Welcome to 'sleep and biological rhythms toronto', a CIHR transdisciplinary team research and training program

the program

• All complex organisms possess a sense of time and the molecular machinery for a hard-wired rest-activity cycle. These properties optimally suit all organisms to the conditions of life.

• The rhythms of life are deeply rooted in ancient biology and have been conserved over time. Humans are the only organisms that now purposefully disrupt and coerce the natural rest-activity cycles of our cellular machinery.

• Sleep and biological rhythm disturbances affect one in four Canadians, and have a deleterious effects on cellular, organ, organismal and societal function and health.

• Humans consume drugs in huge quantities to counter the problems associated with poor sleep, altered waking functions and disrupted biological rhythms, with enormous costs to the health care system.

• This Program will promote new research, training, education and knowledge transfer in:

(i) The properties of brain states and biological timing systems,

(ii) Their mechanistic underpinnings, and

(iii) Their role in cellular, organ and organismal function and dysfunction

• Think big picture questions that need to be answered.

objectives

• Provide a high-quality collaborative trans-disciplinary research and training program in sleep-wake states and behavior, cognition, learning and memory, consciousness, mechanisms of sedation, cardio-respiratory control and function, and biological timing systems

• Train high-quality personnel to increase the capacity for research, education and knowledge transfer, encompassing basic science, clinical research, health care and education

• Bring new science, technologies, researchers and trainees into the field via this trans-disciplinary collaborative approach

opportunities

• The Team Research and Training Program is open to trainees working with any researcher (new, emerging or established) in any discipline - who will incorporate aspects of sleep-wake states, sedation and/or biological timing systems into their research programs
  
  
• Trainees will undertake true collaborative projects involving two (or more) laboratories
  
  
• State-of-the-art research facilities for molecular, cellular and behavioural analyses in animal models and humans are available to all trainees and research teams

applications

• Applications for trainee support will be competitive, merit-based and peer-reviewed
  
  
• Priority is given to projects involving important questions, novel expertise and techniques, and transfer of personnel and methods between collaborating laboratories, i.e., bringing a multidisciplinary focus to the research

funding

• Fellowship Awards: Includes attractive stipends, research and travel allowances, access to world class research infrastructures
  
  
• Visiting Speakers: the program will fund up to ten speakers per year, giving teams access to the best researchers in the sleep and biological rhythms field