Dr. Alina Gerrie, Dr. Gordon Francis, Dr. John Staples, and Dr. Mypinder Sekhon have received the 2020 MSFHR Health Professional-Investigator Award
The MSFHR Health Professional-Investigator (HP-I) Program is designed to develop BC’s research talent and help decrease the gap between health research and its implementation. The awards support health professionals who are actively involved in patient care to conduct and apply research relevant to health and/or the health system.
The HP-I Program was developed in response to consultations with stakeholders across the province who identified a need to help health professionals apply their practical expertise to fill research gaps. Each award recipient will receive a salary contribution to help them protect time for research for up to five years, or support research personnel directly associated with their work.
To learn more about all of the 2020 MSFHR Health Professional-Investigator Awardees, please visit: https://www.msfhr.org/2020-health-professional-investigator-award-recipients
Dr. Alina Gerrie, Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology
Cost-Effective Biomarker Driven Treatment For Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia In The Era Of Precision Medicine
Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common leukemia in the Western world. Ibrutinib, a new drug that works differently from chemotherapy, is a major breakthrough for CLL treatment and allows patients to live longer; however, it comes at a high cost to the BC health system.
The goal is to determine which patients benefit most from ibrutinib at what point in their disease, so that ibrutinib, and other drugs like it, are given to the right patients at the right time and avoided in those who will only suffer side effects. We will analyze the impact of ibrutinib on the BC CLL population including patterns of use, side effects and survival. We will perform genomic testing on samples from CLL patients on ibrutinib to find gene mutations that develop over time that may help predict who will respond well. Finally, we will combine this information to determine the overall cost of ibrutinib to the BC population, particularly when treatment is targeted to those who will benefit most.
This approach is crucial to ensure ibrutinib is affordable for healthcare systems and accessible for all those who need it, ultimately leading to improved quality of life and survival of CLL patients.
Dr. Gordon Francis, Professor, Division of Endocrinology
Redefining Atherosclerosis: Characterizing And Targeting Smooth Muscle Cell Foam Cells For The Treatment And Prevention Of Coronary Heart Disease And Stroke
Heart attack, heart failure, and stroke are major causes of disability and death in BC and worldwide. The main cause of these conditions is the buildup of blockages or “plaque” in arteries in a process called atherosclerosis. For a long time, it was thought that the main place where fats (like cholesterol) build up in plaque are white blood cells called macrophages, but our laboratory made the novel discovery that it is actually smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in arteries that are most prone to becoming cholesterol-overloaded, which has important implications on developing ways to prevent heart attack and stroke.
We now propose to perform an in-depth characterization of SMCs to understand how they become overloaded with cholesterol. In addition, we will determine whether differences in SMC gene expression protect some people from plaque formation, how cholesterol-overloaded SMCs in human hearts respond to cholesterol-lowering medications, and whether turning on a particular gene in SMCs can prevent them from forming plaque and remove excess cholesterol from SMCs after it has been deposited. This work will provide vital new knowledge to reduce the burden of heart attack, stroke and heart failure in BC and beyond.
Dr. John Staples, Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of General Internal Medicine
Motor Vehicle Crash Risk After Cardioverter-Defibrillator Implantation: A Population-Based Evaluation
Motor vehicle crashes result in 78 million injuries worldwide each year. Some crashes might be prevented by restricting driving for individuals with medical conditions that might cause sudden incapacitation while diving (eg. epilepsy, sleep apnea).
About 4,000 Canadians will have an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) implanted this year. ICDs treat life-threatening cardiac rhythm abnormalities and prevent cardiac arrest. A heart rhythm problem or device malfunction in the weeks after implantation might result in a crash, so patients are warned not to drive for 4 weeks after ICD implantation.
Do driving restrictions after ICD implantation prevent crashes? Would driving restrictions be more effective if they were modified? The answers to these questions aren’t known.
British Columbia’s health and driving databases provide a unique opportunity to examine crash risk after ICD implantation. The MVC-ICD study will use health and driving records to compare crash risk among 9,000 ICD patients to crash risk among control patients. Results will provide an immediate opportunity to improve clinical practice, licensing policy and road safety in Canada and abroad.
Dr. Mypinder Sekhon, Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Critical Care Medicine
Delineating The Pathophysiology Of Hypoxic Ischemic Brain Injury After Cardiac Arrest To Identify Therapeutic Targets
The main determinant of patient outcome following revival from cardiac arrest (heart stops pumping blood and oxygen to the body) is the brain injury that occurs in the days after hospital admission. This injury, termed hypoxic ischemic brain injury, partly arises from a lack of oxygen delivery to the brain after resuscitation. The cornerstone of post-cardiac arrest management has involved increasing the delivery of oxygen to the brain to facilitate recovery. This logic assumes that the transport of oxygen from the blood system into the brain tissue is normal after cardiac arrest. I have recently demonstrated that this assumption is not true and in fact, in a large proportion of post-cardiac arrest patients demonstrate an inability to unload oxygen into the brain from the blood vessels. The mechanisms explaining this observation are unclear and not accounted by tests including CT and MRI scans. Therefore, another approach is required.
My project involves using a series of novel blood tests that arise from structures in the brain that are responsible for oxygen transfer. Identifying the precise structures that inhibit oxygen delivery into the brain will lead to further research aimed at identifying therapeutic targets.