[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/doble_bradley.jpg” caption=”Bradley Doble (biochemistry and biomedical sciences), Melissa Rutherford (psychology, neuroscience and behaviour) and Petra Arck (medicine) were awarded Tier 2 Chairs. “]McMaster has been awarded three more Canada Research Chairs, bringing the University's total of the prestigious awards to 66.

Petra Arck (medicine), Bradley Doble (biochemistry and biomedical sciences) and Melissa Rutherford (psychology, neuroscience and behaviour) were all awarded Tier 2 Chairs, recognizing them as exceptional emerging researchers who are acknowledged by their peers as having the potential to lead in their field. For each Tier 2 Chair, McMaster receives $100,000 annually for five years.

Additionally, Arck and Doble will receive $163,000 and $230,000, respectively, from the Canada Foundation for Innovation for infrastructure funding for CRC award winners.

Arck, a recruit from Germany, is the Canada Research Chair in Neuroimmunology. Her research involves neuron-endocrine-immune circuitry in brain-body cross talk.

Research has shown that when there's cross talk between the brain and body, the endocrine, immune and nervous systems engage in multiple interactions during the body's response to acute and chronic stress, stimulating a series of adaptation responses.

Several diseases have long been recognized to be triggered or aggravated by psychological stress, such as inflammatory bowel diseases, migraines, allergic encephalomyelitis, asthma and multiple sclerosis. Also, stress perception during pregnancy can trigger pregnancy complications and imprint the fetus to develop diseases in adult life. Her goal is to exploit behavioral strategies for the maintenance of health.

Doble, Canada Research Chair in Human Stem Cell Biology, and a member of the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute, comes to the University from the Ontario Cancer Institute.

His research focuses on the signaling pathways, or circuitry that allows embryonic stem cells to make exact copies of themselves, while retaining the ability to change into all the various cell types found in an adult. How this circuitry works is not well understood and Doble hopes to shed some new light on the subject.

His goal is to develop a better understanding of the process in order to provide new insight into how cancer develops and how stem cells could be used for the regeneration of tissue that has been destroyed by disease or injury.

Rutherford holds the Canada Research Chair in Social Perception Development. Her work focuses on early social perceptual development in typical children and in children with autism — an area that needs further understanding in order to improve the quality of life for children with autism.

Her research focuses on three main components: the early perception of animate motion and biological motion; the early perception of faces, including emotional facial expression and eye gaze; and the development of early autism screening and diagnostic tools, based on understanding this early social perceptual development in typical children.

Allison Sekuler, acting vice-president (research & international affairs) and Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience, says the Chairs program allows McMaster to recruit and retain researchers of the highest calibre who contribute significantly to the University's research enterprise.

“The Chairs program allows us to build on areas that are of critical and strategic importance to us,” she says. “But more than that, these researchers — among the best in their fields — teach, mentor and inspire our students with their cutting-edge work.”

Maxime Bernier, Minister of Industry and Minister Responsible for the Canada Research Chairs Program, says the government's newly released science and technology strategy, Mobilizing Science and Technology to Canada's Advantage, recognizes the importance of doing more to turn ideas into innovations that provide solutions to the environment, health and other important challenges, and to improve Canada's economic competitiveness.

“We are investing in promising researchers who turn ideas and innovations into practical and commercial applications for the benefit of all Canadians,” he said when announcing the new Canada Research Chairs.