Research Activities
Dr. McIntyre continues to develop a clinical program of research focused on fluid resuscitation
strategies in the critically ill (FLUID) as well as a program to study human
stem cells in septic shock (CISS).
All of her work is supported locally by the University of the Ottawa, Centre for
Transfusion Research and the Methods Centre at the Ottawa Hospital, and
nationally by the CCCTG and the Translational Biology Group (CCCTBG).
The
studies part of the FLUID research program include 2 Canadian surveys in 2004,
the other 2014 of adult critical care practitioners’ reported early septic
shock resuscitation practises, a Canadian multi-centre retrospective cohort
study that examined fluid resuscitation strategies in severe sepsis and septic
shock, two pilot feasibility fluid resuscitation randomized controlled trials
(FINESS and PRECISE), and most recently a CIHR funded pragmatic comparative
effectiveness hospital wide cluster cross over pilot randomized trial comparing
2 usual care crystalloid fluids, normal saline to Ringer’s lactate. Since
demonstrating feasibility in the FLUID pilot, our team applied for and were
successful at obtaining funding from the CIHR Project Scheme competition for
the large FLUID trial that will be powered to examine patient and clinically
relevant outcomes (death/re-admissions to hospital).
Her most recent program of research examines human stem cells (mesenchymal stromal
cells (MSCs)) for the treatment of septic shock (CISS). I have built a team of
scientists with expertise in stem cell translational research and
manufacturing, translational sepsis, clinical trialists, methodologists, and
trainees. I have completed and published 3 systematic reviews that served as
background for this program, one of which was funded by CIHR in the Knowledge
Synthesis competition. These include a systematic review of MSCs in
pre-clinical sepsis and acute lung injury (ALI), and an examination of the
safety of these cells in human clinical trials. I am the lead on a CIHR funded
Phase I dose escalating trial designed to examine safety, tolerability, and
potential biological mechanisms for MSCs in septic shock that our team has
recently completed and is now published in the Am J Respir Crit Care Med. I am
the principal investigator on a grant that our team was awarded from the
Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Stem Cell Network and CIHR for
a Phase II multi-centre randomized controlled trial of MSCs in septic shock.