Two researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry are able to continue important work thanks to their funding renewals as Canada Research Chairs. One is dedicated to finding a potential treatment for the brain disorder Huntington disease while the other wants to better understand viruses.
Jim Smiley has been renewed as a Tier 1 CRC in Molecular Virology, while Simonetta Sipione has been renewed as a Tier 2 CRC in the Neurobiology of Huntington disease. The CRC website notes that Tier 1 researchers are considered "world leaders in their fields" and receive funding for seven years, which is renewable. Tier 2 researchers, who receive funding for five years which is renewable once, are for "exceptional emerging researchers."
Smiley's research focuses on viruses that infect humans and could lead to new strategies to prevent and treat viral diseases.
"Viruses that infect people operate in a similar fashion to computer viruses," Smiley says. "A malicious or selfish bit of computer code gets inside a computer and reprograms it and alters the computer's function in various ways. The basic goal of the computer virus is to produce more copies and spread to other systems, which is similar to how viruses infect people or animals."
Cells are wired with a security system to sound off an alert when intruders come in, then try to stop the virus from replicating, he said.
"We're interested in how viruses reprogram human cells, how human cells respond to virus invasions, and how viruses counter-respond to the human body's defence system. Viruses know more about the human immune system than we do, so studying viruses is a great way of uncovering key elements of our defences and how they work. This basic information is applicable to a very broad range of diseases."
Smiley said he was flattered and grateful to have his CRC funding renewed because "the support will allow us to devote more time and energy to our research program."
Earlier this month, Sipione and her team published their research findings about a potential new therapy for Huntington disease that restores lost motor skills and may delay or stop the progression of the disease, based on lab model tests. Sipione, a researcher in the Department of Pharmacology and the Centre for Neuroscience, was the principal investigator in the study, which was published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Because the new potential therapy uses a molecule already being used in clinical trials for other diseases, a clinical trial for Huntington disease could be possible within the next couple of years. Huntington disease is an inherited brain disorder where a mutant protein triggers brain cell death, causing loss of motor and cognitive skills and eventually death of the patient.
Sipione said she was excited to hear news that her funding had been renewed because "it will help move our research forward."
Her research will also focus on the metabolism of cholesterol in the brain of those with Huntington disease. The production of brain cholesterol and other similar molecules seems to be impaired in those with the disorder. Because cholesterol is important for brain function, researchers want to find out why its production is disrupted and if this contributes to brain-cell dysfunction in Huntington disease.
Marek Michalak, the vice-dean of research for the faculty, says the CRC program recognizes excellence and gives the faculty the opportunity "to build strong research teams and start new initiatives." He was pleased two of the faculty's researchers have received renewed funding this spring.