York University professors to advance health research with more than $3.5M in federal CIHR funding

Study in Canada: The professors at York University have received a CIHR 3.5 million dollars grant to work on various projects related to health research.

York University professors have received a Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant of over 3.5 million dollars combined. The money will be spent on health research to aid neonatal infants and their parents. It will also help in understanding the role of a significant hormone in heart health and address political barriers and equity to global public health concerns.

Grant distribution details

Ouch Lab head and the York Research Chair in Pain and Mental Health, Faculty of Health Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell has received around $1.4 million for work related to preterm infants. It will study how maternal stressors may impact the impact of skin-to-skin contact to relieve pain in the infant, and how medical interventions can also help in dealing with their pain.

Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell will carry out the project  Skin-to-Skin Contact for Acute Pain in Very and Extremely Preterm Infants Does Not Always Work: Understanding Dyadic Regulation Attunement and the Role of Parental Stress to Improve Effectiveness at the neonatal intensive care unit at Mount Sinai Hospital.

"Preterm infants are one of the most vulnerable populations on this planet and are exposed to numerous painful procedures every day of their young lives. Their parental context is a critical factor to better understand and improve their quality of life. Our lab is so grateful to CIHR for their funding to better understand how maternal factors impact their child's pain responses during skin-to-skin care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit,” said the professor.

Professor Steven Hoffman has received over $1.13 million for the project  Leveraging Global Legal Epidemiology to Design More Impactful and Equitable International Agreements for Health. He will work by himself and also work with other investigators at the York-based Global Strategy Lab, including Faculty of Health Assistant Professor Mathieu Poirier.

"The Global Strategy Lab is pleased to have been awarded CIHR funding to continue our research on designing more impactful and equitable international agreements for health. Through a world-leading global legal epidemiology approach, we are advancing global health law, tobacco control, and planetary health in support of York’s contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals,” says Poirier, also co-director of the Global Strategy Lab and York Research Chair in Global Health Equity," he said.

Gary Sweeney, Faculty of Science Professor will work on hormones in diabetic and obese people which often get compromised and are involved in the cleaning process of heart cells. His project Mechanistic and pre-clinical studies on cardioprotective effects of adiponectin has been granted around a million dollars in funding from CIHR.

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