The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant: Spring 2025 competition has approved 435 research grants for a total investment of approximately $411M. In addition, 46 priority announcement grants were funded for a total amount of $5,100,000 and 9 supplemental prizes were awarded for a total of $310,000.
Principal Investigator Dr. Ipek Oruç and an interdisciplinary research team at the University of British Columbia have been awarded a $100,000 grant from the CIHR to explore how sex and gender influence the development and progression of diabetic retinopathy (DR), the leading cause of blindness among working-age Canadians.
Co-investigators Dr. Neeru Gupta, Dr. Eduardo Navajas, Dr. Gulcenur Ozturan, and Dr. Ozgur Yilmaz bring a wealth of expertise across ophthalmology, engineering, and data science. The team’s findings are expected to support earlier and more accurate diagnoses and ultimately guide tailored treatment strategies that improve outcomes and reduce costs to the Canadian health system.
The one-year project, titled Harnessing Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Investigate Sex and Gender Differences in Diabetic Retinopathy, is funded under CIHR’s Project Grant Priority Announcement: Sex and Gender in Health Research – Advancing Intersectionality in Sex and Gender Science.
Using advanced AI tools including convolutional neural networks and explainable AI, the research team will analyze retinal images to uncover early indicators of disease that differ between men, women, and gender-diverse individuals. Preliminary findings suggest that women may be more susceptible to macular edema, while men could face higher risk for proliferative diabetic retinopathy, two sight-threatening complications of the disease.
Despite emerging evidence of these differences, current diagnostic and treatment approaches in ophthalmology rarely account for sex or gender. “We hypothesize that diabetic retinopathy presents differently based on sex and gender, and this project aims to generate the data needed to inform more personalized and equitable care,” says Dr. Oruç, Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at UBC.