Awardees

Supervisors: Dr. Rhian Touyz
Award: KRESCENT Fellowship
Institution: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Year: 2009-2012

Dylan Burger will undertake his post-doctoral fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Rhian Touyz at the Kidney Research Centre, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, where he will study how microparticles may contribute to hypertension. Microparticles are tiny pieces of cells that are released from dying cells in the body. Recent research indicates that microparticle levels in the blood are increased in many diseases, including hypertension. These tiny pieces of cells appear to exert significant effects on the body such as promoting the clotting of blood. Understanding the proteins carried by microparticles and the signaling that microparticles activate in living cells can potentially lead to the development of new drug treatments for hypertension as well as other disease processes such as heart and kidney failure.