November Update from the CVRI Director

Dear CVRI members,

I am excited to provide a few updates from the CVRI and highlight key developments within our research community:

1. I am pleased to announce that Irene Mickel, BSc, has joined the CVRI as its Operations Lead.

In this role, Irene will oversee the coordination and administration of CVRI operations, and manage institute initiatives and activities including communications, our website, the research day, etc. It took several months for the position to be approved and the hiring process to be completed. Irene has almost 20 years of administrative experience at the Department of Medicine. Her email address is mickel@ualberta.ca, but she can also be reached through the CVRI email (cvri@ualberta.ca). 

2. CVRI finally has administrative space and an office in the Dianne and Irving Kipnes Health Research Academy building (formerly ECHA 2 -590) that will be open by mid-November.

Irene will have an open office on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., and meetings with her can be scheduled during these times. By mid-November, Irene can be reached at 780.492.1330 in addition to her email.

3. Connect with the CVRI Director

I welcome the opportunity to meet with any member of the CVRI community to discuss ongoing initiatives, collaborations, and ideas. I will be available for meetings on Thursdays at 10 a.m., either in-person (Dianne and Irving Kipnes Health Research Academy, formerly ECHA, 2 -590) or virtually (Zoom or Google Meet). To schedule a meeting, please contact Irene or myself at em2@ualbert.ca. I hope that I will complete the first cycle of meeting with all interested members within the next year.

4. I am also pleased to share that the CVRI Gary Lopaschuk Research Day will take place on Friday, May 29 at Bernard Snell Hall, starting at 7:30 a.m.

Please save the date and stay tuned for more details to come soon.

5. CVRI Membership Registration and Renewal

We are currently re-setting our membership records and invite all members to register or re-register with CVRI. This is important for the branding of the CVRI and its communication through our updated website (coming soon) and internal collaborations and engagement of faculty and learners. Currently, members have listed their “research interests” rather than their research and academic achievements. This time, we aim to capture additional information not previously collected, including:

• Your 3 best papers from the past 10 years
• Up to 3 representative grants: tri-Council or provincial grants from the past 10 years
• A brief 2-3 sentence summary of your research expertise/interest
• Your ORCID ID: This is important in order to capture and communicate CVRI publications in real-time as well as produce cumulative data on papers and grants annually

A website with this information will not only be important for our branding but will also allow your CVRI affiliation to strengthen your competitiveness for tri-council grants. Further details on the registration process will be shared soon but it is expected that the updated membership process will take less than 10 minutes to complete. This is worth it since CVRI membership will be needed to take advantage of what the new CVRI has to offer in: a) Grants for faculty and scholarships for learners; b) access to core-facilities: as you know the CVRC is now integrated with CVRI and so are its core facilities and space. We are working to improve and expand our core facilities toward the CVRI vision. As an example, we are working on a $15M CFI grant that, if successful, will transform CVRI.

Here is the summary of this initiative that several CVRI members are developing:

Drug Research, Innovation, Validation and Evaluation (DRIVE)

A CVRI/FoMD core facility for drug design/synthesis and animal/human phenotyping

Summary

DRIVE will integrate existing CVRI facilities with newly created “first in Canada” research units and partner with other U of A core facilities to create a much-needed novel platform of translational research, filling an institutional and national gap in drug development and translational research. DRIVE will allow drugs, along with companion biomarkers, to be discovered through in silico modeling using AI, chemically synthesized, and validated using cutting-edge animal and human tissues phenotyping units with the ultimate goal of advancing them to early-phase clinical trials. DRIVE, the first of its kind in Canada, will be open to all investigators from the U of A, as well as from Canadian and international universities and industry. This timely comprehensive approach will accelerate the U of A research momentum in identifying drug targets (e.g., new cryo-EM unit), AI and clinical trials (NACTC, SPORE), positioning the U of A as a national leader in translational research and accelerated drug development. The focus of DRIVE will include, but not restricted to, cardiovascular/stroke, aging, obesity, diabetes and cancer research (e.g., cardio-oncology), all established and emerging research priorities at the U of A.

DRIVE will consist of 3 units:

• Drug Discovery and Synthesis Unit (DDSU), modeling and synthesizing novel drugs.
• Comprehensive Animal Phenotyping Unit (CAPU) for disease model or transgenic animals.
• Comprehensive Human Phenotyping unit (CHPU), performing integrated multi-OMICS in stored or clinical trial-captured blood or biopsies.

DRIVE will evolve toward a financially self-sustainable model and eventually, through partnership with other academic and industry leaders, to a profitable national hub of drug development and translational research. U of A researchers will use DRIVE to enhance their competitiveness in tri-council grants, further improving our institution’s national standing in research. More updates will follow.

I look forward to an exciting year ahead as we continue to strengthen collaboration, innovation, and excellence within the CVRI. Thank you for your ongoing engagement and contributions to advancing cardiovascular research at the U of A.

Warm regards,

Evangelos Michelakis
Director, Cardiovascular Research Institute