To broaden the reach of the program and create more opportunities for trainees, BHI has established co-funding partnerships with BHI institutional partners and affiliated research institutes. This year, we are pleased to confirm that four scholarships were co-funded: two in partnership with The Royal and two with McGill University.
We would also like to acknowledge the following partners whose trainees have been awarded: CHEO Research Institute, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, University of Ottawa.
Below is the list of this year's awardees along with their affiliations and project titles.
Congratulations to all of this year’s awardees!
To learn more about our funding opportunities, please visit here.
Master's Scholarship
Taha Al-Tekreeti, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Evaluation of [11C]ASP4345: a novel PET radiotracer for cardiac and neural D1-dopamine receptors
Farzaneh Amini, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Myocardial xCT and glutathione redox in metabolic resilience and mitigation of ferroptosis in ischemic cardiomyopathy with implications for the brain-heart axis
Suzan Chakra, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Identifying Parkinson's disease by including cardiovascular dysfunction in risk calculators
Anupriya Kakkar, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research
Assessing the effects of exercise intensity on hippocampal function in women with coronary heart disease
Ciara Krsul, McGill University
(co-funded by McGill University)
Understanding and enhancing pneumococcal, influenza, and herpes zoster vaccine uptake to prevent stroke, cardiovascular disease, and dementia
Shida Pourlotfi, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research
(co-funded by The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research)
Exercise as a preconditioning and concurrent treatment with intermittent theta burst stimulation in treatment resistant depression
Ayah Rashwan, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Recreational electronic cigarette use and brain-heart health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cardiovascular, neurological, and mental health outcomes
Megan Warner, University of Ottawa
Molecular mechanisms of muscle-mediated neuroprotection of brain and heart health in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease
Yasmeen Zebian, University of Ottawa
Epilepsy-associated GABA_A receptor mutations as a driver of cardiac vulnerability after injury: a human iPSC organoid model of brain–heart co-morbidity
Doctoral Scholarship
Areebah Ahmed, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research
(co-funded by The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research)
Integrating Peripheral Inflammatory, Neurotrophic and Metabolic Biomarkers with Multimodal Neuroimaging to Elucidate Mechanisms of Response with Repeated IV Ketamine Treatment in Depression
Leya Aubert-Tandon, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Investigation of endothelial dysfunction in models of SYNGAP1 happloinsuficiency
Oren Gurevitch, McGill University
A comprehensive study of long covid-induced dysautonomia in non-hospitalized patients
Emily Hoddinott, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Mapping the heart-brain axis via interconnected pathways: exploring autonomic cardiac dysfunction using [18F]mFBG PET imaging in Parkinson’s disease
Abagael Hudak, University of Ottawa Heart Institute
Investigating vascular cognitive impairment in a dual-disease mouse model of atherosclerosis and pneumonia infection
Iman Kashif, University of Ottawa
Defining the association between autonomic dysregulation and post-concussion headache through brain-heart axis biomarkers to enable precision treatment
Jessica Li, McGill University
(co-funded by McGill University)
NINJA-HEART: Long-term cardiac outcomes in school-aged children following neonatal encephalopathy treated with therapeutic hypothermia
Sophia LoParco, McGill University
Functional MRI hemodynamic correlates of autonomic symptom phenotypes in long COVID
Caroline Part, CHEO Research Institute
Exploring cardiac muscle dysfunction in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 with patient derived iPSCs
Aidan Smith, The Royal's Institute of Mental Health Research
The cardiovascular, cognitive and neural correlates of sleep apnea: a trimodal brain imaging study