Faculty grant recipients
The latest grants received by our faculty members
Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging: Application for Phase III CCNA Operations Centre
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Funding for Phase III of CCNA, covering the operations centre, the COMPASS-ND observational study, and Brain Health PRO.
Total funding (Direct costs): $20,600,000
April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2029
Baycrest Academy for Research and Education Summer Program in Aging (SPA)
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Strengthening research competencies, cultivating empathy, building interprofessional networks and skills, and fostering innovation among the next generation of healthcare workers to meet the needs of older adults.
Other faculty contributors
Meaghan Adams, Rosanne Aleong, John Anderson, Nicole Anderson, Faith Boutcher, David Conn, Bjorn Herrmann, Lillian Hung, Nasreen Khatri, Raquel Meyer, Rita Orji, Allison Sekuler, Adriana Shnall, Bianca Stern, Linda Truong, Walter Wittich
Total funding (Direct costs): $130,000
April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2025
Catalyzing change: enhancing capacity for implementing evidence-based interventions in community child and youth mental health
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Implementation fails when functions misalign with EBI requirements. A survey and stakeholder dialogue will compare current organizational functions in Ontario CYMH community organizations against those identified as essential by implementation science and deliberate and recommend actionable steps to build capacity for effective implementation.
Other faculty contributors
Darren Courtney
Total funding (Direct costs): $133,876
October 1, 2024 - May 31 2026
Brain Health Care (BHCare) and Support in Aging Research Training Platform
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Training Grant: HRTP - Brain Health and Cognitive Impairment in Aging (IA)
Other faculty contributors
Co-PIs: Montero Odasso, Manuel M; Badhwar, Amanpreet; Bechard, Lauren E; Belleville, Sylvie N; Bethell, Jennifer M; Bherer, Louis; Bronskill, Susan E; Burhan, Amer M;
Other contributors: Chertkow, Howard M; Einstein, Gillian; Evans, Alan C; Faria, Frederico P; Feldman, Howard; Fraser, Sarah A; Hadjistavropoulos, Thomas; Ismail, Zahinoor; Kivipelto, Miia; Kobor, Michael S; Liu-Ambrose, Teresa Y; Mangialasche, Francesca; Monchi, Oury; Mullings, Delores V; Rajah, Maria N; Raymond, Lynn A; Roach, Pamela Marie; Savundranayagam, Marie Y; Schabrun, Siobhan; Seitz, Dallas P; Smith, Eric E; Vedel, Isabelle; Walker, Jennifer; Whitehead, Shawn N
Total funding (Direct costs): $2,400,000
September 2024
BBRF Young Investigator Grant: Brain Aging-Based Subtypes of Major Depressive Disorder
Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
Brain aging studies in MDD do not consider symptom heterogeneity, and it is possible that this factor contributes to low observed effect sizes or null findings in previous brain aging studies studying MDD. My research program intends to integrate these two approaches—brain aging and subtyping—in MDD, which may yield novel insights into the etiology of the disorder and enable personalized treatments.
Other faculty contributors
Co-PI: Sidney Kennedy
Total funding (Direct costs): $70,000
January 2025 - January 2027
2024 Early Career Research: Association of Irritability and Suicide-Related Behaviors During Social Cognition
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Recent evidence suggests that elevated irritability correlates with suicide risk. This study will quantify the behavioral and neurobiological relationship between irritability and suicide.
Other faculty contributors
Co-PI: Sidney Kennedy
Total funding (Direct costs): $139,968
Sept 2024 - August 2026
Harnessing the Potential of Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Caring Contacts for Recently Discharged Patients: A Feasibility Study
Alternative Funding Plan (AFP) Innovation Fund
Caring Contacts, brief communications of hope and support, sent to patients post-discharge, are a simple and low-cost intervention with proven effectiveness in reducing suicide risk and increasing help-seeking behaviours. Based on previous feedback from patients with lived experience (PWLE) we plan to assess the feasibility and acceptability of using artificial intelligence (AI), specifically large language models (LLMs), to craft personalized caring contact messages derived from individualized inpatient clinical documentation.
