This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to collect information about how you interact with our website and allow us to remember your browser. We use this information to improve and customize your browsing experience, for analytics and metrics about our visitors both on this website and other media, and for marketing purposes. By using this website, you accept and agree to be bound by UVic’s Terms of Use for web and social media privacy.  If you do not agree to the above, you can configure your browser’s setting to “do not track.”

Skip to main content
People Departments Maps Buildings Rooms A-Z
University
of Victoria
Apply Library
Sign in Online tools Sign out
University of Victoria

University of Victoria scholars receive $8.4 million from CIHR for health projects

July 31, 2026

Mohsen Akbari, Gautam Awatramani, Lisa Bourque Bearskin, Julian Lum, Lisa Reynolds, Mariko Sakamoto, Brianna Turner and Karen Urbanoski
CIHR Project Grant recipients, Left to right: Mohsen Akbari, Gautam Awatramani, Lisa Bourque Bearskin, Julian Lum, Lisa Reynolds, Mariko Sakamoto, Brianna Turner and Karen Urbanoski.

Eight UVic-led projects have been awarded $8.4 million by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The diversity of topics — ranging from the immune system to safe supply and First Nations knowledge systems — represent some of the breadth of health research at UVic.

Funding through the CIHR Project Grant program will continue to support UVic’s decades-long commitment to working alongside communities, healthcare providers and governments to develop practical solutions that improve health outcomes and strengthen health systems.

CIHR Project Grant recipients:

Mohsen Akbari

Engineering immunotherapeutic strategies for glioblastoma using an injectable immunogel

This project aims to help the immune system recognize and attack tumours, providing more effective treatment for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer.

Gautam Awatramani

Dendritic computations in the retina

This study will uncover how specialized cells in the retina detect the direction of movement, providing new insight into disorders where motion perception is impaired.

Lisa Bourque Bearskin

From knowledge to healing: pathways to sustaining First Nations health knowledge systems

This project will provide practical tools that advance Indigenous health equity and inform policies that recognize and integrate Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing within publicly funded healthcare.

Julian Lum

Diet regulation of the metabolic-immune axis

This study examines how diet influences immune function in people with cancer, which could offer a scalable, accessible and cost-effective intervention that can be easily integrated into routine cancer care.

Lisa Reynolds

Environmental factors and mechanisms influencing oral tolerance to dietary antigens during early life

This research could help identify new strategies to prevent food allergies and support healthier immune development in children.

Mariko Sakamoto

Dementia-inclusive communities: A longitudinal community-based participatory research study

This project will create a publicly accessible, dementia-inclusive website with practical resources and local community information to help people living with dementia remain supported in their communities.

Brianna Turner

Co-design and evaluation of a novel peer-to-peer adaptation of dialectical behaviour skills training for people with Borderline Personality Disorder

This project will create a well-defined program for community mental health settings to augment existing services for people with Borderline Personality Disorder and increase their access to high-quality care.

Karen Urbanoski

Evolution of prescribed safer supply in Canada: Shifting policy landscapes and implications for population health

This study represents the first coordinated effort to synthesize prescribed safer supply policies and practices in Canada with a view to develop, tailor, and implement more coherent, equitable and sustainable responses to the ongoing toxic drug crisis.

The CIHR Project Grant program is designed to capture ideas with the greatest potential to advance health-related fundamental or applied knowledge, health research, health care, health systems, and/or health outcomes.

Read the CIHR announcement