100 per cent Success for U of M in CFI Competition

For the second year in a row, the University of Manitoba achieved a 100 per cent rate in the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) New Opportunities awards competition. University of Manitoba researchers captured over $900,000 and nine researchers are now able to pursue their research at new levels. The province of Manitoba has also contributed matching funds of $900,000 for these projects through the Manitoba Innovations Fund.

Andrew Halayko, physiology and internal medicine, is using his $140,000 grant for new equipment for the Asthma Research Core Laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine. This equipment will be used to investigate the fundamental mechanisms of asthma causes as well as designing new therapies.

Geoffrey Hicks, physiology, will be putting his $175,749 grant towards the creation of a genomics laboratory. Hicks is building a library of genetic mutations that occur early in the development of certain cancers. Once these mutations are identified, transgenic mice can be bred and raised without them, so the role of the mutation can be studied for its role in cancer progression.

Muthucumaru Maheswaran, computer science, is using his $107,829 grant for infrastructure for an advanced active computing network environment. This will enable problems and challenges to be simulated for internet quality of service, which is becoming a major issue as demand for large applications increases. This lab will provide critical information about how to maintain system integrity.

A $154,511 grant is being used by James House, animal science, and Harold Aukema, foods and nutrition, to tap into the natural environment in search of functional foods. The pair have already identified a way to alter swine feed that results in more nutritionally sound meat and less environmental pollution from swine manure.

Robin Hutchinson, engineering, will use her $60,000 grant to acquire automated control and data acquisition equipment to add to the testing lab in civil and geological engineering. Hutchinson will now be able to model the true behaviour of civil structures, and test structures under conditions of changing loads in a lab environment.

Michelle Porter, physical education and recreation studies, will use her $137,359 grant to create a functional muscle strength testing lab which focuses on aging. Her research involves neuromuscular testing and magnetic resonance imaging with a functional analysis of driving performance in the elderly in an effort to understand why some drivers experience performance deterioration.

Vladimir Yurkov and Kathleen Londry, microbiology, will use their $137,618 grant to create an environmental microbiology lab. These researchers have identifi ed several new microbiological species that have the potential to be useful in the emerging fi eld of bioremediation, or saving the environment from pollution and other man-made disasters.