Congratulations to the recipients of the following 2025 OISB Awards and the 2026 OISB-NRC Graduate Scholarship Awards
The 2025 OISB Early Career Researcher Award
The 2025 OISB Paper of the Year Awards
Congratulations to the following OISB researchers who were awarded grants through the NSERC Discovery Grants Program:
- Dr. Shawn Beug — “Exploring how cytokine-driven vesicles enable intercellular communication in adaptive immunity”
- Dr. Mary-Ellen Harper — “Uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) -dependent and -independent mitochondrial uncoupling: Role of adenine nucleotide translocase and the adenosine nucleotides”
- Dr. Michael Downey — “Regulation and function of protein lysine acetylation in budding yeast”
- Dr. Derrick Gibbings — “Role of Midkine in RNA packaging into extracellular vesicles and its transfer in mice
- Dr. Laura Trinkle-Mulcahy — “Contribution of phosphoprotein phosphatases to the maintenance of genomic stability”
NFRF – Exploration
The New Frontiers in Research Fund (NFRF) Exploration program supports high-risk, high-reward interdisciplinary research with the potential to generate transformative new insights and approaches.
- Dr. Arvind Mer received an NFRF Exploration Grant of $250K for the project "Decoding hibernation with AI to overcome cancer drug resistance." The interdisciplinary project will use artificial intelligence and bioinformatics to investigate how cancer cells enter a hibernation-like dormant state that allows them to survive chemotherapy. By comparing these mechanisms to those used by hibernating animals to endure prolonged physiological stress, the team aims to identify new therapeutic targets and existing drugs that could help overcome treatment resistance, prevent cancer relapse and improve patient outcomes.
Congratulations to Dr. Lavallée-Adam on his nomination of Co-Director of the Ottawa Regional Proteomics Core Facility
The OISB congratulates Dr. Marceline Côté on being appointed Interim Director of Microbiology and Immunology Graduate Program.
The OISB congratulates Dr. Maxime Rousseaux, new Director of the Genome Editing and Molecular (GEM) Biology Core Facility.
Dr. Harper, the OISB Director was honoured by the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC) for her leadership, excellence and achievements in academic medicine.
The OISB would like to congratulate the following OISB principal investigators who have been awarded funding in the CIHR Fall 2025 Competition
- William Stanford - Cellular and molecular pathogenesis of renal tuberous sclerosis complex – $1,191,105
- Lynn Megeney - Small molecule induction of physiologic hypertrophy to limit/reverse heart failure – $864,450
- Michael Rudnicki - Muscle stem cell dysfunction in cancer cachexia – $833,850
- Mireille Khacho - Redox signaling via protein S-glutathionylation in muscle stem cell function and muscle repair - $1,067,175
Congratulations to OISB trainee Stefan Wallin who has received the Gold Award for Discovery Research in Poster Presentation Competition (Master's category) during the OHRI Research Week 2025
The OISB congratulates OISB members Dr. Maxime Rousseaux and Dr. Arezu Jahani-Asl who have received the 2025 Path to Patenting & Pre-Commercialization (3P) grants.
The 2025 OISB-NRC Graduate Scholarship Awards
- Kieran Furlong (Dr. A. Rudner and Dr. J. Li Labs)
- Maram Ashraf El-Azouni (Dr. M. Lavallée-Adam and Dr. J. Hill Labs)
- Angel Albarran-Ponce (Dr. S. Bennett and Dr. M. Cuperlovic-Culf Labs)
- Shelby Kaczmarek (Dr. S-H. Lee and Dr. S. McComb Labs)
- Rholls Tomsine (Dr. M. Khacho and Dr. J. Sandhu Labs)
- Ella McIlroy (Dr M-E. Harper, Dr. A. Haqqani and Dr. M. Cuperlovic-Culf Labs)
The OISB congratulates BRIGHT Canada team members on their award of an NSERC CREATE grant!
OISB member, Dr. Jean-François Couture will be leading a new Collaborative Research and Training Experience (CREATE) program, funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. This NSERC CREATE program award of $1.65M over the next 6 years will support the training of graduate students in research and professional development in areas related to radiobiology and innovation. For this CREATE program, Dr. Couture has assembled an outstanding team of researchers from the Universities of Ottawa, Carleton, Calgary, Victoria, and from TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator center and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL). Aptly abbreviated, BRIGHT Canada will be Bringing Radiobiology Innovations to Grow the Highly Trained workforce in Canada. This is the third NSERC CREATE program directed by OISB members in the last 10 years.
