Celebrating Award-Winning Research
When you hear the term “acquired brain injury” you might think of car crashes or contact sports like hockey and football – and of the debate on how to make our streets and sports safer.
But it’s what happens to people after the injury that rehabilitation sciences professor Angela Colantonio focuses on. Colantonio is the Director of the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute and a senior scientist at the University Health Network’s Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. She has investigated acquired brain injuries among vulnerable people, including criminalized populations. She extends her findings into training and educational outreach like the research-inspired play “After the Crash: A Play About Brain Injury.” Unchecked, brain injuries can have a devastating aftermath, but our increasing awareness of brain plasticity gives growing hope for recovery.
Colantonio’s research was recognized with the 2015 Robert L. Moody Prize for Distinguished Initiatives in Brain Injury Research and Rehabilitation. She was also recently made a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
“Even a mild injury can have longer term consequences,” Colantonio told a crowd gathered for the Faculty of Medicines’ 2015 Research Awards Reception. She was one of many researchers honoured at the event.
“I’d like to congratulate all of our brilliant and very hard-working faculty members for your curiosity, your imagination, and your tenacity,” said Faculty of Medicine Dean Trevor Young.
Hosted by Young and Professor Alison Buchan, Vice Dean, Research and Innovation, the event highlighted the work of 84 award-winning researchers, who won a total of 108 major national and international honours and awards. Among them, the prestigious Canada Gairdner Wightman Award, the Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research and the Order of Canada.
The awards span multiple areas of health and biomedical research – from advances in stem-cell research and regenerative medicine to surgery and rehabilitation sciences. Some involve advances at the intersection of engineering and medicine, and others in microbiology and infectious disease.
“What’s better than being able to have such a big impact?” said Professor Arthur Slutsky, Vice President of Research at St. Michael's Hospital, who was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and received the 2014 CIHR Researcher of the Year Award for his work in improving mechanical lung ventilation. “Not only can you impact the lives of your patients, but in mechanical ventilation, we’ve been able to decrease mortality on a larger scale.”
Other speakers at the event included Professors Daniel Drucker and Anne-Claude Gingras, who are both based at Sinai Health System’s Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute. Drucker, a Professor in the Division of Endocrinology was named a Fellow of the Royal Society, Officer of the Order of Canada, and won Japan’s Manpei Suzuki International Prize for Diabetes Research. Gingras is a Professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics and a newly minted Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, recognized for her work on the molecular basis of cancer.
The event also recognized the many committed donors whose vision and support make so much of this research possible. As just one example, Colantonio took the chance to thank the Saunderson family for “turning tragedy into hope” by establishing the Saunderson Family Chair in Acquired Brain Injury Research. Other donors, including long-time supporter Terrence Donnelly, were in attendance to hear about the impact of their contributions.
Each of the awardees will be featured on posters displayed throughout the year beside the elevators (across from the Dean’s corridor) in the lobby of the Medical Sciences Building.