Other faculty contributors
Co-PI: Ayal Schaffer,
Total funding (Direct costs): $153,765
April 2024 - March 2026
What are the unique mental health needs of women in correctional and forensic mental health settings? A virtual community of practice model
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
As part of CIHR's National Women's Health Research Initiative, we will create a hub comprised of experts in women’s mental health to better understand the unique mental health, substance use, and criminogenic needs of women in the forensic mental health and criminal justice systems in Canada. The central and overarching objectives of this initiative are to examine the efficacy of current models of care, identify deficiencies in knowledge and current barriers to accessing care, and translate research evidence and best practice information into health policies and decision-making relevant to justice-involved women.
Other faculty contributors
Co-PI: Tonia Nicholls Co-Investigators: Ipsita Ray, Smita Vir Tyagi, Lucy Barker, Juliette Dupre, Cory Gerritsen, Roland Jones, Alexander Simpson, Treena Wilkie
Total funding (Direct costs): $583,022
October 1, 2024 - September 30, 2027
Data-driven treatment selection in youth with complex mood disorders - Using Digital Twins for tertiary prevention
Reasons for Hope, University of Toronto
Using Digital Twins to predict the trajectory of response to various treatments to improve treatment precision for youth with complex mood disorders.
Other faculty contributors
Co-PIs: Benoit Mulsant, Daniel Blumberger, Ishrat Husain, Ramzi Halabi, Jessica Gronsbell, Andrea Levinson
Total funding (Direct costs): $244,000
May 2024 - April 2026
Using Digital Twins to predict sex-specific outcomes for treatment in women diagnosed with bipolar disorders
Womenmind
This proposal incorporates multimodal e-monitoring, hormonal variables, and computational models to predict the trajectory of response and assist treatment assignment in women with bipolar disorder.
Other faculty contributors
Co-PIs: Daniel Blumberger, Jessica Gronsbell, Ishrat Husain, Mary Kimmel, Ramzi Halabi, Mirkamal Tolend, and Benoit Mulsant
Total funding (Direct costs): $200,000
September 2024 - August 2026
Health care costs and medical complexity of adults with a pathogenic genomic disorder in population-based health administrative data
McLaughlin Centre Special Research Grant
Other faculty contributors
Co-PIs: Sarah Malecki
Total funding (Direct costs): $75,000
July 1, 2023
Outcomes and disease burden in a model of young adult multimorbidity
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Other faculty contributors
Co-PIs: Ryan Yuen, Gregory Costain, Kathleen Hodgkinson
Total funding (Direct costs): $986,850
Oct 1, 2023
Intravenous Ketamine versus Personalized Accelerated Brain Stimulation in Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Pilot Randomized Feasibility Trial of Rapid-Acting Treatments (IKARE-TRD)
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Intravenous ketamine has established evidence and personalized accelerated brain stimulation has emerging evidence as rapid-acting interventions for treatment-resistant depression (TRD); this project is a two-site pilot randomized feasibility trial comparing these two rapid-acting interventions (IKARE-TRD).
Other faculty contributors
Co-PIs: Katherine Dunlop, Yanbo Zhang, Jennifer Swainson, Andrew KComt, Wendy Lou
Other faculty investigators: Benoit Mulsant, Daniel Blumberger, Sidney Kennedy, Perry Menzies
Total funding (Direct costs): $610,000
April 2024 - March 2027
Deep Brain Stimulation for PTSD: Development of personalized treatment and predictors of response
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Other faculty contributors
Co-PIs: Clement Hamani
Other faculty investigators: Agessandro Abrahao, Peter Giacobbe, Maged Goubran, Nir Lipsman. Luka Milosevic, Sean Nestor, Jennifer Rabin
Total funding (Direct costs): $1,093,950
July 1, 2023
Novel markers for tracking early treatment response to rTMS in major depressive disorder
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Evaluation of speech parameters and eye-tracking characteristics to emotionally laden stimuli as office-based biomarkers of early response to rTMS.
Other faculty contributors
Co-PIs: Jennifer Rabin
Other faculty investigators: Dr. N. Lipsman, Dr. S. Nestor
Total funding (Direct costs): $436,050
January 31, 2024 - January 31, 2029
Integrative Approach to Curriculum Development and Evaluation for Substance Use Disorder Training in Family Medicine Residency: A Collaborative Project between Psychiatry and Family Medicine Departments at Sinai Health.
