MUHC researcher awarded $500,000 to study pathogenesis of infectious disease
Dr. Maya Saleh and team will use grant to help identify genes involved in our body's first line of defense.
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) has announced the recipients of
the 2009 Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease
Award. MUHC researcher Dr. Maya Saleh was one of six recipients
granted $500,000 over a 6-year period for her research proposal,
"Regulation and molecular mechanisms of NLR-mediated innate
immunity."
"We are studying how the body fights infections," says Dr. Saleh,
who was the only researcher in Canada to receive the award. "Our
focus is the innate immune system, which is our body's first line
of defense. We are performing experiments at the level of the whole
genome to find most of the genes needed for this defense. By using
genetics and genomics we are hoping to see the whole
picture."
The BWF program is intended to shed light on the overarching issues
of how human hosts handle infectious challenge. The awards are
designed to give recipients the freedom and flexibility to pursue
new avenues of inquiry and higher-risk research projects that hold
potential for advancing significantly the biochemical,
pharmacological, immunological, and molecular biological
understanding of how infectious agents and the human body
interact.
The selection process for this award is based on the proposal and
on the achievement of the scientist, in the US or Canada, as a new
independent investigator. It also takes into consideration the
research environment and institutional support.
By identifying various molecules involved in our body's defense,
Dr. Saleh and her team hope to widen the therapeutic targets in
humans. "We could start tailoring experiments where we design, then
use drugs to modulate the action of the molecules we identify,"
says Dr. Saleh. "We currently have one family of such molecules
that we are investigating. These are enzymes that are needed for
the production of defence molecules (cytokines) called The
Inflammatory Caspases."
"Infectious diseases remain a concern to global health," says BWF
President Dr. John Burris. "We are proud to support the work of
creative investigators who study the crucial interaction between
the host and the microbe."
Dr. Maya Saleh is a researcher with the Critical Care Division and
the Centre for the Study of Host Resistance at the Research
Institute of the 捆绑SM社区 Health Centre (MUHC) as well as
an assistant professor with 捆绑SM社区's Faculty of
Medicine.
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund
The Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award
provides $500,000 during a five-year period to encourage
multidisciplinary approaches to investigating pathogenesis. BWF
launched the program in 2002 and has made 78 awards for an
investment of more than $33 million in the careers of assistant
professor-level researchers who are working on understanding the
interactions between the human host and the infectious
agent-bacterial, viral, fungal, or parasitic. This year due to the
economic environment the award will be spread out over 6
years.
The Research Institute of the 捆绑SM社区 Health
Centre (RI MUHC) is a world-renowned biomedical and
healthcare hospital research centre. Located in Montreal, Quebec,
the Institute is the research arm of the MUHC, the university
health centre affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine at 捆绑SM社区
University. The Institute supports over 600 researchers, nearly
1,200 graduate and post-doctoral students; it also operates more
than 300 laboratories devoted to a broad spectrum of fundamental
and clinical research. The Research Institute operates at the
forefront of knowledge, innovation and technology and is
inextricably linked to the clinical programs of the MUHC, ensuring
that patients benefit directly from the latest research-based
knowledge. The Research Institute of the MUHC is supported in part
by the Fonds de la recherche en sant茅 du Qu茅bec.
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isabelle.kling [at] muhc.mcgill.ca