34 U of T scholars receive research infrastructure support from CFI's John R. Evans Leaders Fund

Thirty-four scholars from the University of Toronto will receive research infrastructure funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) through its John R. Evans Leaders Fund.

The fund aims to support universities’ research infrastructure and help them compete in recruiting and retaining exceptional researchers. U of T projects will receive a total of $10.6 million in the latest round of funding, announced Sept. 13, 2024.

“From exploring the links between neural activity and stress to designing next-generation spectrographs to enhance our understanding of celestial phenomena, these research projects are poised to expand knowledge in an array of crucial fields,” said Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“I would like to congratulate all the recipients of this funding support, and express U of T’s gratitude to the Canada Foundation for Innovation for its continued backing of critical research infrastructure.”

The recipients of John R. Evans Leaders Fund support at U of T are:

• Myrtede Alfred in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – HFE visual design studio
• Artem Babaian in the department of molecular genetics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – The Open Virome: Infrastructure for planetary-scale virus surveillance
• Celina Baines in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the Faculty of Arts & Science – Impacts of environmental change on organismal movement
• Jaideep Bains at the University Health Network and the department of physiology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Anticipating and buffering stress: from synapse to behaviour
• Deryk Beal at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital and the department of speech-language pathology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Advancing neuromodulation for pediatric rehabilitation
• Robert Bentley at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education – Cardiovascular exercise physiology laboratory: Individual differences in oxygen delivery during physical activity
• Laurent Bozec at the Faculty of Dentistry – 21st-century challenge for dentistry: Breaking the cycle of irreversible dental tissue loss
• Jennifer Campos in the department of psychology at the Faculty of Arts & Science – Innovative strategies and simulation technologies for sensory-cognitive health of the aging population
• Timothy Corson at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy – New targets and therapies for neovascular eye diseases
• Niv Dayan in the department of computer science at the Faculty of Arts & Science – Universal filters for storage engines
• Tilak Dutta in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Advancing fall prevention research
• Micah Freedman in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the Faculty of Arts & Science – Effects of climate change, migratory plasticity, and habitat modification on monarch butterfly migration
• Liisa Galea in the Institute of Medical Science at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Sex and sex-specific factors influencing brain health across the lifespan
• Michael Hardisty at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of surgery at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Enabling precision diagnostics/image-guided therapy: Advanced computational infrastructure for musculoskeletal health
• Eno Hysi at Unity Health Toronto and the department of medical biophysics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Structural and Functional Assessments of Diabetic Skin Microvasculature using Photoacoustic Imaging
• David Kirsch at the University Health Network and the department of medical biophysics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Dissecting mechanisms of cancer development using genetically engineered mouse models
• Caitlin Maikawa in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Biointerfacing materials for drug delivery lab
• Kuldeep Meel in the department of computer science at the Faculty of Arts & Science – Scalable discrete integration engines
• Juan Mena-Parra in the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Faculty of Arts & Science – An advanced laboratory to enable novel radio telescopes for cosmology and time-domain astrophysics
• Emily Moore in the Institute for Studies in Transdisciplinary Engineering Education and Practice at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – A collaboratorium to improve problem framing in engineering design
• Seyed Moosavi in the department of chemical engineering and applied chemistry at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Machine learning for nanoporous materials design
• Trevor Moraes in the department of biochemistry at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Upgrade Glacios-2 200 keV cryo-electron microscope
• Long Nguyen at the University Health Network and the department of medical biophysics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Molecular regulation of clonal propagation and dissemination in human breast cancer
• Kacey Prentice in the department of physiology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Mechanisms of beta cell dysfunction in diabetes
• Chenxi Qian in the department of medical biophysics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Next-generation vibrational imaging platform for biomedical research and applications
• Laurie Rousseau-Nepton in the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Faculty of Arts & Science – Development of a high-resolution imaging spectrograph
• Arneet Saltzman in the department of cell and systems biology at the Faculty of Arts and Science – Heterochromatin regulation in development and inheritance
• Wilder Scott at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the department of laboratory medicine and pathobiology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Mechanisms regulating the stem cell niche in tissue regeneration and aging at single cell and spatial resolution
• Mikko Taipale in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Interrogating cellular pathways with pathogenic effectors
• Jiannis Taxidis at the Hospital for Sick Children and the department of physiology at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Advanced imaging and manipulation of hippocampal activity patterns linking memories across time
• Tatsuya Tsukahara at Mount Sinai Hospital and the department of molecular genetics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Molecular logic and functions of transcriptional adaptation
• Anatole von Lilienfeld in the department of materials science and engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering – Large memory compute nodes for generation of quantum machine learning data
• Andy Kin On Wong at the University Health Network and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health – Sarcopenia and musculoskeletal interactions (SaMI) collaborative hub
• Olena Zhulyn at the Hospital for Sick Children in the department of molecular genetics at the Temerty Faculty of Medicine – Targeting translation for tissue regeneration and repair

Read the Canada Foundation for Innovation press release