Fall 2010 - III Newsletter

Message from Marc Ouellette
III Science Director

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to present our second Newsletter since I took the leadership of III. After consultation with my Institute Advisory Board (IAB), it was decided that we will send four newsletters a year. If you think that this is too much or not enough, please let us know.

This fall has been particularly busy with the final preparation of the International Review for the Institute. We have now submitted a final version that will be evaluated by an expert review panel and we will have a face-to-face meeting in Ottawa on February 8th, 2011. It is my pleasure to acknowledge the efforts of all staff – see the list on the left – but in particular of Dr. Judith Bray, the Ottawa based Assistant Director.

We had an IAB meeting in St-John's NL on September 21-22 and had the opportunity to discuss at length new targeted research directions. After extensive discussion it was decided that a request for application (RFA) on transplantation would be timely. The details are yet to be sorted out but we hope to have a workshop meeting in early 2011 to further refine this RFA. If you have any suggestions, please contact us (see coordinates below).

On September 21-22, the CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Initiative, led by III, hosted the CIHR Roundtable on Issues of Comorbidity in HIV-AIDS in Ottawa. This meeting was attended by over 30 researchers, health service providers, people living with HIV/AIDS and other community stakeholders from across Canada and the United States. The purpose of the meeting was to provide direction to the Institute on a research agenda to address this priority topic and the Institute is currently developing funding opportunities in response to the recommendations of the roundtable.

Dr Alain Beaudet, President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, visited our institute office on October 5 to meet with the staff and discuss about ongoing and upcoming initiatives:

• Pandemic Preparedness Strategic Research Initiative (PPSRI)
• Canadian HIV-1 Vaccine Initiative (CHVI see below)
• Work on Antibiotic Resistance and recent launch of UK-CIHR RFA
• Activities on Microbiome research (see below)

We will expand on these items in upcoming newsletters.

On September 23, on behalf of the Government of Canada (GC), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) organized a consultation meeting in Ottawa on the Canadian HIV Vaccine Initiative (CHVI). This renewed collaboration between the GC and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will bring new money for vaccine research against HIV in Canada. The first step will be to select an Alliance Coordinator for this effort.

On October 14, at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, III and partners announced the results of the microbiome competition. The seven teams will study the microbiome and its role in a number of health conditions, including asthma, inflammatory bowel diseases, respiratory infections and cystic fibrosis. Congratulations to Principal Investigators: Drs W. Ford Doolittle, Brett Finlay, Anita Kozyrskyj, Deborah Money, Ken Croitoru, David Guttman, Michael Surette and to their teams! Partners on the Human Microbiome Initiative are: the CIHR Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD), the CIHR Ethics Office, the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of Canada (CCFC), the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CCFF) and Genome BC.

October 14th, 2010 - Press Conference at the Ontario Sciences Center, Toronto, ON. Partners in Microbiome Research (left to right): Dr. Kelvin Glasgow, CEO, Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of Canada, Dr. Alan Winter, President & CEO, Genome B.C., Lois Brown, MP Newmarket-Aurora, Dr. Marc Ouellette, Scientific Director, III - CIHR and Cathleen Morrison, CEO, Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

As you can see, many files have kept us busy in the last months and I still much enjoy meeting with PIs and trainees. Our next IAB will be in held in January 2011 in Toronto. I will attend the Canadian Society for Transplantation next March and the Canadian Society of Immunology meeting next April. I am looking forward to meeting you there. Part of my job is to relay your queries to the CIHR Scientific Council. You can contact me if you have suggestions to help make III an even more vibrant entity.

I look forward to very fruitful interactions with you in the future,

Best wishes,
Marc Ouellette

III Funding opportunities

There are a number of III funding opportunities currently inviting applications including:

• Team Grant - Canada-UK Partnership on Antibiotic Resistance application deadline:
  November 15
• Network Catalyst Grant application deadline:
  November 15
• III Bridge Funding Priority Announcement to be launched in December
• Meetings, Planning, and Dissemination Grants to be launched in December
• Operating Grant: Priority Announcement (Hepatitis C), to be launched in December
• HIV/AIDS funding opportunities to be launched in December 2010

Please review the CIHR Funding Opportunities website for further information on these and other funding opportunities.

Meetings of interest

Canadian Pandemic Preparedness Annual Meeting: Outcomes, impacts and Lessons learned, Montréal, Qc -November 12-13, 2010

Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) 2010 Conference, Toronto, ON, November 15-16, 2010:

IGH's 10th anniversary conference: Innovations in Gender, Sex, and Health Research, Toronto, ON –
November 22-23, 2010.

Spring 2011 meeting of the Canadian Society for Immunology - The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, Lake Louise, AB - April 8 – 11, 2011

International Microbiome Meeting – Vancouver, BC
March 9-11, 2011

International Society for STD Research, 19th Conference – Québec City, Qc - July 10-13, 2011 –