Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Research News

	ELEVATE seed grants to help researchers at The Ottawa Hospital improve prevention and care for kidney disease March 3, 2025 - The grants, worth a total of $200,000, focus on areas such as autoimmune kidney disease, mini-kidney models, kidney replacement education, and artificial intelligence to improve drug dosing.
	New scientist profile: Dr. Ann Bugeja aims to increase living kidney donations, improve high blood pressure care January 21, 2025 - “High blood pressure is easy to take for granted because it’s so common, but there’s a lot of complexity in care, how it’s managed, and how people access care.".
	Kidney donation: research shows benefits of new 1-day screening February 23, 2024 - If you were thinking of becoming a living kidney donor, would you rather do all your screening appointments in one day, or spread them out over six months?
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	ELEVATE seed grants to help researchers at The Ottawa Hospital improve prevention and care for kidney disease February 21, 2024 - The Ottawa Hospital’s Research Institute is awarding five ELEVATE seed grants to kickstart innovative kidney research projects.
	Three COVID-19 vaccine doses significantly reduced infection, severe outcomes in organ transplant recipients September 14, 2022 - Dr. Greg Knoll led one of the few real-world studies of the effectiveness of a third dose of COVID-19 vaccine among organ transplant recipients by using linked healthcare databases.
	When Is Dead Really Dead? February 17, 2021 - Researchers at The Ottawa Hospital played a major role in a CHEO-led study published in the New England Journals of Medicine. The study, led by Dr. Sonny Dhanani, asked over 600 families to allow their loved ones in the ICU to have their vital signs
	Stem cell treatment for scleroderma improves quality of life February 17, 2021 - When Dr. Nancy Maltez meets a patient with early severe systemic scleroderma, a rare autoimmune disease that hardens the skin and organs, she knows one of the best options is to reset their immune system using strong chemotherapy and a stem cell tran
	$950,000 to help develop stem cell treatments for septic shock, lung injury and muscle degeneration May 17, 2019 - Researchers from The Ottawa Hospital, CHEO and the University of Ottawa are bringing discoveries made in the lab closer to human trials and therapies, thanks to four new peer-reviewed research grants from the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medici
	Clinical trials offer strong foundation for better patient care May 16, 2019 - Clinical trials are an important step toward developing new treatments and learning more about diseases and conditions. In honour of International Clinical Trials Day, read how some of the researchers at The Ottawa Hospital are making huge contribut
	Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recommended as a standard of care for certain kinds of MS in the U.S. March 13, 2019 - The American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation has recommended that stem cell transplantation for MS, which has been pioneered at The Ottawa Hospital, be considered a “standard of care, clinical evidence available” for people with certain
	Access to kidney transplants unequal across Ontario: study January 9, 2017 - A study published in the American Journal of Transplantation found that chronic dialysis patients in Ontario have unequal access to kidney transplants. These patients with kidney failure will be on dialysis their whole lives unless they receive a
	When drugs don’t work: research spares kidney transplant patients from unnecessary risks January 21, 2016 - Ottawa Resident Jim Ward, who received a kidney transplant from his brother in 2001, took part in an important eight-year study that showed a commonly prescribed drug doesn’t work nearly as well as previously thought and could potentially harm k

Researchers

Name	Scientific appointment	Diseases, conditions and populations of interest	Research and clinical approaches
Allan, David MD FRCPC	Scientist (CR)	Blood cancer, Vascular, heart and metabolic disease	Cell therapy, Regenerative medicine, Stem cells, Systematic reviews, Transfusions, Translational research, Transplantation
Atkins, Harold MD, FRCPC	Senior Clinician Investigator (CR)	Autoimmune disease, Autoimmune diseases of the nervous system, Blood cancer, Cancer, Multiple sclerosis, Myasthenia gravis, Stiff person syndrome	Basic research, Cancer biotherapeutics, Cancer immunotherapy, Cell therapy, Clinical trials, Immunotherapy, Oncolytic viruses, Regenerative medicine, Stem cells, Translational research, Transplantation, Viral therapy
Bredeson, Christopher MD MSc FRCPC	Senior Clinician Investigator (CR)	Blood cancer	Clinical research, Stem cells, Transplantation
Gage, Blair PhD	Scientist (RM)	Bleeding disorders, Diabetes, Liver cancer, Liver disease, Vascular, heart and metabolic disease	Basic research, Bioinformatics, Cell therapy, Disease models, Gene expression, Gene therapy, Genetics, Genomics, Model organisms, Molecular and cellular biology, Regenerative medicine, Stem cells, Translational research, Transplantation
Kekre, Natasha BSc, MD, MPH, FRCPC	Scientist (CR)	Blood cancer, Cancer	Cancer biotherapeutics, Cancer immunotherapy, Cell therapy, Clinical research, Clinical trials, Epidemiology, Immunotherapy, Patient engagement, Translational research, Transplantation
Knoll, Gregory MD, MSc, FRCPC	Senior Scientist (ICD)	Kidney disease	Clinical research, Transplantation
Presseau, Justin PhD	Senior Scientist (MIR)	Chronic pain, COVID-19, Diabetes, Health equity, Hepatitis C, Immigrant and refugee health, Inflammatory bowel syndrome, Retinal disease, Vision	Artificial intelligence and data science, Health services research, Patient engagement, Psychometrics, Public health, Qualitative methods, Quality Improvement, Rapid reviews, Transfusions, Transplantation, Behaviour, Psychology, Health professional behaviour change, Knowledge translation and implementation research, Health promotion, Cluster randomized trials, Surveys
Ramsay, Timothy PhD	Senior Scientist (MIR)	Addiction, Alzheimer's, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Anxiety, Ataxia, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Autism, Bipolar, Brain and neuromuscular disease, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, Colorectal cancer, Concussion, Cystic fibrosis, Dementia, Depression, First Nations, Inuit and Métis Health, HIV, Immigrant and refugee health, Influenza, Kidney disease, Lung cancer, Macular degeneration, Men's health, Multiple sclerosis, Muscular dystrophy, Myasthenia gravis, Obesity, Ovarian cancer, Parkinson's, Pulmonary hypertension, Septic shock, Spinal cord injury	Artificial intelligence and data science, Behaviour, Biomaterials, Biostatistics, Cell therapy, Clinical decision rules, Clinical research, Clinical trials, Cohort studies, Critical care, Drug development, Emergency medicine, Epidemiology, Health professional behaviour change, Health promotion, Health research methods, Health services research, Health technology, Immunization, Immunotherapy, Palliative care, Patient decision aids, Pharmacology, Pharmacy, Prevention, Psychology, Psychometrics, Public health, Qualitative methods, Quality Improvement, Regenerative medicine, Rehabilitation, Risk assessment, Shared decision making, Surgery, Surveys, Systematic reviews, Transfusions, Translational research, Transplantation, Viral therapy