Drawing on decolonizing and intersectional research approaches to inform action for health equity and reproductive justice among Indigenous women, Two-Spirit and gender diverse people

Health and social inequities faced by Indigenous women continue be shaped by ongoing systemic colonialism. My research program draws upon Indigenous and decolonizing methods to establish an empirical evidence base to inform interventions and action. Specific objectives include: 1) To draw upon Indigenous methodologies, community and arts-based approaches to understand Indigenous reproductive and maternal health experiences, identifying factors that influence access culturally-safe and trauma informed care; 2)Through intersectional, feminist and decolonial lenses understand how socio-structural factors facilitate or mitigate access to responsive justice systems, identifying community-led and strengths-based responses for Indigenous women who have experienced violence; 3) Examine and evaluate policies and initiatives aimed at addressing the MMIWG calls to justice for marginalized Indigenous women (including women living with HIV and in sex work). Map and innovative strategies and inform evidence-based actions for the development of structural, community-based and Indigenous-led responses; 4)Explore and map marginalized Indigenous women’s primary care experiences using cultural and arts-based methods to inform innovative interventions.

Alternative approaches to the criminalization of drugs: A drug policy research program for BC

The criminalization of drugs contributes to a range of health and social harms for people who use drugs (PWUD) across BC and Canada. Criminalization is a barrier for PWUDs access to health and harm reduction services. It also increases overdose and infectious disease risk and contributes to the over-incarceration of PWUD in Canadian prisons. The harms from criminalization are increasingly recognized by policymakers, scholars, and advocates across Canada. In BC, alternative policy models are being considered, including depenalization, decriminalization, police diversion, and safer supply programs. There is a timely opportunity to investigate the decisions, policies, and interventions related to these alternative approaches that aim to promote health equity for PWUD. This community-engaged research program will engage, work closely with, and gather the views of policymakers, health and justice system actors, PWUD, and other communities impacted by illicit drugs, to ensure the relevance, usefulness, and applicability of findings. Knowledge gained from this research is vital to support and promote health equity for PWUD both in BC and beyond.

Integrating clinical, functional and chemical genomics to understand lung cancer biology

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide, suffering from a late stage of disease at the time of diagnosis and a paucity of effective therapeutic strategies to treat advanced tumors. However, with our increasing understanding of lung cancer biology has come the advent of targeted therapies to combat this devastating disease. These therapies target mutated components of key cellular pathways on which tumors have become dependent on for survival, yielding drastic initial response rates without the major side effects of traditional chemotherapies. Despite these successes two major problems remain: first, the majority of lung cancer patients have tumors without mutations in targetable genes and; second, all patients eventually develop resistance to treatment with these targeted agents. In addition, since lung tumors commonly have hundreds of mutated genes, it is difficult to pinpoint those that are responsible for tumor growth and resistance to therapy, creating a clear bottleneck in the translation of laboratory findings to a clinical setting.

 

I propose an integrative strategy to address these issues. Through analysis of the genomic profiles of human lung tumors, I aim to identify novel genes and pathways that are altered during lung cancer development. Furthermore, by combining this information with the characterization of mice genetically engineered to develop lung tumors, I attempt to elucidate the key genes driving lung cancer initiation, progression and response to therapy. Lastly, by screening libraries of chemical compounds across lung cancer cells, I aim to characterize novel inhibitors of these identified genes and their corresponding pathways that show promise for use as targeted therapies. Together, this work will further our understanding of lung cancer biology and create insight toward the development of new approaches to diagnose and treat patients suffering from this disease.

Biomarkers and interventions for mild traumatic brain injury and intimate partner violence

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI; e.g. concussion) results in a range of symptoms that disrupt daily life, and many mTBI patients go on to suffer persistent post-concussion symptoms (PPCS) that last for months to years. There are no reliable biomarkers for mTBI and PPCS, or interventions known to improve recovery.

This project will therefore assess the use of blood biomarkers as diagnostic and prognostic methods for mTBI and PPCS, and also investigate whether exercise intervention early after mTBI improves recovery. This project will also examine a grossly understudied cause of brain injury — intimate partner violence (IPV). Despite evidence of mTBI in approximately 90 percent of IPV survivors, the nature of this brain damage and how it contributes to their lived experience is poorly understood. Therefore, another goal of this project is to investigate the neurological health and a range biomarkers reflective of brain injury in women with a history of IPV.

In partnership with knowledge users (e.g. clinicians, nurses, patients, scientists), the findings from this project will facilitate the development of evidence-based interventions, education programs, and changes in practice and policy that improve the care of those who have suffered mTBIs.

Couples’ perinatal sexual health and well-being

Over 380,000 Canadian couples become pregnant each year. Of these, 20-68 percent of mothers and 22-45 percent of partners will experience distressing sexual health problems (e.g. low sexual desire, pain) that begin in pregnancy and that may continue up to 12-months postpartum. In turn, poor sexual health has many known consequences for overall health and well-being and is linked with increased use of health services. Yet, most new parents receive no information about sexual health during this period, in part, due to limited knowledge about who is most at risk and a lack of evidence-based interventions to address perinatal sexual health problems. Using a variety of research methods we will:

  1. Identify factors associated with who is most likely to experience perinatal sexual health problems.
  2. Use these factors to pilot a novel couples-based psychological intervention to improve sexual health.

