U of R receives $3.7M for research
Grants fund projects on mental health, suicide prevention, Parkinson’s disease
To get to a destination, you often need a map to know what highway to take.
In his lab at the University of Regina, associate professor Mohan Babu and his team of researchers are mapping what is happening in the brain to understand risk-factor genes for Parkinson’s disease. In doing so, they hope to find a path to new therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative disorders.
The brain has a lot of neurons and 90 per cent of the energy that neurons consume depend on mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell that supply energy to the body.
If the mitochondria genes mutates, it leads to a number of disorders, including Parkinson’s disease.
“Understanding this mitochondrial connectivity is going to give us deep insight about how we can design therapeutics properly,” Babu said. His research is cutting edge. “This is purely novel ... particularly studying it in patients’ samples directly,” Babu said.
After touring Babu’s lab facilities at the university on Wednesday, Ralph Goodale, Regina-Wascana MP and minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, announced Babu and two other U of R researchers were awarded more than $3.7 million in grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
For his work, Babu received a $1.9-million grant, which will be used to fund the salaries of researchers and supplies.
Psychology professor Heather Hadjistavropoulos, the founder and director of the Online Therapy Unit at the U of R, received $971,000 toward delivering cognitive behavioural therapy via the internet.
The funding will increase opportunities for patients to access important mental health care more conveniently online, with weekly therapist support by secure phone calls or email. The online therapy is particularly helpful for those who live in remote and rural areas of Saskatchewan.
Dr. Tarun Katapally, assistant professor at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, is using his $772,000 grant to minimize suicide among Indigenous youth.
He will use a combination of western and culturally appropriate Indigenous ways to integrate physical health into the daily lives of Indigenous youths to foster better physical, mental and emotional health.
“We treat our youth as citizen scientists,” he said.
Implemented through schools, students will download an app on a smartphone and answer a set of questions during an eight-day period. At the same time, the app will collect data about their physical activity levels.
“This is physical activity for non-jocks,” Katapally said.
“This is not traditional sports. This is not for athletes. This is for kids who are traditionally not involved in sports. We try to bring in the physical activity program with the help of elders, with the help of the community.”
The aim is to improve how the teens view their lives.