Government to invest in a new York University School of Medicine

YU School of Medicine banner YFile

The following announcement was issued to the York U community on March 26, 2024. The Government of Ontario has announced that it will be investing in a new York University School of Medicine, giving the University the green light to proceed with its development.

This is a major achievement for all of the York community including its many partners and supporters, and an important milestone for the trajectory that York U has been advancing as an international, comprehensive and research-intensive University committed to a high quality student learning experience and to strengthening the health and well-being of society and the planet.


Dear colleagues,

It is my privilege to be able to share the exciting news that in today’s provincial budget the Government of Ontario announced $9M in start up funding for a new York University School of Medicine. For all of us this reflects a remarkable milestone and opportunity to amplify our positive impact by creating better health equity in the province.

Together with Senate, the Board of Governors, our Faculties and partners we can now move forward on the creation of a first of its kind School of Medicine. We are delighted that the province sees value in our compelling proposal.

The community will be our campus. Founded on a patient-centred, community-based approach, we envision a School that will prepare the next generation of primary care physicians—trained to leverage the most recent digital health technologies and to work collaboratively within inter-professional health care teams at diverse learning sites.

We have been working steadily towards this vision, expanding health and health-related programs in multiple faculties over the last 15 years including the Faculty of Health, establishing an impressive foundation of teaching and research that will inform our plans for the School of Medicine. To enhance access and the diversity of students in health fields, we also intend to offer a two-year bridging pathway for students who may not have considered a career in medicine or health.

We would like to thank the City of Vaughan, a key partner in this initiative. The City has agreed to transfer land to the University to build the School of Medicine within the Vaughan Healthcare Centre Precinct. This is a unique innovation uniting health care providers, teachers and learners with researchers, innovators, and business leaders, together at one site.

This announcement is one of many steps along the path to bring this vision to reality which will involve important processes including with Senate, the Board of Governors, our Faculties and partners. Time and again we have demonstrated our ability to come together and make incredible things happen. I look forward to working with the University community and our supporters as we deliver something exceptional and community-centred that addresses the health care challenges facing our province and makes a real difference in the lives of the people we serve.

Thank you to the Government of Ontario for their confidence in us, and thanks to our many partners who continue to contribute in a multitude of ways. We are ready and eager to meet the challenges ahead and to contribute to a healthier future for all. Please look for updates on next steps as we learn more details about this new funding.

Rhonda L. Lenton
President & Vice Chancellor

For more information about this historic moment, visit News@York.


Le gouvernement investit dans une nouvelle école de médecine à l’Université York

Le message a été diffusé officiellement à la communauté de l’Université York le 26 mars, 2024. Le gouvernement de l’Ontario a annoncé qu’il investira dans la nouvelle École de médecine de l’Université York, donnant ainsi le feu vert pour son développement.

C’est une réalisation majeure pour l’ensemble de la communauté de York, y compris ses nombreux partenaires et alliés. C’est aussi une étape importante dans la trajectoire que l’université a suivie en tant qu’université internationale, polyvalente et à forte intensité de recherche, qui s’engage à offrir aux étudiants une expérience d’apprentissage de grande qualité et à renforcer la santé et le bien-être de la société et de la planète.


Chers collègues, chères collègues,

J’ai le plaisir et le privilège de vous faire part de l’excellente nouvelle, annoncée par gouvernement de l’Ontario dans le cadre du budget provincial d’aujourd’hui, d’un financement de 9 M$ pour une nouvelle École de médecine à l’Université York .Cette décision constitue un jalon important et une occasion d’amplifier notre incidence positive en améliorant l’équité en matière de santé dans la province.

En collaboration avec le Sénat, le Conseil d’administration, nos facultés et nos partenaires, nous pouvons maintenant aller de l’avant dans la création d’une École de médecine unique en son genre. Nous nous réjouissons que la province reconnaisse la valeur de notre proposition engageante.

