Supporting research

The Memorial University of Newfoundland Medical Research Foundation (MRF) was established to assist the Faculty of Medicine in meeting its objectives of developing and maintaining academic and research excellence in order to meet the needs of the province and its people.The main purpose of the foundation is to raise funds through endowments, bequests and donations from friends, patrons, graduates and private industry. Each year awards are given in support of research in the Faculty of Medicine. In 2002-03, research awards of $25,000 each were given to Dr. Guang Sun, genetics, and Dr. Bruce Van Vliet, basic medical sciences.

Dr. Sun is shown here with one of his research subjects in a study involving exercise and body weight.

Dr. Guang Sun is using his MRF award to research overfeeding and obesity. He is studying young adult males, some overweight and some within the normal weight range. In particular he is looking at skeletal muscle tissue, which occupies 50 to 70 per cent of human body weight.

This year Dr. Sun was also awarded a new three-year grant of more than $142,000 per year from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, for a study on overfeeding and obesity with respect to human adipose tissue.

Dr. Sun's research is aimed at discovering the genetic reasons why overweight people seem to have so much trouble losing the weight, even when they incorporate diet and exercise into their daily lives. Over 50 per cent of Canadians are overweight and about 15 per cent of adults 20 to 64 years of age are obese.

Dr. Sun holds the Novartis Professorship in Pediatric Genetics, sponsored by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Canada Inc.

These tiny telemeters, shown on the palm of Dr. Bruce Van Vliet's hand are surgically inserted into mice in order to transmit blood pressure readings 24 hours a day.

Dr. Bruce Van Vliet will use his MRF award to study blood pressure in mice.

Mice are very tiny research subjects and traditional methods of measuring blood pressure are not effective. Dr. Van Vliet has found the most effective way to measure mouse blood pressure is with tiny internally-inserted telemeters that emit a continuous radio signal.

Dr. Van Vliet said the MRF funding, although relatively small, allows his lab to diversify. He would like to interest the NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council) in supporting his projects, but to submit an application the project needs to be fairly mature. This is where the MRF funding comes in, enabling his lab to focus specifically on how to phenotype the blood pressure of a mouse.

Dr. Van Vliet noted that other than the Faculty of Medicine's Medical Research Foundation and Dr. A.R. Cox awards, there are no provincial sources of funding for basic medical research. "There is a tremendous requirement for seed money in research. You need to find funding to be able to follow leads and try new approaches. It takes a lot of funding to come up with a project that will be supported federally."