MONTRÉAL, September 14, 2015 – Six researchers and one student at the CHU Sainte-Justine, the mother-child hospital center affiliated with Université de Montréal, received financial support by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), whose role is to make investments in people, discovery and innovation to increase Canada’s scientific and technological capabilities. The awardees are Philip Awadalla, Lionel Carmant, Mathieu Dehaes, Anne Gallagher, Viviane Lalande, Lucie Ménard, and Graciela Piñeyro.

2015 Research Grants Competition

Six researchers were awarded grants from the 2015 Discovery Grants – Individual Program by the NSERC 2015 Research Grants Competition. The program supports research projects in natural sciences and engineering with a long-term goal. Researcher will receive an operating grant over a five-year period based on their excellence, the merit of their proposal, and their contribution to the training of highly qualified personnel. These grants recognize the creativity and innovation that are at the heart of all research advances.

List of supported projects

• Lionel Carmant, Gender-based differences in hippocampal development: Impact on learning and memory (5 years) 
• Mathieu Dehaes, Development of new bedside optical imaging methods for the non-invasive assessment of brain injury in neonates (5 years) 
• Anne Gallagher, Development of language functional networks: A resting-state neuroimaging approach (5 years) 
• Lucie Ménard, Sensori-motor development of speech: Feedback perturbations 
• Graciela Piñeyro, Opioid receptor signaling complexes (5 years) 
• Philip Awadalla will receive a one-year operating grant for his project entitled The co-regulatory dynamics of gene regulation among Plasmodium spp (parasite which causes malaria) and their mammalian hosts (1 year)

2015 Canada Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral

Viviane Lalande, a doctoral student under the direction of Carl-Éric Aubin, was given a 2015 Canada Graduate Scholarships – Doctoral by the NSERC for her project entitled ʺDesign and evaluation of a growth vertebrae cyclic modulation prototype for a none fusion treatment of adolescent idiopathic scoliosisʺ.