Mark Verway, a doctoral student in Physiology at McGill University, is the award winner of the Fonds Santé, one of the three Fonds awards of the Fonds de recherche du Québec. His Award-winning publication ‘Vitamin D Induces Interleukin-1β Expression: Paracrine Macrophage Epithelial Signaling Controls M. tuberculosis Infection’ is published in PLOS Pathogens, 9(6), e1003407, 2013.
Despite being a curable disease, tuberculosis affects one third of the world’s population. By modeling the effects of vitamin D in the very first stages of infection, Mark Verway’s work expands on the mechanisms by which vitamin D supplementation may be used to prevent the disease at its initiation. Such a program of prophylaxis would obviously represent a benefit to the patients. If proven successful, it would also come at a large financial savings for the health care services, as treating a single patient for tuberculosis costs the Québec government about $20,000, while vitamin D costs pennies per dose.
Read the full article here.
In addition to promoting research careers in Quebec, this competition recognizes the exceptional research contributions of college and university students (bachelor’s, master’s, doctorate), postdoctoral fellows and members of professional bodies who are enrolled in advanced research training programs in the areas covered by the three Fonds de recherche du Québec.
To learn more about the awards, click here.
April 25, 2014