La communauté sera notre campus. En nous fondant sur une approche communautaire axée sur les patients, nous prévoyons une école qui préparera la prochaine génération de médecins de première ligne. Ces derniers seront formés pour utiliser les technologies de santé numériques les plus récentes et pour travailler en collaboration au sein d’équipes de soins de santé interprofessionnelles sur divers sites d’apprentissage.

Au cours des 15 dernières années, nous avons travaillé sans relâche à la réalisation de cette vision en peaufinant les programmes de santé et liés à la santé dans plusieurs facultés (dont la Faculté de la santé) et en établissant une base impressionnante d’enseignement et de recherche qui inspirera nos plans de l’École de médecine. Afin d’améliorer l’accès et la diversité étudiante dans les domaines de la santé, nous avons également l’intention d’offrir un programme de transition de deux ans aux étudiants et étudiantes qui n’auraient peut-être pas envisagé une carrière en médecine ou en santé.

Nous tenons à remercier la Ville de Vaughan, partenaire clé de cette initiative, qui a accepté de transférer des terrains à l’Université pour construire l’École de médecine dans l’espace de soins de santé de Vaughan. Ce regroupement innovateur et unique en son genre réunit sur un même site des prestataires de soins de santé, des professeurs et des apprenants, ainsi que des chercheurs, des innovateurs et des chefs d’entreprise.

Cette annonce est l’une des nombreuses étapes sur la voie de la concrétisation de cette vision, qui impliquera la mise en place de processus majeurs, notamment avec le Sénat, le Conseil d’administration, nos facultés et nos partenaires. À maintes reprises, nous avons démontré notre capacité à réaliser ensemble des choses incroyables. J’ai hâte de travailler avec la communauté universitaire et nos donateurs pour mettre en place un projet exceptionnel et axé sur la communauté qui répondra aux défis auxquels notre province est confrontée en matière de soins de santé et qui fera changer les choses dans la vie des personnes que nous servons.

Nous remercions le gouvernement de l’Ontario pour la confiance qu’il nous accorde, ainsi que nos nombreux partenaires qui continuent à nous appuyer de multiples façons. Nous sommes enthousiastes à l’idée de relever les défis qui nous attendent et de contribuer à un avenir plus sain pour tout le monde. Nous vous tiendrons au courant des prochaines étapes au fur et à mesure que nous aurons plus de détails sur ce nouveau financement.

Rhonda L. Lenton
Présidente et vice-chancelière

Pour plus d’informations, visitez News@York.

Research paper on trauma-informed approach to evidence law wins award

Statue of justice

A paper co-authored by York University psychology professor Robert T. Muller from the Faculty of Health has been recognized with the Pierre Janet Award by The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) for its exploration of systematic biases against victims of trauma in the Canadian court system.

Robert T. Muller
Robert T. Muller

Trauma is complicated. It can fundamentally rewire key structures of the brain in ways that can produce emotional reactions and behaviours that aren’t always conducive to “common-sense” understanding.

As science has come to better understand this, society and institutions have been adopting more complicated understandings of trauma victims. However, the paper “Toward a Trauma-Informed Approach to Evidence Law:  Witness Credibility and Reliability” – a joint effort between Muller and professors at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of Toronto (U of T) which was published in the Canadian Bar Review – argues that the country’s court system hasn’t.

“When we examine the ways in which the Canadian legal system looks at the question of witness credibility, there are numerous systematic biases against victims of trauma,” says Muller.

The research team, including legal scholars Thor Paulson and Benjamin Perrin from UBC and psychiatrist Robert G. Maunder from U of T, reviewed case law and model jury instructions, documenting trauma victims’ appearances as witnesses, and focusing on the method by which their testimony is evaluated. “We examined the effects of trauma on fragmentation of memory, and how the unique characteristics of traumatized individuals’ memory processes impact the ways in which they may come across as a witness,” says Muller.

In the process, the team found that because Canadian courts are not trauma-informed in how they assess the credibility and reliability of witness testimony, the system suffers from biases that contradict the scientifically proven effects of trauma.

This can have a significant impact on trauma victims wanting to step forward, the paper notes. “Few survivors of interpersonal trauma, particularly individuals in marginalized communities, bring cases forward, in part, due to the understanding that doing so is unlikely to bring about justice.  And their skepticism is warranted,” says Muller.

