Chantal Rytz, a PhD student in medical sciences from the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary won the WHRFC Silver Award for women’s health research at the competition held in June. The Title of her project was “Serum Estradiol Levels and Cardiovascular Risk Associated with Gender-Affirming Hormone use in Transgender Women: A Systemic Review and Meta-Anlysis”. Nominated by Drs. Tara Beattie, Celina Villaruz, and Sabrina Adams.
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Annual Report 2022
With support from the provincial government, The Foundation provided five Scholarships to full-time graduate students researching women’s health projects in diverse units at the University of Manitoba.
- Daniel Gussakovsky is a PhD student in Chemistry, Supervisor Dr. Sean McKenna and Project Title, Elucidating the transcriptional initiation of a non-coding RNA implicated in breast, ovarian, and lung cancer pathogenesis.
- Nicole Herpai is a PhD Student in Community Health Sciences, Supervisor, Dr. Evelyn Forget, Project Title, A mixed methods analysis of economic empowerment measurements and the effects on sexual and reproductive health outcomes for adolescent girls and young women.
- Cynthia Yamamoto is a PhD Student in Sociology and Criminology, Supervisor, Dr. Laura Funk and Project Title, An institutional ethnography of occupational therapists’ work in publicly funded home-care in Canada.
- Kayla Joyce is a PhD Student in Psychology, Supervisor, Dr. Leslie Roos, Project Title, Developing a substance use intervention targeting mothers in the perinatal period: Addressing unmet needs using a patient-oriented research approach.
- Moustafa Ali is a PhD student in Pharmacy, Supervisor, Dr. Hagar Labouta, Project Title, Towards safe medicines during pregnancy: Placenta non-crossing nanoparticles.
Other awards provided by the WHRFC in 2021 included a prize to one project at the Elementary Level at the annual Manitoba School Science Symposium (MSSS) which was held virtually the last weekend of April.
The WHRFC also provided a Silver Award on June 15, 2021 to Rebecca Metcalfe of the University of British Columbia at the Canadian National Medical Student Research Symposium, a national poster competition held annually at the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Her Project Title was: Integrating patient values into clinical trials using composite endpoints: A case study using the control of hypertension in pregnancy study.
Please check out our web site for current and future activities of the WHRFC www.whrfcinc.com.

Manitoba Schools Science Symposium 2022
The MSSS was held during the last weekend in April 2022. The WHRFC awarded a prize in the Elementary category for the project entitled “Are we eating right ?” In the Senior category two projects were awarded which were entitled “Young extracellular vesicles as a revitalizing agent for age-associated disorders” and “Using deep learning neural network to predict Alzheimer’s disease”. Congratulations to all participants !
Congratulations to WHRFC’s 2021 Scholarship Winners
Full-time 2021-2022 Award: Daniel Gussakovsky PhD in Chemistry Research Title: Elucidating the transcriptional initiation of a non-coding RNA implicated in breast, ovarian and lung cancer pathogenesis Supervisor: Dr. Sean McKenna
Full-time 2021-2022 Award: Nicole Herpai PhD in Community Health Sciences Research Title: A mixed methods analysis of economic empowerment measurements and the effects on sexual and reproductive health outcomes for adolescent girls and young women Supervisor: Dr. Evelyn Forget
Full-time 2021-2022 Award: Cynthia Yamamoto PhD in Sociology and Criminology Research Title: An institutional ethnography of occupational therapists’ work in publicly funded home-care in Canada Supervisor: Dr. Laura Funk
Full-time 2021-2022 Award: Kayla Joyce PhD in Psychology Research Title: Developing a substance use intervention targeting mothers in the perinatal period: Addressing unmet needs using a patient-oriented research approach Supervisor: Dr. Leslie E. Roos
Full-time 2021-2022 Award: Moustafa Ali PhD in Pharmacy Research Title: Towards safe medicines during pregnancy: Placenta non-crossing nanoparticles Supervisor: Dr. Hagar Labouta
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