York profs to advance health research with more than $3.5M in federal CIHR funding
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) recently granted York University professors more than $3.5 million dollars combined, money that will go towards research that aims to help parents and neonatal infants, addresses equity and political barriers to global public health concerns and helps further our understanding of the role of an important hormone in heart health.
Helping preterm babies and parents have better outcomes
Faculty of Health Professor Rebecca Pillai Riddell, who heads up the Ouch Lab, and is also the York Research Chair in Pain and Mental Health, received nearly $1.4 million for work that will look at very preterm infants and how medical interventions and maternal stressors may impact the ability of skin-to-skin contact to help regulate pain in the infant. 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, will be carried out 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 everyday 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,” says Pillai Riddell.
Making international health agreements more equitable
Professor Steven Hoffman was awarded more than $1.13 million that will go towards work being done by himself and other investigators at the York-based Global Strategy Lab, including Faculty of Health Assistant Professor Mathieu Poirier, for Leveraging Global Legal Epidemiology to Design More Impactful and Equitable International Agreements for Health.
“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.
Understanding heart failure better, especially for those with diabetes
Faculty of Science Professor Gary Sweeney will be looking at a hormone that is often compromised in people with diabetes and obesity and is involved in the body cleaning up bad cells in the heart. Mechanistic and pre-clinical studies on cardioprotective effects of adiponectin has received close to a million dollars in funding from CIHR.
About York University
York University is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change, and prepare our students for success. York’s fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario’s Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future.
Media Contacts: Emina Gamulin, York University Media Relations and External Communications, 437-217-6362, egamulin@yorku.ca