In addition to laying out the legal system’s lacking understanding of trauma, the paper argues for fundamental changes to the ways in which evidence is evaluated in the justice system and not just in the Canadian justice system, as the fundamental arguments are transferable to U.S. and other jurisdictions.    

“Understanding the impact of trauma on memory and the narration of past events is something we hope can be emphasized in the education of judges and other relevant decision makers,” says Muller.

The paper’s potential impact was already boosted by being published in the Canadian Bar Review, which is the official legal journal of the Canadian Bar Association and is often cited by the Supreme Court of Canada.  

Now the study’s reach promises to go further with its most recent award. The ISSTD, the leading international scientific organization studying the impact of trauma and its treatment, honoured the team with the Pierre Janet Award, which recognizes what the organization considers to be the best clinical, theoretical or research paper in the field within the past year. 

Muller hopes the paper’s mission, and reception, will help advance a better – and system-changing – understanding of trauma in a still underrepresented field. “There is very little overlap between the scientific study of trauma, legal studies, and legal practice.  Our hope is that this research can bring greater communication between these fields, and apply what we’ve learned over the years,” he says.

Federal government awards York researchers over $1.5M

Lightbulb on book

Two dozen projects led by York University researchers have received more than $1.5 million combined from the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council’s Insight Development Grants, announced March 13 by the federal government.

The grants support the development of short-term research projects of up to two years by emerging and established scholars. The York-led projects span a wide range of research, including a study that will explore the different experiences of refugee workers in Canadian meat-packing towns, an assessment of a physical activity program for children with autism and an investigation into the motivations behind firms engaging in artificial intelligence innovation.

“The federal government’s investment in our social sciences and humanities researchers and their diverse projects supports York University’s continued leadership in these critical fields of study,” said Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. “This new funding elevates the scholarly pursuits of our researchers across multiple Faculties, enables the development of new research questions and fosters valuable contributions to York’s vision of creating positive change.”  

The 24 York-led projects were among 577 research initiatives to receive funding.

See the full list of the York recipients below.  

Duygu Biricik Gulseren, School of Human Resources Management, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Inconsistent Leadership: Scale Development and Measurement
$69,415

Rebecca Bassett-Gunter, School of Kinesiology & Health Science; and Jonathan Weiss, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
BINGOCIZE! Evaluating the Feasibility of a Physical Activity Program for Autistic Children
$74,034

Preetmohinder Aulakh, policy specialization, Schulich School of Business
Sustainable Agriculture in the Global South: Prospects and Challenges of Smallholders’ Product Diversification and Marketing Channel Coordination
$67,600

Simone Bohn, Department of Politics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
When Reproductive Self-Determination Remains Restricted: Women’s Strategies of Resistance in Brazil
$74,518

Bronwyn Bragg and Jennifer Hyndman, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change
Slaughterhouse geographies: Comparing the integration experiences of refugee workers in Canadian meatpacking towns
$63,129

Robert Cribbie, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health
Modern Perspectives on Multiplicity Control
$62,300

Pouyan Foroughi, finance, Schulich School of Business
Private Equity Sponsors in the Leveraged Loan Market
$63,570

Hannah Johnston, School of Human Resources Management, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Regulating algorithmic management in standard employment: A comparison of legislative and industrial relations approaches
$71,209

Ambrus Kecskés, finance, Schulich School of Business; and Anh Nguyen, School of Administrative Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Artificial intelligence and innovation: A causal investigation of why firms produce it, how it impacts their workforce, and how firms evolve as a consequence
$59,883

Chungah Kim and Antony Chum, School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Faculty of Health
Social policy solutions to deaths and diseases of despair in Canada
$74,994

Chloe Rose Brushwood, Faculty of Education
On our own terms: An oral history and archive of queer femme community and culture in Toronto, 1990-2000
$65,097

Ibtissem Knouzi, Department of Languages, Literature & Linguistics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Critical Transitions in the Literacy Development of International Multilingual Students in English-medium Universities: A Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Study
$65,097

