Faculty projects garner $3.8 million in CIHR funding

Department of Pediatrics projects have successfully received a total of $3.8 million in funding from the 2019 Canadian Institute for Health Research fall awards. Find out more about the research projects:

Lii Zaanfaan: Understanding Health and Well-being Trajectories of Métis Children in Alberta
Maria Ospina and Kelsey Bradburn as principal investigators
Alvaro Osornio-Vargas (iHOPE), Elizabeth Hicks (Pediatric Respirology, Pulmonary & Asthma), Matthew Hicks (Neonatal/Perinatal Care), Manoj Kumar (Neonatal/Perinatal Care), Rhonda Rosychuk (Pediatric Infectious Diseases), Reagan Bartel, Radha Chari, Ashton James and Britt Voaklander as co-applicants
$650,000 over four years

The project will evaluate the health of Métis children during the first 10 years of life and see how maternal and social factors influence the outcomes. Researchers will explore the perspectives of Métis children and their families on social, environment and cultural factors that influence children’s well-being. They will also identify community-led, culturally meaningful Métis initiatives to promote Métis children's health through cultural healing and self-determination.

Does the use of higher versus lower oxygen concentration improve neurodevelopmental outcomes at 18-24 months in very low birthweight infants? - The HiLo-Trial
Georg Schmolzer (Neonatal/Perinatal Care), Elizabeth Asztalos, Prakeshkumar Shah, William Tarnow-Mordi and Maximo Vento as principal investigators
$2.2 million over five years

Oxygen is used to resuscitate preterm babies who need it, but unfortunately there is disagreement about the best oxygen concentration to use. Oxygen concentration is important because both too much and too little oxygen can cause brain injury. This research aims to fill this knowledge gap by comparing the effects of resuscitating babies less than 29 weeks gestational age with either a low oxygen concentration or a high oxygen concentration in an international clinical trial.

Read the folio article about the study.

Microbial Causes of Ulcerative Colitis: Looking Outside the Involved Region
Eytan Wine (Pediatric Gastroenterology & Nutrition) as principal investigator
$895,000 over five years

Children with ulcerative colitis (UC) have different bacteria in their small bowel. Researchers discovered a new method of isolating bacteria that might be disease causing by using the patient’s immune system to trap bacteria. This project will take the next step to combine the research and find bacteria that might be causing or driving damage in UC. Samples will be collected during children’s colonoscopies to identify the bacteria.