30 March 2016
The results of the most recent funding campaign 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 Centre were awarded funding for a period ranging from 5 to 7 years. The new funding totals $5,502,859 and will allow for the continued advancement of basic and clinical research on respiratory and herpes viruses, the Leishmania parasite, as well as the development of protection strategies against Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus.
The IDRC congratulates Dr. Guy Boivin who has received a major grant from the Foundation Grant Program of $3,914,226 over 7 years ($559,175/year) to develop his research program on the pathogenesis, treatment and prevention of respiratory and herpes viruses.
Dr. Barbara Papadopoulou received a Project Grant of $928,869 over 5 years ($185,773/year) to study the post-transcriptional regulatory networks that regulate developmental gene expression in the parasite Leishmania.
Finally, our new Director, Dr. Gary P. Kobinger, has received a Project Grant of $1,402,860 over 5 years ($280,572/year) to develop strategies for protection against Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. This research will focus on the development of a prophylactic vaccine and monoclonal antibodies against this deadly virus, but Dr. Kobinger’s team will first need to develop an appropriate animal model to evaluate the safety and efficacy of these strategies.
The IDRC also congratulates all the other researchers at the Centre de Recherche du CHU de Québec who were awarded grants in this round of funding. This year, 120 Foundation Grants were awarded in Canada out of 910 applications (13.1% success rate) and 491 regular grants and 127 transitional grants from the Project Grant Program were awarded out of 3813 applications (16.2% success rate).