Matthew Leisinger, Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Cudworth’s conscious self
$36,492

Guangrui Li and Moren Levesque, operations management and information systems, Schulich School of Business
Curse or Blessing: The welfare effects of algorithmic recommendations
$59,005

Zhixiang Liang, School of Administrative Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
The Impact of Institutional Systems on Foreign Direct Investment: A Multilevel Study of Chinese Multinational Enterprises
$63,393

Ann Marie Murnaghan, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Old poles and new stories: archival knowledges and oral histories of C’idimsggin’is and Kurt Seligmann
$70,521

Glen Norcliffe, Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change
Velomobility for disability: the design, production and distribution of cycles that assist the mobility of persons with a disability
$65,209

Ivan Ozai, Osgoode Hall Law School
Realizing global justice through the international tax system
$62,798

Mathieu Poirier, School of Global Health and School of Kinesiology & Health Science; Steven Hoffman, School of Health Policy & Management, School of Global Health, and Osgoode Hall Law School; and Tina Nanyangwe-Moyo, Faculty of Health
Centring gender in the evaluation of international laws
$62,500

Andrew Sarta, School of Administrative Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Imagining Augmentation Possibilities and How Organizations Adapt to the Emergence of Artificial Intelligence
$55,750

Gregory Saxton, accounting, Schulich School of Business
The role of automated bots in the financial and consumer markets
$61,956

Rianka Singh, Department of Communication & Media Studies, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Platform Feminism
$53,363

Jean-Thomas Tremblay, Department of Humanities, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
Eco-subtraction: downsizing the environmental humanities
$47,131

Yishu Zeng, Department of Economics, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
The Design of Information Disclosure Policy in Strategic Interaction
$57,238

For a complete list of Insight Development Grant recipients, visit the Government of Canada announcement.

York study explores movement in space

astronaut in space

Researchers at York University, led by principle investigator Professor Laurence Harris, in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency and NASA, published a study in Nature Microgravity investigating whether the distance humans perceive themselves to move changes in the microgravity of space.

On the International Space Station (ISS), Earth’s gravity is cancelled by the orbiting of the station. In the resulting microgravity, the way people move is more like flying, which can – potentially – make people feel like they are covering distances more quickly. What Harris and his collaborators wondered was, “Can humans adapt to this type of self-motion? Would their internal sense of distance travelled be the same or change?”

Their study to investigate further started as a proposal in 2014 and has since been tested on 12 astronauts who have been aboard the ISS. Harris, a professor in the Faculty of Health and Faculty of Science, and his team compared the performance of astronauts before, during, and after their year-long missions to the ISS and – to their surprise – found that the astronauts’ sense of how far they had travelled remained largely intact.

Despite existing research showing that perception of gravity influences our perception of distance, the York study’s findings suggest that humans are able to compensate adequately for the lack of an Earth-normal environment using vision. This means humans are able to manually operate machinery and accurately navigate around the spacecraft – without misjudging distance. That’s positive news for space flight and astronaut safety, but these findings may also have applications here on Earth. “Our discovery of the flexible response to changes in gravity may be useful to help understand a range of people’s balance disorders here on Earth,” says Harris.

Among the 12 astronauts tested for the study, six were men and six were women, which the research team notes is unusual. Equal numbers of men and women are not always represented in space studies, but the researchers felt it important to have for this study, to not only have equal representation but to identify whether there were any differences between genders (they found no gender-related effects).

The current study – titled “The Effects of Long-Term Exposure to Microgravity and Body Orientation Relative to Gravity on Perceived Traveled Distance” – represents the first of three that will be published arising from the study investigating the effects of microgravity exposure on different perceptual skills, including the estimation of body tilt, travelled distance and object size.

Grant funds York-led household energy insecurity study

Bogota, Colombia historic centre

Godfred Boateng, an assistant professor in York University’s School of Global Health and Canada Research Chair in Global Health and Humanitarianism, has been awarded a grant by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development for a two-year project on household energy insecurity in Colombia.