In addition to benefits for couples’ sexual health, this research will also enhance couples’ general well-being, by reducing the psychological and relational burdens during an already vulnerable period. This knowledge will be shared with perinatal healthcare providers in order to improve perinatal healthcare practices.

Investigating the role of sleep disruption in the progressive memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia and a leading cause of death in Canada. Unfortunately, there are currently limited treatments available for this devastating disease. Recently sleep has been shown to regulate important aspects of Alzheimer’s disease pathology and is emerging as a promising target for novel interventions to prevent and slow disease progression.

To identify how changes in sleep and the body’s biological clock contribute to the cognitive deficits associated with Alzheimer’s disease, we will conduct a combination of preclinical experiments to evaluate causal mechanisms and clinical studies to evaluate the same processes in patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

The ultimate goal is to determine whether treating specific aspects of sleep disruption is an effective therapy for Alzheimer’s disease, which will help identify new treatments to prevent the progressive memory loss, improve the health and quality of life of patients and their families, and reduce the economic burden of the disease.

Physical activity and the clinical management of chronic diseases in children who reside in rural and remote communities in BC’s Interior

Physical activity is a cornerstone of health and wellbeing for all children. This includes children who live with chronic conditions such as congenital heart disease and diabetes. Oftentimes, these children and their families have unanswered questions regarding the safety and importance of physical activity participation. This is partly because physical activity is not regularly discussed during clinical appointments with specialist doctors, as other clinical topics take priority.

In my research, I will work with children who live with chronic conditions, and their families, to better understand their physical activity behaviours and reasons for them. I will also work with clinical care providers to learn about their current practices and attitudes around physical activity promotion. I will then bring everybody together to develop and implement new approaches that can help children with chronic conditions to lead more active lives.

Exploring mechanisms, pathways, and mitigation strategies to prevent loneliness, social isolation, and their deleterious health impacts

We experience hunger so we eat, thirst so we drink, tiredness so we sleep, and loneliness so we find social connection. Social needs are fundamental to humans and when we are lonely the body’s central stress response system is dysregulated. As a result, our capacity to manage stress, inflammation, and energy reserves is reduced. The end result: lonely people live shorter and sicker lives.

In the wake of COVID-19, which itself manifested in an era of already increasing social isolation, it has never been more important to study loneliness. Yet, while a robust literature base has examined loneliness in older adults, we still know very little about what we can do to respond to experiences of loneliness across the life-course. This is particularly true in marginalized populations, such as gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM), who are especially vulnerable to social exclusion and related stressors, but they also exhibit unique coping strategies that may buffer these effects.

My research will help us better understand the epidemiology of loneliness among gbMSM in order to prevent its deleterious effects on these individuals, their communities, and the broader population in the wake of COVID-19.

Informing the future of primary care: Virtual care, workforce optimization and the learning health system

Primary care is the foundation of strong health systems, ensuring people stay healthy and get care when needed. However, timely access to high-quality primary care is an ongoing problem in British Columbia and other provinces.

My program of research aims to ensure that all British Columbians can access quality primary care how and when they need it. The central project I lead uses information from interviews with health professionals (physicians, nurse practitioners and nurses) and patients; data from the health system; and provincial policy documents to study access to, experiences with, and outcomes from virtual primary care. Complementary research will inform modernization of the primary care workforce and informing ideal deployment of providers in team-based models in the context of COVID-19 and beyond. Finally, I lead work about implementation of “learning health systems” to support continuous improvement and innovation in primary care and across the health system more broadly.

My work follows an integrated knowledge translation model; I work with a team of researchers, policy makers, clinicians and patient partners to co-produce knowledge and address important and relevant questions that are driven by their combined input.

AI-driven integration of omics and histopathology for biomarker discovery in cancer

Tumors of the same cell type, origin, and stage have unique genetic features that impact course of disease and treatment response. However, management of cancer is still largely dictated by a patient’s tumor cell type and stage without further refinement.

We intend to take advantage of the unique opportunities afforded by BC’s cancer care system (with a single payer system and uniform treatment protocols, together with high quality patient outcome data) to build an artificial intelligence (AI)-based cancer biomarker discovery platform. The proposed platform will integrate the images of the tumor tissues along with their genetic markers through AI to identify novel biomarkers for cancer patient risk stratification and management. Our program will:

  1. Improve efficiency in pathology laboratories.
  2. Identify tissue image features that correlate with tumor genetics which can rapidly and accurately classify patients into clinically relevant groups.
  3. Generate new biomarkers for precision medicine by combining tumor genetics and tissue imaging.

Ultimately, this program will improve patient outcomes, alleviate the need to perform expensive genetic profiling tests, and lead to significant cost-savings in the healthcare system.