Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have secured more than $24.6 million in total funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Spring 2026 Project Grant Competition. The investment will support more than 20 SickKids-led projects, part of a national funding announcement that awarded $412 million across 439 research grants.

The funded projects span a broad range of SickKids research programs and child health priorities, from precision medicine and genomics to new treatments for cancer, heart disease and neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as research aimed at improving health systems, prevention and care delivery. See all the funded projects on CIHR website.

Genetics, genomics and precision medicine

Lead PI: Dr. Linda Hiraki, Genetics & Genome Biology
Liquid Biopsy for Pediatric Lupus Nephritis: Urine Proteomics to Guide Therapy and Reduce Biopsy Burden ($1,105,424)

Lead PI: Dr. Jason Moffat, Genetics & Genome Biology
Advancing genetic interaction networks to decode the functional human genome ($1,292,850)
Mapping variant effects and genetic modifiers for NF1 ($1,174,276)

Lead PI: Dr. Christopher Pearson, Genetics & Genome Biology
Somatic repeat instability, CpG-methylation and chromosomal instability determine disease penetrance and disease heterogeneity in C9orf72 expansion carriers ($1,028,926)

Lead PI: Dr. Uri Tabori, Genetics & Genome Biology
Towards immune based combinations for the treatment of IDH1 mutant replication repair deficient gliomas ($1,275,640)

Lead PI: Dr. Jacob Vorstman, Genetics & Genome Biology
Tracking the development of excitation-inhibition balance in autism and intellectual disability: a longitudinal study in a high-risk genetic population ($1,357,876)

Brain development and neuroscience

Lead PI: Dr. George Ibrahim, Neurosciences & Mental Health
Modulation of sleep in children with epilepsy ($696,150)

Lead PI: Dr. Julie Lefebvre, Neurosciences & Mental Health
Synapse specificity and function in the cerebellum by Usher Syndrome-linked cadherins ($1,055,700)

Lead PI: Dr. Brian Nieman, Translational Medicine
Mouse MRI to discover genetic modifiers in autism ($1,296,677)

Developing new treatments and improving clinical care

Lead PI: Dr. Neil Goldenberg, Cell & Systems Biology
Inhibition of Spectrin Breakdown to Prevent Endothelial Dysfunction in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension ($1,005,976)

Lead PI: Dr. Cynthia Guidos, Cell & Systems Biology
Preventing infection-related mortality in children with Down syndrome during treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia ($921,824)

Lead PI: Dr. Cedric Manlhiot, Translational Medicine
Continuous predictive monitoring to individualize the timing of clinical evaluations in patients with pediatric heart disease ($819,316)

Lead PI: Dr. Anna Heath, Child Health Evaluative Sciences
Enabling Bayesian Clinical Trials: Improving the use of Bayesian methods in randomised clinical trials of efficacy and effectiveness ($1,143,676)

Population health, prevention and health systems

Lead PI: Dr. Eyal Cohen, Child Health Evaluative Sciences
Health and socioeconomic outcomes of each parent after the birth of a sick infant ($497,250)

Lead PI: Dr. Gabrielle Freire, Child Health Evaluative Sciences
Introducing quality indicators for paediatric injury care: co-design of a system-level implementation plan and evaluation of its feasibility, acceptability, and economic potential ($604,350)

Lead PI: Dr. Sonia Grandi, Child Health Evaluative Sciences
The evaluating Glucagon-like peptide-1 Receptor agonists use and pregnancy Outcomes among reproductive-aged Women (GROW) Study ($386,326)

Lead PI: Dr. Astrid Guttmann, Child Health Evaluative Sciences
Evidence for Healthy Policies on International Students in Canada ($715,274)

Lead PI: Dr. Shaun Morris, Child Health Evaluative Sciences
POPCORN-RSV: A Canadian Pregnant Individual-Infant Trial for Respiratory Syncytial Virus Immunization ($3,411,901)

Fundamental biology and metabolism

Lead PI: Dr. Brian Ciruna, Developmental, Stem Cell & Cancer Biology
Investigating oxidative stress-induced ECM remodelling and intervertebral disc defects in the etiopathogenesis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) ($1,373,176)

Lead PI: Dr. Sevan Hopyan, Developmental, Stem Cell & Cancer Biology
The biophysical origin of limb pattern ($1,036,576)

Lead PI: Dr. Glenda Courtney-Martin, Translational Medicine
The amino acid requirements of older adults >60 years is different from young adults ($1,399,950)

Lead PI: Dr. Hoon Ki Sung, Translational Medicine
Weight regain as a pathological state: Maladaptive adipose tissue re-expansion after obesity treatment ($1,013,626)