$75,000 in grants for three research projects

Moncton, April 14, 2022 – Vitalité Health Network, the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick and the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation wish to congratulate their physicians and researchers as well as their colleagues at the Université de Moncton for having received grants to conduct three separate research projects, each in the amount of $25,000.

The DUO program aims at making research funds available to facilitate collaboration between university researchers and clinicians. By promoting the development of collaborative research, we want to stimulate research activities that meet a clinical or educational need whose spinoffs could potentially lead to beneficial innovations or improvements for patients.

The amounts allocated to these three research projects were received through the Programme de financement de recherche en santé DUO. Since this year, the project has been managed through a tripartite contribution agreement involving Vitalité Health Network, the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation and the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick. Each funded application was evaluated by a committee of four independent evaluators via a process similar to that employed by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The funding for the projects originates from the research development program of the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick.

The three partners in the DUO program are pleased to congratulate the following recipients for their health research work:

  • Dr. Yves Thibeault, Nephrologist at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont UHC, and Prof. Étienne Hébert Chatelain, from the Department of Biology of the Université de Moncton, for the project “Impact d’un traitement chronique à la N-acétyl-cystéine sur la fonction rénale et mitochondriale chez les patients atteints du syndrome de Fanconi acadien et évaluation in vitro d’un protocole alternatif de traitement centré sur le patient.”
  • Dr. Éric Allain, Clinical Specialist in Bioinformatics at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont UHC, Dr. Jacques Maillet, Hemato-Oncology Clinician at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont UHC, Prof. Gilles Robichaud and Prof. Luc Boudreau, of the Université de Moncton, for the project “Développement d’un essai de génotypage accéléré et abordable pour la classification des leucémies lymphoïdes chroniques (LLC).”
  • Dr. Lise Babin, General Practitioner at the Greater Moncton Family Medicine Unit and Director of the New Brunswick Francophone Family Medicine Training Program, Prof. Saïd Mekary, Prof. Mathieu Bélanger and Prof. Jacinthe Beauchamp from the Department of Family Medicine of the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick, for the project “Essai pilote d’un outil d’évaluation des risques pour promouvoir le changement de comportement dans une clinique d’enseignement de la médecine familiale.”
Here are descriptions of the three research projects:

Impact d’un traitement chronique à la N-acétyl-cystéine sur la fonction rénale et mitochondriale chez les patients atteints du syndrome de Fanconi acadien et évaluation in vitro d’un protocole alternatif de traitement centré sur le patient

For a few years, Dr. Thibeault has been treating patients suffering from the Fanconi syndrome (a kidney disease) with a molecule called NAC. This disease is caused by a mutation affecting a compartment and specific functions in kidney cells. The goal of this project is (1) to evaluate the effectiveness of this treatment on kidney function and on the cellular processes involved and (2) to implement and test a new treatment protocol better adapted to patient needs. This work will be done in collaboration with Prof. Etienne Hébert Chatelain and patient partners.

Développement d’un essai de génotypage accéléré et abordable pour la classification des leucémies lymphoïdes chroniques (LLC)

Sequencing technologies have become powerful tools to diagnose cancer. Despite the availability of these technologies at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont University Hospital Centre (Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont UHC), clinical specimens are often sent elsewhere for assessment and sequencing. This practice is very costly for the health care system and results in significant delays in the patient’s therapeutic plan. For instance, IGHV status (mutation) is an important biomarker that determines the type of chronic lymphoid leukemia (CLL) treatment as well as some lymphomas. IGHV status is usually determined through ADN sequencing in laboratories outside of New Brunswick. Recently, we, along with other research groups, have developed bioinformatic tools to determine the IGHV status from RNA sequencing, which is normally cheaper than ADN sequencing. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that IGHV status can be measured using RNA sequencing and that this analysis can be coupled with the measurement of other sequencing markers commonly used for cancer at the Dr. Georges-L.-Dumont UHC. Consequently, we would be able to minimize delays in getting cytogenetic analysis results, speed up the therapeutic plan and reduce costs for the health care system. Ultimately, this approach could theoretically be used to interpret multiple parameters for the analysis of several sub-types of cancers in parallel from a single reaction on the same sample.

Essai pilote d’un outil d’évaluation des risques pour promouvoir le changement de comportement dans une clinique d’enseignement de la médecine familiale

Approximately three-quarters of chronic diseases could be avoided by eliminating risk factors such as physical inactivity, unhealthy eating, smoking and alcohol abuse. Recent studies have shown that targeted behavioural recommendations from family physicians can encourage patients to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Despite the effectiveness of behavioural interventions from family physicians, only a small minority of them officially recommend behavioural changes to their patients. Local research in New Brunswick reveals that time constraints and difficulty addressing the subject are the main reasons why family physicians do not typically engage in behavioural change interventions. A solution to these challenges could reside in customized tools. Nowadays, there are plenty of risk calculators that provide estimated personalized health scores. However, despite their validity and ease of use, calculators based on health behaviours have yet to be implemented in the practice of primary health care. The purpose of this project is therefore to potentiate the use of valid and user-friendly risk calculators based on health behaviours to target the main changes in behaviour (e.g. physical activity, diet, etc.), i.e. those that are the most likely to lead to significant improvements in patients’ health outcomes. Additionally, introducing this resource will help primary health care providers initiate discussions on behaviour changes while maximizing time spent with their patients.