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Featured Labs

Liaw Lab
McMaster University
Thrombosis & Atherosclerosis Research Institute (TaARI)

 

Our Research Program

Research in the Liaw Lab focuses on the biological crosstalk between microbial infection, innate immunity, and blood clotting, a process termed “immunothrombosis”. Our approach is to integrate lab-based studies with translational/clinical research project to better understand how immunothrombosis contributes to morbidity and mortality in critically ill patients. Our integrative research approach includes studies at the levels of cell biology, biochemistry, animal models, and translational studies of ICU patients. We are also engaged in CCCTBG and CCCTG projects to increase biosampling-based translational research capacity in Canada.


Current Projects

Our research is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Canadian Venous Thromboembolism Research Network (CanVECTOR) and the Canadian Network of COVID-19 Clinical Trials Networks. Current research projects include:

  • Phase 1 clinical trial of intravenous DNaseI in ICU patients with sepsis
  • Translational studies of heparin in sepsis-associated immunothrombosis
  • Mechanisms of immunothrombosis in COVID-19 patients
  • Impact of blood clotting capacity on the host response to infection
  • Increasing translational research capacity in academic and community sites in Canada


The Liaw Lab on PubMed (offsite link)

Dr. Alison Fox-Robichaud's Lab

David Braley Research Institute
Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research Institute

  • Alison Fox-Robichaud; MSc, MD, FRCPC (Int Med, Critical Care)
  • Tracey Reynolds, Administrative Assistant
  • Paulina Kowalewska, PhD*
  • Momina Khan, PhD*
  • Peter Grin, Summer Student
  • Michael Xu, Summer Student
  • Christine Wardell, Summer Student

The Calvin, Phoebe, and Joan Snyder Translational Laboratory in Critical Care Medicine

The University of Calgary Health Science Centre

  • Paul Kubes; PhD
  • Caroline Léger, PhD
  • Patrick Tam, Research Assistant

Translational Research Centre

London, Ontario

The Translational Research Centre supports local, national and international projects through the collection, processing, storage and shipment of biological specimens for research purposes. Hypotheses are investigated with greater ease and rapidity by linking critical care clinicians and scientists focused on improving therapies and remedying disease in ICUs. Please visit our website for a full listing of tissues collected, services provided and current projects as well as downloads and information about our clinical database.

  • Douglas D. Fraser, MD, PhD, FRCPC, TRC Director
  • Carolina Gillio Meina, PhD, TRC Research Associate
  • Jennifer Devlin, Adminstrative Coordinator
  • Dominic Langley, BSc, BA, cMBA Business Manager

Dr. Jean-François Calhier's Lab

Macrophages are the central element of the laboratory. Deciphering the role of macrophages during inflammatory processes clearly define our interests using translational research models (using both clinical and basic science approaches). Not only we are interested in the mechanisms involved in macrophages reprogramming in response to the cues generated from inflammatory environments (injury/infection), but we are also studying the subsequent impact of macrophages on other immune cells such as neutrophils and lymphocytes. Macrophage are plastic, they can adopt either a pro- or anti-inflammatory phenotype. We are currently studying how macrophages contribute to various inflammatory diseases found in the intensive care units and how they are affected by their treatment from subarachnoid hemorrhage, brain death, transplantation, fulminant hepatitis to cancer. This will give us the opportunity to identify how to reprogram macrophages to modulate the inflammatory response as we desire to help our patients.