Rotenberg Mental Health Research Grant in Primary Care
Other faculty contributors
Co-PI: Natalie Morson Co-Investigator: Wiplove Lamba
Total funding (Direct costs): $20,000
June 1, 2024 - May 31, 2026
Enhancing Patient Access to Care through Attendance Improvement Strategies in the Emergency Aftercare Service
Sinai Health Clinicians in Quality Improvement
Other faculty contributors
Co-Investigators: Carla Loftus, Outpatient Program Manager; Hillary Chan, CNS
Total funding (Direct costs): $10,000
May 1, 2024 - April 30, 2026
Maternal Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (m-ADHD): Mental Health, Pregnancy and Infant Outcomes
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
In this study, we will follow the ~35,000 people with ADHD in Ontario who became pregnant between 2012 and 2022. We will follow this group until 2024, and compare important maternal and child outcomes in pregnancy and up to 2 years postpartum in this group to those of pregnant people without ADHD. This will help us to identify health problems in the ADHD group that can be acted upon. We will also attempt to identify subgroups of people with ADHD who may be at particularly high risk for specific problems. Finally, we will create new, reliable, information about the safety of stimulant medication use in pregnancy. We believe that the study results will provide important information to patients and clinicians about how to best help people with ADHD plan for pregnancy, and guide us in developing new treatments or models of care to improve the health of pregnant and postpartum people with ADHD, and their children.
Other faculty contributors
Co-PIs: Hilary Brown, Jonathan Zipursky
Co-Applicants: Dr. L. Barker, Dr. B. Bolea-Alamanac, Dr. C. Clark, Dr. E. Cohen, Dr. C-. Dennis, M. Feldman, Dr. T. Gomes, Dr. C. Maxwell, Dr. J. Ray, Dr. N. Saunders, Dr. A. Toulany,
Total funding (Direct costs): $604,352
April 1, 2024-March 31, 2028
MOVIN: A pragmatic randomized controlled trial of a scalable collaborative care model for perinatal mental healthcare delivery
Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
Up to 20% of childbearing people develop mental illness during or after pregnancy. When untreated, these perinatal mental disorders negatively affect not only the perinatal person, but also the health and development of their children. Only 1 in 5 Canadians receive the help they need. Implementing a system-wide approach to reliably deliver recommended care to all perinatal mental health patients is a crucial healthcare priority. The Pregnancy and Postpartum Mental healthcare Optimization Virtual Intervention Network (MOVIN) is a perinatal mental health platform that allows patients to self-screen for symptoms, receive tailored education materials and connect with a care coordinator to co-develop personalized treatment recommendations in collaboration their primary care clinician and a perinatal psychiatrist when needed. Our pilot randomized trial showed clinical benefit, with potential for scale, spread and sustainability. We are now ready to take the next step in definitively evaluating the efficacy of MOVIN. In partnership with Ontario’s five large specialized perinatal mental health care programs, we will conduct a randomized controlled trial that will concurrently develop organizational and human capacity to enable sustainable province-wide scale-up of MOVIN in Ontario if results are positive. Along with knowledge users including decision-makers, healthcare professionals and persons with lived experience from across Canada, and meaningful opportunities for trainee development in perinatal mental health research, we will spark further collaborations to eventually pursue a national approach to implement best practices in perinatal mental health in our country.
Other faculty contributors
Co-PIs: Noah Ivers
Co-Applicants: Dr. L. Barker, Dr. H. Brown, Dr. T. Burra, Dr. C. Clark, Dr. C. Denni,s Dr. B. Frey, Dr. J. Gandhi, Dr. S. Grigoriadis, Ms. N. Hussain-Shamsy, Ms. Z. Ladak, Dr. C. Laur, Dr. C. Maxwell, Dr. B. Rosen, Dr. G. Saraf, Dr. D. Singla, Dr. M. Taljaard, Dr. K. Thavorn, Dr. R. Van Lieshout, Dr. E. Wright
Total funding (Direct costs): $1,510,875
April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2029