The OISB would like to congratulate the following OISB principal investigators who have been awarded funding in the CIHR Spring 2025 Competition
- Morgan Fullerton - Metabolic regulation of anabolism suppresses atherogenesis
- David Cook (OHRI/CMM) - Targeting cancer cell plasticity to improve outcomes in high-grade serous ovarian cancer
- William Stanford (OHRI/BMI/CMM) - Cellular and molecular pathogenesis of renal tuberous sclerosis complex
- Erin Mulvihill (UOHI/BMI) - Understanding and Treating Cardiac Fibrosis in PAI-1 Deficiency: Mechanistic Insights and Therapeutic Strategies
Congratulations to the following OISB members, recipients of 2025 NSERC Grants
NSERC DISCOVERY Grants:
- Dr. Mathieu Lavallée-Adam - Computational Guiding of Proteomics Data Acquisition for a Comprehensive Coverage of Proteomes and Interactomes
- Dr. Theodore Perkins - Algorithms for Large-Scale Epigenomics
NSERC Research Tools and Instruments (RTI) Grant:
- Dr. Tommy Alain with co-applicant Dr. Zakia Djaoud - A System to Monitor Molecular Mechanisms of Translation Control and Immunophenotyping
Leadership Announcement
Congratulations to OISB member, Dr. Erin Mulvihill, on her leadership role of Interim Director at the Biochemistry (BCH) Graduate Program
Congratulations to an OISB trainee, recipient of the 2025-2026 FRQNT Doctoral Research Scholarship
The OISB is thrilled to announce the FRQNT (Natures and Technology) Doctoral Research Scholarship 2025-2026 competition has been awarded to OISB trainee Kieran Furlong, PhD student from the Rudner Lab at uOttawa.
Kudos on the Eberhard. F. Mammen Young Investigator Award 2024 and the ISTH 2025 Early Career Award for an OISB PDF trainee
Congratulations to Dr. Tom Kazmirchuck, OISB PDF trainee from the Golshani Lab, for selection for the Eberhard. F. Mammen Young Investigator Award 2024 (Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis), and ISTH 2025 Early Career Award, selection of which funds attendance at the ISTH 2025 Congress.
The OISB congratulates the following 3 OISB members, each recipient of a 2025 CIHR grant
- Michael S Downey (CMM): “Metabolism and function of polyphosphate chains in S. cerevisiae.”
- Ryan Russell (CMM): “Uncovering the mechanisms of ATG16L1 regulation in autophagy control”
- Tommy Alain (CHEO RI/BMI): “Development of Reovirus-based, orally administered, colon cancer vaccines.”
Congratulations to 3 OISB members on their newly appointed or renewal of Canada Research Chairs
The University of Ottawa is furthering research excellence through 15 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) that address a broad range of global challenges.
New CRC holders are: Anne Broadbent (Quantum Communications and Cryptography); Céline Castets-Renard (International and Comparative Law of AI); Josephine Etowa (Advancing Black Women’s Health in Canada); Mary-Ellen Harper (Mitochondrial Bioenergetics and Metabolic Health) and Bernard Thébaud (Lung Stem Cell Biology and Regeneration).
They also include Hang Chi (Quantum Electronic Devices and Circuits); Ebrahim Karimi (Structured Waves and Quantum Communication); Thirusha Naidu (Equity in Global Medical Education); Yan Xu (Thrombosis); and Vignan Yogendrakumar (Stroke).
The following CRCs have been renewed: Robert Boyd (Quantum Nonlinear Optics); Kelly Bronson (Science and Society); Melike Erol-Kantarci (Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Next-Generation Wireless Networks); Mireille Khacho (Mitochondrial Dynamics and Regenerative Medicine); and Maxime Rousseaux (Personalized Genomics of Neurodegeneration).
The CRC program supports researchers who conduct high impact work that benefits society. Appointed scholars receive dedicated funding to focus on projects that drive progress and strengthen Canada’s role in science, technology and innovation.
Congratulations to the following OISB member, recipient of a BMI 2025/2026 Heart and Stroke Grant in Aid!
- Dr. Morgan Fullerton (BMI): ''Dissecting immunometabolic signals that drive trained immunity in atherosclerosis''
