The Free Press: U of M scientists gather coast-to-coast support in call for federal research funding to fill gap left by Trump administration cuts

April 15, 2025 —

Their memo urges the next federal government to remove a cap on international students and establish a “research accelerator fund” to match and incentivize provincial, business and non-profit donations.

It also calls for doubling dollars set aside for Ottawa’s Tri-Council agencies that fund research related to health, the humanities and natural sciences and engineering.

Aleeza Gerstein, an associate professor of microbiology at U of M, said she is waiting for leadership hopefuls to weigh in on the subject ahead of the April 28 election.

“We are not meeting our potential,” Gerstein said Monday.

To read the entire article, including quotes from Julie Lajoie, assistant professor at U of M who studies global infectious diseases, please follow the link to the Free Press.

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CBC: Die-off of hundreds of birds something Manitoba hasn’t experienced ‘at this scale’: biologist

Dr. Hannah Wallace, Lead Research Associate in the Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases at the University of Manitoba with expertise in viral immunology, said it is strange that after years of avian influenza circulating in North America there would be so many bird deaths at once.

Winnipeg Free Press: U of M researchers studying whether genetic testing helps zero in on effective mental-health treatment meds

“Someone with mental-health conditions, they (try) multiple medications, and sometimes it takes months or years to get to a point where those drugs work for them, or to have less side effects,” said Dr. Abdullah Maruf, the lead investigator on the study and assistant professor in U of M’s College of Pharmacy.