CIHR-ICRH/CSATVB Mid-Career Excellence Award in Blood and Blood Vessel Research

The CIHR-ICRH and the Canadian Society of Atherosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology (CSATVB) have partnered on the Mid-Career Excellence Award in Blood and Blood Vessel Research to recognize an individual's outstanding contribution to the advancement of blood and/or blood vessel sciences both in Canada and internationally at the mid-point of their career. The award will be presented to the selected candidate at the Canadian Lipid and Vascular Summit, where the recipient will deliver a lecture as part of the scientific program. The Canadian Lipid and Vascular Summit is a joint scientific symposium of the CSATVB and the Canadian Lipoprotein Conference.

2024

Dr. Jason Fish – Recipient of the 2024 CIHR-ICRH/CSATVB Mid-Career Excellence Award in Blood and Blood Vessel Research

Dr. Jason Fish is a Senior Scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute at the University Health Network and a Full Professor at the University of Toronto’s Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology. Dr. Fish completed his PhD at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Philip Marsden. Here he uncovered a role for epigenetics in gene regulation in blood vessels. This was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and the University of California San Francisco under the supervision of Dr. Deepak Srivastava. Here, Dr. Fish uncovered a role for microRNAs in regulating the development of the cardiovascular system.

Since moving back to Toronto in 2010, Dr. Fish and his team explore the mechanisms of gene regulation in the endothelium in health and disease. His recent work has uncovered how somatic mutations in the endothelium lead to sporadic brain arteriovenous malformations, a leading cause of stroke in young people. His laboratory is uncovering the mechanisms involved and is using this information to design new therapies. Dr. Fish’s laboratory is also determining how chemotherapy affects the vascular system and how altered endothelial cell identity contributes to atherosclerosis. Dr. Fish is currently the president of the North American Vascular Biology Organization.

2023

Dr. Katey Rayner – Recipient of the 2023 CIHR-ICRH/CSATVB Mid-Career Excellence Award in Blood and Blood Vessel Research

Katey Rayner is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Ottawa, where she runs a research lab at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. She is also the Assistant Dean of Research in the Faculty of Medicine in Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Rayner’s research program focuses how inflammation underlies common diseases like coronary artery disease, obesity and dementia. Her lab is trying to understand the molecular signals that cause inappropriate activation of the immune system and how we can use this understanding to either better diagnose/identify patients at risk of disease, or to better treat this excess inflammation directly to lower risk of disease.

Dr. Rayner has been recognized with awards such as the Joseph A Vita Award (American Heart Association), Canadian Society for Molecular Biosciences Young Investigator Award, and is a member of the College of New Scholars of the Royal Society of Canada. Dr. Rayner’s research is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and the European Cardiovascular Research Network.

2022

Dr. Marc Carrier – Recipient of the 2022 CIHR-ICRH/CSATVB Mid-Career Excellence Award in Blood and Blood Vessel Research

Dr. Marc Carrier, M.D., MSc, FRCPC, is Head of the Division of Hematology at The Ottawa Hospital, a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medicine and Senior Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology Program of The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. He holds a Tier 1 Research Chair in Venous Thromboembolism and Cancer from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. His clinical research is focused in venous thromboembolic disease and cancer, including cancer screening, prevention and management.

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