WATERLOO - University of Waterloo researchers have received funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) to perform work in body composition and cancer, diversity of microorganisms and the use of digital media technologies.

The UW researchers have been awarded grants totalling $386,099 for three projects in the latest cross-country funding announcement by the CFI, an independent federal government corporation. The money comes from CFI's leaders opportunity fund, which assists universities in attracting and retaining top faculty.

"These vital investments at Waterloo will help ensure that our researchers and their students have access to advanced research facilities," said George Dixon, UW's vice-president, university research.

UW's winning projects and researchers involved are as follows:

* Evaluation of body composition in health and disease. CFI funding: $56,232. Principal investigator: Marina Mourtzakis, professor of kinesiology.

A high precision tool, called a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometer (DXA), will allow Mourtzakis to measure body composition and track tissue changes accurately in cancer patients.

"The CFI-funded DXA is fundamental in advancing my research to evaluate the interrelationships between body composition, nutrition, exercise and metabolism in cancer," Mourtzakis said. "Unfavourable changes in body composition develop during the cancer trajectory and these changes are linked to poor metabolic outcomes that increase the risk of cancer recurrence, cardiovascular disease and diabetes in cancer survivors."

The DXA will allow her research team to precisely characterize body composition in cancer patients as well as to evaluate the efficacy of nutrition and exercise programs used to counter these body composition changes in cancer patients.

* Integrated facility for assessing microbial community diversity and function. CFI funding: $150,000. Principal investigator: Josh Neufeld, professor of biology.

The CFI money will be used to set up a state-of-the-art facility for microbial ecology research, spurring collaborative research with scientists at UW and other universities. At the facility, researchers can design and implement advanced molecular methods to describe and compare environmental and human-associated microbial communities.

"The extreme diversity of most microbial communities and the challenge of culturing microbial life have limited attempts by microbiologists to characterize these organisms and understand their metabolic roles in the environment," Neufeld said. "In our research, we seek to assess microbial diversity and composition as it relates to environmental parameters, and identify active organisms and novel enzymes associated with biogeochemical cycling of carbon and nitrogen in a range of habitats."

* Visualization and biotelematics environment. CFI funding: $179,867. Principal investigators: Marcel O'Gorman, professor of English language and literature, and Colin Ellard, professor of psychology.

The CFI-funded infrastructure enables O'Gorman and Ellard to advance collaborative research projects using mobile media, biometrics and visualization technologies.

Both researchers probe the interaction of the body with new technologies, especially the relationship between digital visualization techniques, physical mobility, and physical and mental health. Their work explores the impact of digital media on culture, society and the human condition.