Dr. Denice Bay, associate professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, received a Research Manitoba Innovation Proof of Concept grant for $150,000 (two years) for her project “Veterinary Point-of-Care Device Design and Pilot Testing to Apply Novel Biomarkers for Improved Pet Oral Gum Health.”
Dr. Britt Drögemöller, UM Canada Research Chair in pharmacogenomics and precision medicine, and an assistant professor of biochemistry and medical genetics, was awarded $1 million over five years in the latest round of Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) project funding. Drögemöller and her team’s project will use cutting-edge tools to examine how the chemotherapy drug cisplatin alters gene expression in the inner ears of mice. Read more
Dr. Paul Fernyhough, a professor of pharmacology and therapeutics, was awarded $1 million over five years in the latest round of CIHR project funding. Fernyhough and his team will use cutting edge pharmacological and cell biological techniques to investigate how drugs that block the function of a specific receptor on sensory neurons work. Read more
Dr. Corby Fink, assistant professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, received a CIHR Travel Grant ($2,044 for one year) for his project “Non-invasive Therapeutic Cell Tracking to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Vaccine Strategies for Emerging Viruses.”
Dr. Keith Fowke, professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, received $2 million (five years) from CIHR for his project “Inflammation, Sex Hormones, and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Expression: Assessing their Relationship in Menopausal Women and Evaluating Interventions to Prevent Cervical Cancer in Older Women.”
Dr. Laura Heath, assistant professor of clinical health psychology, along with co-investigators Drs. Lesley Ritchie, Renée El-Gabalawy (Clinical Health Psychology), Kristin Reynolds (Psychology), Marcus Ng, Joseph Peedicail & Qi Xu (Neurology), received $10,000 (18 months) from a Clinical Health Psychology Early Career Grant for the project “Cognitive and psychosocial prehabilitation for epilepsy surgery: A pilot feasibility study.”
Dr. Michael Jackson, professor of pharmacology and therapeutics, was awarded $1 million over five years in the latest round of CIHR project funding. Jackson and his team’s research study is focused on validating a novel approach for the development of a disease modifying treatment in Alzheimer’s disease. Read more
Dr. Kayla Joyce, assistant professor of clinical health psychology, received $70,000 (two years) from the Health Sciences Centre Foundation for the project “Strengthening Integrated Addiction Care Pathways: Evaluating Service Use and Unmet Mental Health Needs among Patients Accessing Rapid Access to Addiction Medicine (RAAM) Services in Manitoba.”
Dr. Jason Kindrachuk, professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, received $350,000 (two years) from CIHR for his study “Enhancing Surveillance and Detection of Mpox Across Africa.”
Principal investigator Dr. Sam Kung, professor of immunology, and co-applicant Dr. Xiao-Jian Yao, professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, received $50,000 (one year) from the 2026 Prostate Cancer Research Grants, funded by Prostate Cancer Fight Foundation/Ride For Dad. Their project is titled “Development of a novel EboGPΔM-pseuodotyped VLP-based cancer vaccine for Prostate Cancers.”
Dr. Paul Marcogliese, assistant professor of biochemistry and medical genetics, was awarded $1.1 million over five years in the latest round of CIHR project funding. Marcogliese and his team will generate and study fly models carrying KAT6A/B variants. Read more. Marcogliese and his team were also awarded a Brain Canada and Weizmann Institute of Science Team Grant ($500,000) for their project “From Fold to Phenotype: AI-Enabled Structural Biology and Drosophila Functional Genetics to Solve Rare Brain Disorders.”
Dr. Lyle McKinnon, associate professor of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, received $100,000 (one year) from CIHR for his study “Examining the ‘local biologies’ of transgender people in Nairobi, Kenya: Epidemiological, biological, and social determinants of STBBI vulnerability.”
Dr. Liam O’Neil, assistant professor of internal medicine and immunology, was awarded $914,176 over five years in the latest round of CIHR project funding. O’Neil and his team will study cigarette smoking as a modifiable risk factor for Rheumatoid Arthritis development in First Nations Peoples. Read more
Christopher Pascoe, associate professor of physiology and pathopysiology, is the recipient of the 2026-2029 Manitoba Medical Service Foundation Allen Rouse Basic Science Career Development Research Award for his project “Prenatal Diabetes, Airway Smooth Muscle, and Pathways to Lung Dysfunction in Offspring.” Read more
Dr. Inna Rabinovich-Nikitin, assistant professor of physiology and pathophysiology, received a grant from the Myles Robinson Memorial Heart Fund ($145,000 for two years) to study disrupted maternal circadian rhythms and cardiovascular health in preeclampsia.
Dr. Sukhpreet Tamana, assistant professor of clinical health psychology, received $49,841 (one year) from the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba for the project “Pilot Implementation of Pre-Visit Digital Mental Health Screening within a Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes Insulin Pump Readiness Program: A Feasibility and Acceptability Study.” Dr. Tamana also received, along with co-investigators Drs. Kristene Cheung, Jennifer MacMullin (Clinical Health Psychology), Brandy Wicklow (Pediatrics and Child Health) & Kerrie Abel (Social Work, Children’s Hospital), received $10,000 (18 months) from a Clinical Health Psychology Early Career Grant for the project “Co-designing single-session interventions for pediatric diabetes mental health care.”
Dr. Cedric Tremblay, assistant professor of immunology, received a five-year Canadian Cancer Society Emerging Scholar Research Grant.
Dr. Julia Uhanova, associate professor of internal medicine, was awarded $100,000 in the latest round of Canadian Institutes of Health Research project funding. To bridge the gap between the high need and lack of options in obesity management in remote Indigenous communities, Uhanova and her team will examine the effectiveness of a science-based, clinician co-developed, AI-supported digital obesity treatment in five Anisininew communities in Manitoba. Read more
Dr. Michelle Ward, assistant professor of clinical health psychology, along with co-investigators Drs. Jona Frohlich, Lauren Chance, Kylee Clayton, Jo Ann Unger, Sukhpreet Tamana, Aleah Fontaine (Clinical Health Psychology) and Jenette Haward (Pediatrics and Child Health) received $9,995 (18 months) from a Clinical Health Psychology Early Career Grant for the project “Children and adolescents with special health care needs: A needs assessment for family psychological supports.”
Dr. Chi Yan, assistant professor of immunology, is the recipient of the 2026-2029 Manitoba Medical Service Foundation Allen Rouse Basic Science Career Development Research Award for his project “Developing Melanoma-Specific CD40 Activation with RAS-pathway Inhibition to Improve Outcomes in Immunotherapy-resistant Melanoma.” Read more
Dr. George Zhanel, professor and associate head of the department of medical microbiology and infectious diseases, received a grant entitled “Serotype specific burden of pneumococcal disease in adults >= 50 years of age in Canada using CANWARD: Focus on invasive blood and respiratory infections as well as PCV 21 (V116) coverage.” The grant if for $121,000 over two years. He also received $63,000 over three years from CANWARD for a study titled “Assessing the Activity of Ceftaroline versus Comparators in the CANWARD Study.”