Forty researchers at Memorial, including Drs. Anthony Incognito, Joseph Olayemi Olajide and Qutuba Karwi in the Faculty of Medicine, are receiving support.

The funding comes from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s (NSERC) highly competitive research grant programs.

In total, Memorial researchers have secured $9,436,718 in funding. Teams are based in the faculties of Medicine, Science and Engineering and Applied Science, as well as the Marine Institute.

In 2017, Cynthia McNeil began noticing random rashes on her arms.

Concerned, she made an appointment with her family doctor in Fort McMurray, Alta., who sent her off for tests.

Her bloodwork showed chronically high white blood cell counts, so she was referred to a hematologist for more tests.

Exposure to environmental pollutants affects all of us in many ways — some that are well understood, and some that researchers are just beginning to explore. One understudied area is the impact of pollutants like micro and nanoplastics. 

Thanks to $914,176 from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), co-PI Dr. Lindsay Cahill, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, and cross appointed to the Discipline of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, will explore sex-specific vulnerability to these pollutants in depth.