Thirteen research teams at Queen’s University have received a combined $12.7 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Canada’s largest funder of health research.

Awarded through CIHR's Project Grant: Spring 2026 competition, each project will work towards advancing the health and wellbeing of Canadians through groundbreaking translational research and innovation. The research is diverse in both subject and scope – k from mapping how the brain reorganizes itself after a stroke and investigating why glioblastoma tumours sometimes return after surgery to testing whether older adults on dialysis could maintain their health with less frequent treatment.

"The CIHR Project Grants are highly competitive across Canada," says Nancy Ross, Vice-Principal (Research) at Queen's. "Congratulations to the successful Queen's research teams and thank you to the Government of Canada and CIHR for their continued investment in research that supports that health and wellbeing of Canadians." 

Many of these research projects involve activities occurring at Kingston Health Sciences Centre, which reflects the collaborative partnership between Queen’s and the regional tertiary care academic hospital.

See the full list of Queen's-funded CIHR projects below:

Project Grant

Sheela Abraham (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences): Extracellular vesicles are the gatekeepers of the haematopoietic stem cell health and survival - $1,181,926

Douglas Cook (Surgery), Jason Gallivan (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Psychology): Understanding whole-brain reorganization following stroke and its relation to functional recovery - $1,204,876

Shannon Fernando (Critical Care Medicine), Karim Soliman (Critical Care Medicine): Adjunctive Methylene Blue in Septic Shock (BLUSH) - A Multicentre Pilot Feasibility Trial - $543,150

Sandra Fucile (Rehabilitation Therapy): Evaluating a Virtual Infant Development Screening Program to Improve Access to Care for Children with a Complex Medical Condition - $891,224

Jason Gallivan (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Psychology):  A neuro-computational model of motor learning: Dissociating memory expression, updating, and creation in the human brain - $696,150

Parvin Mousavi (Computing): PROPEL-AS: Prostate personalized surveillance using pathology-aligned multi-modal imaging - $1,151,326

Christopher Mueller (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Sinclair Cancer Research Institute): Monitoring the response to Lung Cancer Immunotherapy using an mDETECT Liquid Biopsy - $1,128,374

Wendy Parulekar (Oncology, Sinclair Cancer Research Institute), Josee-Lyne Ethier (Public Health Sciences, Sinclair Cancer Research Institute): Refining Adjuvant treatment IN endometrial cancer Based On molecular features (RAINBO) No Specific Molecular Profile (NSMP)-ORANGE trial - $1,575,898

Teresa Purzner (Surgery, Sinclair Cancer Research Institute), James Purzner (Surgery): Identifying Drivers of Glioblastoma Recurrence Through Molecular and Functional Profiling of Surgical Margins and Infiltrated Brain - $994,500

Sébastien Talbot (Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Sinclair Cancer Research Institute): Nociceptor neurons control tumor-associated macrophages - $1,143,676

Christine White (Medicine), Rachel Holden (Medicine): A Randomized Controlled Study of Dialysis Less Frequently in the Elderly (DLITE) - $940,950

Xiaolong Yang (Pathology and Molecular Medicine): Investigating the Role of GREP1 in Breast Cancer Metastasis and Therapy - $1,266,076

Project Grant: Bridge Funding

Steven Brooks (Emergency Medicine): Empowering Communities to Save Lives: Optimizing the Neighbours Saving Neighbours Program for Cardiac Arrest Response - $100,000