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MI4-Pfizer Early Career Investigator Award - Year 2 Winners

MI4 is pleased to announce the winners of the Year 2 of the MI4 Pfizer Early Career Investigator Award. The objective of the Early Career Investigator Award is to provide promising new investigators across the McGill and MUHC community with support for preliminary and proof-of-concept studies that will position them to secure external funding. The support for this program has been provided by Pfizer Canada Inc. MI4 is also delighted to announce that they have partnered with the Ï㽶ÊÓƵ Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences to support an additional project, with a gift from the Charles Monat Foundation, for the FMHS-MI4 Early Career Investigator Award.
Mi4 | 9 Sep 2022

YEAR 2 WINNERS: Ajitha Thanabalasuriar, PhD,ÌýQian Liu, PhD and Laurence Chapuy, MD, PhD

Ajitha Thanabalasuriar, PhD (McGill) (FMHS-MI4 Early Career Investigator Award, with a gift from the Charles Monat Foundation)

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Deciphering the mechanism of e-cigarette mediate development of lung disease

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Deciphering the mechanism of e-cigarette mediate development of lung disease.

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) were originally introduced to help adults stop smoking tobacco. However, the use of sweet and fruity flavours has resulted in e-cigs becoming increasingly popular among teenagers (12-18 years old). Teens that have been using e-cigs for less than one year have been reported to develop rapid and life-threatening lung disease. Weusi will understand what causes this change in neutrophil numbers and how e-cig exposed animals respond to infection. Moreover, we will look at human e-cig users to see if they have similar changes in neutrophils in their blood. Together we aim to understand and prevent lung disease after e-cig use.

Qian Liu, PhD (Ï㽶ÊÓƵ)

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Single-molecule interactions between Nipah virus and the interferon-induced transmembrane proteins

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Viral infections pose a great threat to public health and the global economy. Nipah virus (NiV) is an emerging paramyxovirus with the capability of human-human and animal-human transmissions and has a mortality rate of 40-70%. Here, by using a combination of single-molecule imaging, mutagenesis, and biochemistry tools, we will probe how IFITMs restrict the entry and transmission of the NiV on a nanoscale. The precise information on the nano organization of viral and host factors will provide new insights into the subtle mechanisms of NiV infection and IFITMs’ antiviral activities.

Laurence Chapuy, MD, PhD (MUHC)

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Plasticity of human monocytes towards regulatory macrophages in Crohn's disease

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Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn's disease (CD), affects 300,000 Canadians. IBD is caused by an abnormal immune response resulting in chronic intestinal inflammation that can lead to gut scarring, called fibrosis. Dr. Chapuy's research program focuses on the role of immune cells called monocytes and macrophages in developing intestinal fibrosis. The project aims to develop drugs to treat or prevent complications in CD patients and improve long-term outcomes and quality of life.

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