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Some of Canada's most innovative and relevant health research happens in the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. In 2004-05, CIHR awarded approximately $21 million to health research in Atlantic Canada, an increase of more than 110% from 2000-01. This funding supports more than 300 projects by principal investigators in 12 funded institutions.
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research is the Government of Canada's agency for health research. Its objective is to excel, according to internationally accepted standards of scientific excellence, in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened Canadian health care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to close to 10,000 researchers and trainees in every province of Canada.
Universities in the Atlantic region are known for their expertise and health research achievements in a variety of areas. Here are some examples.
Making Marine and Coastal Occupations Safer
Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's
Working on the water can be hazardous to your health. That's why researchers Dr. Stephen Bornstein and Dr. Barbara Neis are leading a program called SafetyNet to evaluate marine and coastal safety at the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Research. SafetyNet has scientific, practical and developmental applications for the safety and effectiveness of occupations unique to the region. The community has embraced the research program with open arms. It includes nine projects organized around three primary themes: fisheries; oil and gas; and work in the cold air and cold water. Memorial University is proud to lead this innovative partnership structure involving more than 60 academic researchers and representatives of more than 40 community, governmental, and industrial partners. Dr. Neis has recently been awarded an Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement (ICE) Team Grant to develop the Eastern Canada Consortium on Workplace Health and Safety.
Building Research Capacity and Partnerships
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton and Saint John
The CIHR Regional Partnerships Program (RPP) was launched in 1996 to build capacity and establish research priorities and partnerships, and to build on local strengths in areas that were underfunded in health research. This program is successfully building health research capacity at the University of New Brunswick - a university that does not have a medical school. Under the RPP, a variety of researchers are conducting innovative studies in areas as diverse as supporting adolescent mothers, family caregiving, and how the expression of purine synthesis genes is regulated during fruit fly and human development. Lead investigators from the University of New Brunswick include Dr. Marilyn Hodgins and Dr. Nicole Letourneau, associate professors, and Dr. Judith Wuest, professor, in the Faculty of Nursing; and Dr. Denise Clark, associate professor, Department of Biology.
Veterinary Research Contributes to Human Health
University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown
Dr. Cathy Chan is a professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the college. Her research objectives are to identify ways of preventing and reversing the damaging effects that fat can have on cells. The ultimate goal is to prevent type 2 diabetes. Dr. Chan and other health and nutrition experts are major contributors to a growing research base in nutrisciences across Atlantic Canada, with know how in veterinary and human medicine, agriculture, fisheries, food quality, and safety. If her experiments with animals prove true in humans, she may be well on the way to finding ways to prevent and reverse the severity of type 2 diabetes.
Lead in the Bone
Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick
Traditionally, scientists and medical practitioners have relied on blood tests to monitor lead levels in humans; however, blood only reveals recent lead contamination. Now, Dr. David Fleming, an assistant professor of physics at Mount Allison, is using advanced techniques involving gamma- and X-rays to measure and show the effects of long-term lead exposure in humans. His new four-detector system makes Mount Allison one of only two locations in the world with such capabilities. While the system is a research tool at the moment, the plan is to work with hospitals in the near future.
Painting a Rural Landscape of Health Services
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Researchers at Dalhousie are painting a rural landscape of health services in Atlantic Canada. Dr. Judith Guernsey heads up the Atlantic Rural Environments and Health Centre, which is building a research network and resource centre to increase our understanding of the physical and socioeconomic influences on the health of rural Canadians. Dr. Renée Lyons, director of the Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre and professor at Dalhousie University, is currently tackling the lack of health services in rural communities for people with chronic health problems. Her research focuses on stroke, the biggest contributor to disability in Canada, and is centered on one small community: Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Dr. Carol Amaratunga, from the Maritime Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, is studying the effects of unpaid caregiving on women's health and well-being. Dr. Patrick McGrath is leading a research program called Family Help, whose goal is to help rural residents access primary health care for youth.
Focusing on Inflammation
Université de Moncton, New Brunswick
Dr. Marc Surette of the Université de Moncton is studying how enzymes are involved in a process that affects cell growth in cancer and auto-immune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Dr. Surette is a professor in the Faculty of Sciences and a Canada Research Chair in cellular metabolism and lipids. His work may lead to the development of new pharmacological strategies for the treatment or management of proliferative and inflammatory diseases as well as the development of novel nutritional interventions in disease management and public health.
Some of Canada's finest health researchers are in the Atlantic region. CIHR has been proud to recognize their achievements.
Dr. K.S. Joseph
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
In 2002, perinatal disease researcher Dr. K.S. Joseph received the Peter Lougheed/CIHR New Investigator Award, which is given to Canada's brightest young health researchers beginning their careers. Dr. Joseph is an associate professor of perinatal epidemiology research at the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of Pediatrics at Dalhousie University, and scientific staff at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax. His current research looks at the perinatal effects of delayed childbearing.
Dr. Andrew Roger
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Dr. Andrew Roger, recipient of the 2003 Peter Lougheed/CIHR New Investigator Award, is an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Dalhousie University. Dr. Roger uses mathematical models to trace genes through 3.5 billion years of evolution to understand how life evolved on Earth. He is part of a group of researchers who have challenged Charles Darwin by proposing that several interconnected organisms arising simultaneously formed a web of connections from which animals and plants developed.
