Cardiovascular researcher wins Heart and Stroke award

Edmonton, AB – Dr Michael Sean McMurtry, assistant professor at the University of Alberta, has been presented with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Distinguished Clinician Scientist award. This high-impact award is given to the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s highest-ranked clinician in the New Investigator competition.

“This is the highest ranking and one of the most eminent awards offered to a researcher by the Foundation,” says Bobbe Wood, president of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. “Talented researchers like Dr McMurtry are an important part of our quest to reduce deaths due to heart disease and stroke by 25 per cent by 2020.”

The award will go towards Dr McMurtry’s research investigating ways to treat blocked arteries using the body’s natural process of growing new blood vessels.

The award is given annually to a clinician doing research in the areas of heart disease or stroke. It provides a stipend and research funding for five years (approximately $100,000 per year), and is presented in partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health.

“This award is a critical support for me,” says Dr McMurtry “It supports my academic salary, which means that I am able to have protected time to do research. I am very grateful to the Heart and Stroke Foundation for their support.”

Dr McMurtry is an assistant professor at the University of Alberta and director of the Cardiovascular Risk Reduction Clinic at the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute, where he specializes in treating patients who have atherosclerotic vascular disease.