Three CHILD Study projects awarded CIHR grants

Three research projects leveraging AllerGen’s Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study have been awarded 5-year grants, valued at over $5.6 million, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

The funding was announced today by the Honourable Jane Philpott, federal Health Minister, as part of a $16 million investment to support new research to combat chronic health conditions.

“This is clear evidence of the value of the CHILD Study as a platform for novel research,” comments CHILD Study Director Dr. Malcolm Sears.

CHILD Study research teams, one led by Dr. Stuart Turvey (The University of British Columbia) and the other by Dr. Padmaja Subbarao (University of Toronto), are behind two of the winning grants.

Dr. Turvey’s team will investigate how a child’s environment interacts with the genome in the development of asthma, while Dr. Subbarao’s research will study gene and environment effects on lung health and the risk for chronic respiratory disease, asthma and COPD. A third project, led by Dr. Vern Dolinsky (University of Manitoba), will link to CHILD Study data to identify how environmental exposures during pregnancy are associated with childhood obesity.

Only eight Canadian research teams—of which three were CHILD Study-related—were awarded grants in the competition.

“The CHILD Study, which has its National Coordinating Centre at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton, has become an international resource for multiple research endeavours,” says Dr. Judah Denburg, AllerGen’s Scientific Director. “We are delighted that the Government of Canada, through the CIHR, has invested in the opportunity to leverage CHILD Study data in these groundbreaking research initiatives.”

Read the press release.