Three kinesiology experts from McMaster University have been selected as part of an elite team devoted to groundbreaking spinal cord research.

Maureen MacDonald, Audrey Hicks and Kathleen Martin Ginis will join 10 other scientists from across the country as part of the Canadian Institute of Health Research's “Chronic Disease Risk and Intervention Strategies Team Grant.” The announcement was recently made at the University of British Columbia.

The overall goal for the team is to improve cardiovascular health for those living with a spinal cord injury. Each year, more than 1,000 Canadians suffer a traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI), and join roughly 41,000 citizens already living with a chronic or debilitating condition. In Canada alone, the estimated annual costs of care exceed $1.5 billion.

Recent data show that people with SCI are developing chronic diseases at a younger age, and are doing so at greater rates than the able-bodied population. The team identifies this as an ”alarming trend,” and one caused by inactivity-related illnesses and cardiovascular diseases (CV).

While much information is still needed, the idea is to create and implement new exercise programs that can improve health for Canadians with SCI and CV. The team will attempt to break new ground at research sites in Hamilton, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver until November, 2016.

Researchers from McMaster will team up with experts from five other Canadian universities, with the entire project overseen by Andrei Krassioukov, division of physical medicine and rehabilitation, ICORD.

Maureen MacDonald is director of the Vascular Dynamics Laboratory, and is an active member of the Exercise Metabolism Research Group; Audrey Hicks is a professor and associate chair in the Department of Kinesiology at McMaster; Kathleen Martin Ginis is an exercise behavioural scientist and founding director of SCI Action Canada.