CFI awards Queen’s researchers more than $1 million

Kingston - Six promising young Queen’s researchers – working on projects ranging from the cellular genomics of cancer to slowing today’s allergy epidemic – have received a total of $1,077,034 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) Leaders Opportunities Fund.

The award is part of a $26-million package to support 117 projects at 29 institutions across Canada.

In announcing the new funding, CFI president and CEO Eliot Phillipson said: “As primary drivers of our innovation economy, Canada’s research universities are a vital part of ensuring the nation’s economic recovery over both the short and long term, and these investments play a key role in furthering that work.”

CFI’s Leaders Opportunity Fund program, created in 2006, was designed to give Canadian universities the flexibility to both attract and retain the very best researchers, at a time of intense international competition for leading faculty.

Queen’s recipients include:

Jeremy Squire (Pathology and Molecular Medicine), who receives who receives $494,649 to investigate the cellular genomics of cancer.

Amy Latimer (Kinesiology and Health Studies), who is awarded $95,000 to develop intervention models and dissemination strategies for promoting physical activity for adults with a mobility impairment

John Cartledge (Electrical and Computer Engineering) who receives $181,711 towards his research into pignal Processing for fiber-optic communications

Anne Ellis (Allergy, Microbiology and Immunology) who is awarded $1 , 509 for her work on slowing the allergy epidemic through understanding and prevention.

Jia Zongchao (Biochemistry) who receives $46,165 to conduct a structural and functional analysis of cancer-related proteins.

Kyra Pike (Kinesiology and Health Studies), who is awarded $80,000 to investigate the function and structure of human arteries in health, stress and disease.