The nine projects involve researchers from across the faculties of science, health sciences and engineering, and range from a neonatologist improving the quality of life for the tiniest of newborns to a physicist studying cell membranes to develop and improve new bio-based materials, and from a mechanical engineer investigating how bones respond to mechanical loading to a biochemist forging new paths to supply the next wave of antibiotics and innovative medicines.

Mo Elbestawi, vice-president, research & international affairs, welcomed today’s announcement, not only because it represents a welcome boost of funding for infrastructure costs, but also because “each and every one of these researchers will be afforded the opportunity to advance their research program to the next level. We’re talking about bringing to market tests and procedures that will help to solve health care issues, new drugs, breakthrough antibiotics and improved critical training measures.”

Christopher Fusch, a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and head of the Neonatology Division, said the CFI award is appreciated and serves as “an investment in the future and the future direction of neonatal research at McMaster University.”

 “Neonatal research must focus on improving quality of life,” said Fusch, “One goal for us is to improve functioning by better understanding the metabolic pattern of a baby after birth. Through better nutrition, we can optimize growth and improve lung and brain function.”

Here is a list of the nine research projects receiving infrastructure awards through the Leaders Opportunity Fund:

Dawn Bowdish, assistant professor, department of pathology and molecular medicine, has been awarded $130,472 for her project, Drug development in a post-antibiotic world, which will fill a vital gap in the drug discovery pipeline to reverse antibiotic resistance. Capitalizing on the strengths of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) and the Centre for Gene Therapeutics, this project will expand the capacity of current tissue culture facilities.

Medical radiation physicist Michael Farquharson has been awarded $100,000 to develop a customized tissue analysis system to measure the concentration of trace elements in diseased and normal tissue. His work will lead to a better understanding of the role of trace elements in disease, in occupationally exposed workers and in populations living in areas of high pollution.

Only a few neonatal research groups world-wide have the expertise to utilize mass spectrometers to explore perinatal nutrition and growth, which is why the CFI invested $396,905 in Dr. Christopher Fusch – who holds the endowed Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation/Jack Sinclair Chair in Neonatology – and his request for two of these state-of-the-art devices. These critical tools will continue and expand Fusch’s innovative research to improve the quality of life for very low birth weight infants and reduce the costs associated with increased survival rates.

Thomas Hawke, associate professor, department of pathology & molecular medicine, will use his $249,396 award for equipment that will enable him to address a major gap in our knowledge about how diabetes effects muscle structure and function, with a particular emphasis on child and adolescent diabetic populations. His research will help develop appropriate and successful long-term therapeutic strategies to improve life expectancy, quality of life and reduce overall healthcare costs.

The critical research tools requested by biochemist Nathan Magarvey total $248,575 and will be used to establish a metabolomic suite that will be used for bioactive compound discovery. Magarvey’s research program is targeted to develop next-generation antibiotics that will lead to new strategies to treat multi-drug resistant pathogens – organisms of grave concern for the Canadian healthcare system.


Michael Noseworthy, assistant professor in the department of radiology, has been awarded $100,000 for his project Non-invasive imaging of healthy and diseased human skeletal muscle, which requires equipment to upgrade his lab at the Brain-Body Institute. Noseworthy’s lab is the only one like it in Canada and one of only a handful globally, geared to evaluating muscle health and disease in an unprecedented non-invasive fashion.


A new Laboratory for Membrane and Protein Dynamics will help position Canada at the leading edge of biophysical research with the $180,000 awarded to physicist Maikel Rheinstädter. His lab will use x-ray, neutron and light scattering techniques to study cell membranes – knowledge that has the potential to support research into better treatments for infectious disease and the development of more advanced and smart materials such as biosensors.

Psychologist Judith Shedden will be collaborating with colleague Scott Watter and computing and software chair Martin von Mohrenschildt to build an immersive motion simulator that is unique in Canada, capable of simulating different environments for driving and flying with high fidelity stimuli. Their $235,407 project will provide critical upgrades to the real-time simulator that has been operating on campus since 2006, making it useful for testing in multiple industries.

Gregory Wohl, an assistant professor in the department of mechanical engineering, will use his $250,000 funding to establish a Laboratory for Bone Adaptation and Biomechanics which will undertake multidisciplinary biomechanical engineering to explore how bone responds to mechanical environments. The equipment he needs for his lab will help him probe how injury, diet, surgical interventions and pharmaceutical therapies influence skeletal function, which can lead to improved approaches for prevention and therapies for bone-related disorders.

“The investments being announced today at McMaster University will further enhance our country’s reputation as a destination of choice for outstanding researchers,” said Dr. Eliot Phillipson, 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.”

David Sweet, Member of Parliament for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, noted that his government’s commitment to innovative research is evident in the more than $59M in new funds awarded today to institutions across Canada.

“McMaster University is such a powerhouse of research talent. That they would have nine research teams attracting funding speaks to the breadth and depth of their future potential. I   know that in the very near future, today’s infrastructure funding investment will be yielding economic benefit to our community,” said Sweet.