30 March 2015
The results of the most recent round of funding by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research were published last week on the federal agency’s (CIHR) website. Several researchers at the Infectious Disease Research Center were funded for a period of 3 to 5 years. The total amount of funding totals $2,157,681 and will be used to pursue fundamental research on HIV, the Leishmania parasite and antiviral resistance mechanisms.
The IDRC congratulates Dr. Jérôme Estaquier for his funding of $864,053 over 5 years for studies on the importance of tissue-resident memory CD8 T cells in the control of SIV infection through mucosal sites. Dr. Guy Boivin was also granted $594,201 over 5 years to study the mechanisms of resistance to antivirals directed against herpesviruses. Finally, Dr. Michel J. Tremblay received two 3-year grants under the HIV/AIDS research initiative. The first, for an amount of $276,696, will focus on the effect of intestinal flora and its metabolites on HIV biology in CD4+ T cells. The second, for $422,731, will investigate the consequences of HIV/Leishmania coinfection on HIV pathogenesis, latency and reactivation.
Other researchers from the Infectious and Immune Diseases Axis of the CRCHU de Québec have been funded by the CIHR. Among them, Dr. Éric Boilard who obtained funding of $1,434,894 over 5 years as part of the foundation component to study the role of platelets and microparticles in inflammation. Also of note is the funding of Dr. Sylvain Bourgoin ($788,904 / 5 years), Dr. Maria J. Fernandez ($640,500 / 5 years) and Dr. Jean Gosselin ($643,906 / 5 years) through the regular operating grant competition. These results are welcome in the context of the lowest success rate in the CIHR operating grant competition since the creation of the Institutes in 2000. Less than 15% of applications were funded in this round of funding, 383 out of 2682, with a 26.8% cut in the budget proposed by the review committees.