Godfred Boateng
Godfred Boateng

Valued at $136,899, the grant will support the implementation of Boateng’s Household Energy Insecurity, Health and Sustainable Livelihoods in Colombia (HEINS) project – co-led by Diego Iván Lucumí Cuesta from the Universidad de Los Andes in Bogota, Colombia – between March 2024 and February 2026.

The HEINS study is a continuation of Boateng’s leading work in comprehensively measuring and understanding resource insecurity across the Global South, undertaken at the Global & Environmental Health Lab at York’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research as part of his mandate as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair.

In deciding to study this topic, the York professor observed that measurement of energy insecurity has historically been limited to the macro level – representing a country or region – and has not been widely extended to the household level, particularly outside the Global North. He also noticed there has been little assessment of the relationship between household energy insecurity and health outcomes among women and children in the Global South. As a result, it is difficult to determine how inadequate access to clean and safe energy sources impacts women and children differently in the household. It also becomes difficult to propose strategies to ensure clean energy transitions that effectively target the needs of that demographic.  

Boateng’s HEINS project, which will be conducted in three municipalities in the Choco province of Colombia, will address these issues. It will use a mixed-methods approach to find out whether or not household energy insecurity uniquely impacts disease, socioeconomic and psychosocial outcomes. The project will also produce and validate a scale – one of the first of its kind in Latin America – that can be used to comprehensively assess the impact of household energy insecurity on women, infants and children.

“With this grant, my team and I will advance current scholarship on the adverse effects of household energy insecurity in Latin America,” said Boateng. “It will produce a novel instrument for identifying energy insecurity hotspots, which will serve as recruiting points for a longitudinal study that examines the effect of energy insecurity and indoor air pollution from conception through the first two years of life.”

Ultimately, the goal of the project is to generate scientific evidence to develop sound, scalable technologies and strategies to ensure equitable clean energy transitions across the Global South. Through this study, Boateng and the Global & Environmental Health Lab, in partnership with Lucumí Cuesta, will advance research that promotes equitable access, good health, human development and environmental sustainability.  

York researchers appointed new, renewed Canada Research Chairs

innovation image

The Government of Canada has issued a new Canada Research Chair (CRC) appointment to York University Professor Godfred Boateng in global health and humanitarianism, as well as renewed the Chairs of three other faculty members – Ethel Tungohan (Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies), Isaac Smith (Lassonde School of Engineering) and Steven Connor (Faculty of Science).

The CRC program facilitates world-class research at Canadian universities, boosting their global competitiveness, while also providing training opportunities for the next generation of highly skilled personnel through research, teaching and learning.

“From global health to migration policy to planetary science to neurophysiology, York University faculty are at the forefront of research excellence in their respective fields,” said Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. “I extend my sincere congratulations to our four new and renewed Canada Research Chairs whose impactful work benefits the lives of both Canadians and people around the world.”

Learn more about the new and renewed chairholders at York:

Godfred Boateng
Godfred Boateng

Godfred Boateng, Canada Research Chair in Global Health and Humanitarianism
Boateng is an assistant professor in the School of Global Health, director of the Global & Environmental Health Lab and a faculty fellow at the Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research. He is also the principal investigator on a new project called “Retooling Black Anxiety” in the Greater Toronto Area.

As a CRC, Boateng will address global health priorities by focusing on anticipatory, instead of reactionary, approaches. Notably, he will look to further understand the synergistic epidemics of food, water, energy, and housing insecurity and their compounding effects, as well as the impact of environmental degradation and changes in climatic conditions on the health of older adults in sub-Saharan Africa and Canada.

Ethel Tungohan
Ethel Tungohan

Ethel Tungohan, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Canadian Migration Policy, Impacts and Activism
With her CRC renewal, Tungohan, an associate professor in the Department of Politics in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, will build on her work assessing the interconnections between policies, everyday lived experiences and social movement organizing.

She will continue to look at the impact on migrant workers, Canadian discourse, and policies on immigration, labour, and occupational health and safety in the pre-pandemic, pandemic and post-pandemic era.

