria parasite was discovered more than 150 years ago, its drug resistance is widespread and there is no vaccine available – resulting in 300 million new infections and one million deaths every year. For Gilberger, it’s a case of “knowing your enemy – if we don’t know how this single cell organism works we can’t generate a vaccine.” His project, Molecular Dissection of the Invasion Machinery Required for Entry into Human Red Blood Cells of the Malaria Parasite has been funded $308,099 to help determine the “master switch for the invasion process” when the malarial parasite first attacks red blood cells.

• Biochemist Alba Guarné will receive $800,000 to double the footprint of her Macromolecular Crystallization and X-Ray Diffraction Facility and equip it with state-of-the art laboratory tools for her research team – allowing them to more than double the output of data from their facility. “Crystallography is very time consuming and it can take a year – or years – to get a structure, therefore this investment by the CFI will help put us ahead of the game,” says Guarné. In collaboration with Murray Junop , Guarne studies the biological processes of DNA repair and how an individual’s inability to properly replicate or repair DNA leads to the development of cancer.  

• Monica Maly  will be using her CFI award of $172,520 for essential infrastructure to develop a Biomechanical Approach to Physical Activity Guidelines for Knee Osteoarthritis. The assistant professor in the department of rehabilitation science will be examining knee loads and tissue damage over time using digital models. Her program will create clinical guidelines – none currently exist in Canada or elsewhere – to promote physical activity without facilitating joint degradation.
  
  
• Biologist Elizabeth Weretilnyk will be purchasing $100,000 worth of equipment for her Plant Growth and Molecular Profiling Facility to ensure a high quality, precisely controlled environmental chamber space. Weretilnyk will study the genetic traits of plants tolerant to environmental stresses such as drought, freezing temperatures and poor soil.  Her research will provide commercialization of genetic resources that will help provide Canadian farmers with crop varieties showing improved tolerance to a variety of conditions.

For a complete list of projects across Canada visit Canada Foundation for Innovation.