Research Location: Simon Fraser University – Burnaby Campus

Systemic racism against Indigenous peoples is an enduring problem in British Columbia’s health care system. Education and training programs to date have fallen short in producing necessary structural and systemic change, due in part to the lack of consistently mandated training for health care providers in cultural safety and humility. The overarching goal of this program is to support re-emerging nation-to-nation relationships in Canada as a key determinant of Indigenous health, as a pathway to improving Indigenous experiences of care within the BC health system and creating healthy lands and waters on unceded Indigenous territories. My research program examines how Indigenous peoples are asserting self-determination in community health and wellbeing in response to wide-spread anti-Indigenous racism, and how land-based, Indigenous knowledge may transform relationships. I use storytelling and other knowledge creation methodologies to examine the connection between colonization and Indigenous health and wellbeing, and Indigenous communities’ strategies to exercise self-determination in the face of persistent inequities and injustice. These methodologies are guided by Indigenous community partners and OCAP® principles.

Several infectious diseases are among the top causes of death worldwide, including ~7% of deaths in Canada. Bacterial infections are often treatable; however, chronic misuse of antibiotics has created a critical global health threat by increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). In addition, bacterial infection can lead to sepsis, which is particularly dangerous for newborns and kills three million babies per year. Avoiding further infant deaths will require (1) methods to predict and detect sepsis early, enabling treatment when the chance of survival is greatest, and (2) knowledge of how pathogens like Klebsiella pneumoniae cause disease in newborns, guiding the development of targeted treatments that overcome AMR. Using hundreds of newborn blood samples, we are using cutting-edge genomic, bioinformatic, and machine learning approaches to identify molecular changes induced by sepsis that are generalizable to infants worldwide. This research is critical for our long-term goal of developing rapid tests and precision treatments that neutralize sepsis—the most common cause of newborn death.