Isaac Smith
Isaac Smith

Isaac Smith, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Planetary Science
Smith, an assistant professor in the Department of Earth & Space Science & Engineering in the Lassonde School of Engineering, will use his CRC renewal to investigate aspects of ice and climate on Mars and other parts of the solar system, including Pluto and Triton, Neptune’s moon.

The research is unique to York University and aims to advance knowledge of Mars’ climate and ice-related processes, in addition to performing glaciological modelling on icy worlds in the outer solar system.

Steven Connor
Steven Connor

Steven Connor, Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in the Synaptic Basis of Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Connor, an assistant professor in the Department of Biology in the Faculty of Science, will use his CRC renewal to focus on investigating how specific brain proteins facilitate the transmission of information between brain cells. The research aims to further understand how those proteins influence neural circuit function and activity, and how they can result in autism-like behaviour when compromised. Connor and his research team will also explore the restorative effects of reversing molecular changes linked to the loss of certain brain cells.  

Pilot program levels field for marginalized psychology students

Black student in life sciences lab

After identifying a glaring need to better support undergraduate students in psychology from historically under-represented groups, the Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Group within York University’s Department of Psychology developed the Research Experiences to Support Diversity & Inclusion (REDI) program, a pilot program providing marginalized and racialized students with low-barrier opportunities to gain experience in a psychology research lab.

To become a registered psychologist in Canada, students need to be accepted into a graduate program at a post-secondary institution. These programs are highly competitive, receiving hundreds of applicants each year and only accepting a very small percentage of them. Out of the students who get accepted each year, very few identify as Black, Indigenous or people of colour (BIPOC), first-generation students, 2SLGBTQIA+ or students with disabilities, leaving a gap between the population served and future researchers and clinicians.

One of the many requirements to these highly competitive graduate programs in psychology is that students must demonstrate robust extracurricular research experience at the undergraduate level. In psychology departments, there are a limited number of research labs, and the high number of students seeking research experience each year creates a competitive scenario. The demand often exceeds the available supply, making it challenging for students to secure these opportunities.

Jama Maxie
Jama Maxie

“BIPOC students such as myself face additional barriers to gain undergraduate research opportunities, such as limited time to volunteer in labs because of work or caregiver duties, lack of mentorship because of their first-generation student status, and racial prejudice due to having an ethnic-sounding name on their CV or being a person of colour,” said Jama Maxie, a final-year specialized honours psychology student of Indigenous and Afro-Black Canadian heritage who has plans to pursue a master’s in clinical psychology.

The issue of educational equity arises long before the graduate application process, as it is extremely difficult for historically under-represented students to gain the research experience needed to be considered for these competitive programs. York’s REDI program aims to fix this.

As part of the program, a centralized application and matching process is used to place student volunteers in available research labs. Priority is given to students from historically marginalized communities, recognizing the significant hurdles they face in accessing volunteer opportunities.

Once matched to a research lab, students gain first-hand experience with psychology research through observation, shadowing, scaffolding, mentorship and reflection. The program is designed to provide an experiential learning opportunity as opposed to a volunteer experience where the researchers are the primary beneficiaries.

In the summer of 2022, Maxie gained his first exposure to a research lab at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital through Co-operative Education & Work-Integrated Learning (CEWIL) Canada’s work-integrated experiences for Black students program. He was able to leverage this experience to gain other volunteer research positions and use what he learned to inform individual research projects, conference presentations and an honours thesis. In addition, he was able to share with his peers and professors at York how impactful the experience had been to his academic and career trajectory, and bring those learnings to his role as an undergraduate student co-ordinator for the REDI program in the summer of 2023.

“When I was approached to assist with co-ordinating the REDI program pilot, it was a no-brainer to get involved, as the program is very meaningful to me,” he explained. “My most crucial responsibility was to offer peer mentorship. Having been in REDI students’ shoes as a BIPOC student in psychology, my unique experience enabled me to empathize with students in a way that not many can.”

By the end of the program, students can expect to use their experience as a valuable addition to their graduate school or job applications, or as a networking opportunity for future positions.

For participating faculty members, the program serves as an opportunity to enrich their labs by including more diverse student perspectives and aligning with York University’s Decolonization, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (DEDI) Strategy. This not only benefits the faculty members but also enhances the overall lab culture, making it more inclusive and reflective of the community they research and serve.

“I am reminded of the importance of initiatives like REDI when I walk into a psychology lab; the stark reality often hits – the under-representation is palpable,” said Maxie. “The REDI program provided me with a foot-in-the-door opportunity so that I have the same opportunity for graduate school as anyone else.”

In its pilot phase, the REDI program was offered to 29 students in Fall 2023, who were placed in one of 12 research labs in York’s Psychology Department. The faculty member overseeing the development of the program, Professor Jeffrey Wardell, received funding from the Faculty of Health’s Funds for Innovations in Teaching to support the initial development of the program. The goal of the pilot was to establish the feasibility of the program and gain feedback from participating students about their experiences.

Now that the pilot phase is complete, Wardell and other members of the department’s Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group have plans to scale up the initiative and are looking into ways to secure additional funding to support the administrative aspects of the program.

Faculty of Health study explores pros and cons of preschoolers in sports

Preschoolers playing soccer

By Corey Allen, senior manager, research communications

Researchers at York University are leading work to understand the impacts of youth sports on child development, investigating the benefits and risks of organized sports programming for children aged six and under.

Meghan Harlow
Meghan Harlow

In a paper published in Sport in Society earlier this year, Faculty of Health researchers studied five different types of sports programs for preschoolers, observing several classes and interviewing families over the span of several months. Their findings reveal a research gap regarding how preschoolers experience sport, their parents’ motives, and the effectiveness and uniformity of programming for children under six (U6).

“Our goal for this case study was to learn more about what really is happening in this unexplored demographic of U6 sports, gain insight into the flow of activity in classes, and to examine the kinds of sports-specific and fundamental movement skills being taught,” said lead author Meghan Harlow, a research associate in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, who co-authored the paper alongside Associate Professor Jessica Fraser-Thomas.

The sports programs involved in Harlow’s research, which began as part of her PhD work, included hockey, rugby, soccer, gymnastics and one multi-sport program. She observed many similarities, including similar training session layouts and a focus on targeted movements like running forwards and backwards, kicking and passing.

Each of the programs also involved some level of competition, which included a formal scrimmage or race. Hockey was the most competitive, being the only sport that involved the children playing structured games on half-ice.

“Current guidelines suggest engaging children in mini challenges with successes and failures, but the question of what is an age-appropriate challenge for U6 sports is unclear and difficult to determine, so it’s a really active area of research for us,” said Harlow. “Within many of these programs, the age range can vary significantly, so you may have a three-year-old playing with a five-year-old, and this complicates how sessions can be run or designed.”

Sport participation in Canada is largely guided by a framework that sports clubs and organizations use called the Long-Term Development in Sport and Physical Activity Model, or LTD Model. This framework outlines the types of skills and training people should learn at different life stages to develop their physical literacy or athletic abilities.

In the model’s Active Start stage, which ranges from zero to six years, the guidelines recommend primarily child-led free play, and structured gymnastics and swimming programs.

Harlow observed the sports programs with this model in mind, finding that the delivery and experiences of these preschooler sport programs sometimes deviated from this framework.

Additionally, in Harlow’s small sample size of 10 families, most of the children had previously participated in sports prior to the programs she observed. The researchers point out in the paper that this pattern of past sport participation contradicts long-standing recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Paediatric Society, which advise most children are not ready for sport until around age six.

Harlow says larger and more diverse sample sizes, alongside more evidence, is needed to fully understand the best way for preschoolers to participate and develop in sports long-term, and how to set them up for success as they age.

“There’s the potential for this research to inform future versions of the LTD Model, which has been adopted internationally outside of Canada, and other models like it,” she said.  

Harlow’s research interests in this field stem from her own experience in competitive gymnastics, first participating in the sport as early as three years old.

“Our early experiences in sport and physical activity shape our habits and perceptions over time,” she said. “Studying the early stages of sport can tell us a lot about sport choices and experiences, dropout, and ways to engage young children and youth in sport that will lead to healthy and happy outcomes.”

Harlow’s research was funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.

Five York-led research projects receive over $3M in new CIHR funding

Aspire lightbulb idea innovation research

By Corey Allen, senior manager, research communications

York University researchers are leading five projects awarded a combined total of more than $3 million in new funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

Mark Bayfield in the Faculty of Science and Elham Dolatabadi, Skye Fitzpatrick, Anthony Scimè and Jeffrey Wardell in the Faculty of Health are among the latest recipients of CIHR’s Project Grants, which support a variety of health-related research initiatives from initial discovery to practical application.

“I extend my congratulations to these five exceptional faculty members whose projects hold promise for advancing health research, care and outcomes, both locally and globally,” said Amir Asif, vice-president research and innovation. “CIHR’s Project Grants empower York researchers to continue to create positive change through their leadership and unique expertise in addressing many of today’s health-related challenges.”  

Bayfield’s project, “Regulation of gene expression by the La and La-related proteins,” received $921,825. His team will study the process of how genes are translated into proteins, advancing the understanding of the roles these proteins play in causing diseases and how human cells respond to stress.

Dolatabadi’s project, “The socioeconomic impact of the post-COVID-19 condition in the Canadian context,” received $100,000. Using machine learning, among other methods, Dolatabadi and her team will investigate how various societal and environmental factors such as gender and ethnicity affect the health of people with post-COVID-19 –condition (also known as long COVID) differently.

Fitzpatrick’s project, “A randomized controlled trial testing Safe: a brief intervention for people with borderline personality disorder, their intimate partners and their relationship,” received $952,425. The research tests a couple therapy for borderline personality disorder (BPD) developed by Fitzpatrick and her colleagues and compares it to the standard care couples receive when one member has BPD.

Scimè’s project, “A new paradigm for managing myogenic stem cell fates,” received $787,950. Scimè’s research aims to develop innovative treatments in regenerative medicine for neuromuscular disorders such as sarcopenia, a condition that causes muscle degeneration due to aging.

Wardell’s project, “Disentangling medicinal and recreational cannabis use among young adults,” received $374,852. The research team will analyze participant data collected from a smartphone app to better understand the distinctions between medicinal and recreational cannabis use and how factors like gender influence reasons for cannabis use.

The York-led projects are among 374 funded across the country in the Fall 2023 competition, totalling approximately $325 million.

York immunologist’s work recognized as standout achievement in arthritis research

Doctors in a medical lab

By Corey Allen, senior manager, research communications

A York University researcher’s work on blocking inflammation in gout has been named one of the most significant advancements in arthritis research in 2023 by Arthritis Society Canada. 

Ali Abdul-Sater

Ali Abdul-Sater, an associate professor in the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Health, alongside his research team, discovered that a protein called TRAF1 can help limit the body’s production of a substance called interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), which is a main cause of gout.

“It is a great honour to see that our work is recognized for its impact, and all the credit goes to the trainees that did the research,” said Abdul-Sater, who is also a York Research Chair in Regulatory Mechanisms of Inflammation. “In the future, we are developing new methods to target TRAF1 in a way that improves its ability to lower IL-1 β  and reduce joint inflammation.”

The research team’s findings were published last year in the Journal of Immunology, detailing how adequate levels of TRAF1 in the body can alleviate the severity of gout.

Gout, a type of inflammatory arthritis, is a disease that typically affects the feet and can include symptoms of joint pain, stiffness and swelling, among others. According to Arthritis Society Canada, six million Canadians – or one in five adults – live with arthritis.

“Given the impact on patients, the health-care system and society at large, research is critical to transforming how arthritis is diagnosed, treated and prevented, and ensuring people receive the best possible care to improve the quality of their lives,” said  Siân Bevan, chief science officer at Arthritis Society Canada, who helped fund the work.

For a full list of the top 10 research advances of 2023 recognized by the non-profit organization, visit Arthritis Society Canada’s website.