Four ways health research is building a better world

Feature Stories | 11 Jun 2025 | Read time: 4 min | Written by: Laura Dyer

Queen's researchers are reimagining what's possible in health care: turning bystanders into lifesavers, expanding our understanding of cancer survival and recovery, and bringing new hope to those facing devastating genetic disorders. Here's four ways health research is building a better world, right here at Queen's Health Sciences:

New hope for a devastating diagnosis

A newly funded project from a Queen’s research lab is aiming to transform the outlook for infants born with a deadly genetic disorder.

ABGM2 is caused by mutations in a single gene, leading to severe brain degeneration and death before the age of five. It’s a rare and devastating diagnosis, but because the disease is linked to just one gene, it’s a strong candidate for gene therapy: treatment that replaces the faulty gene with a healthy one.

The Walia Lab has already developed a promising gene therapy currently being tested for the treatment of Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff, diseases that share similar conditions to ABGM2. Having already established proof of a gene therapy treatment which may be able to treat different forms of ABGM2, this new funding will support the team in testing its safety, effectiveness, and determine the right treatment dose for future clinical trials. It’s research with the potential to bring new hope to families affected by ABGM2 and is laying the groundwork for future life-extending treatments.

Won’t you be my neighbour?

More than 90 per cent of people who experience a cardiac arrest outside of hospital don't survive. Despite major advancements in emergency medicine, outcomes in these cases still hinge largely on luck: proximity to the nearest automatic emergency defibrillator, availability of bystander CPR, and ambulance arrival times.

Neighbours Saving Neighbours (NSN), a volunteer responder program based in rural Frontenac County, Ontario, is working to take luck out of the survival equation. The program, led by Queen’s researcher Dr. Steven Brooks, partners with Frontenac Paramedics to recruit and train local volunteers in rural communities to respond to nearby cardiac arrests before emergency services arrive. NSN wrapped its pilot recruitment in March 2025 and has already shown promising real-world impact, including at least one life saved.

To build on that success, the NSN team is now focused on closing inconsistent response-time gaps caused by geography and timing. Working with engineers, they’re using optimization models to pinpoint areas where community-based volunteer responders can make the biggest difference. These insights will guide the development of Neighbours Saving Neighbours 2.0, now in early planning stages.

Hope in motion

Movement matters for colon cancer recovery. A landmark clinical trial co-led by researchers from the Queen’s Sinclair Cancer Research Institute has found that exercise improves colon cancer survival by reducing the risk of reoccurring and new cancers.

Seventeen years in the making and involving hundreds of patients, the study is the first to conclusively show that physical activity after surgery and chemotherapy can improve long-term outcomes for people with colon cancer. Once considered mainly a quality-of-life intervention, exercise is now emerging as an important part of cancer treatment itself.

“As oncologists, one of the most common questions we are asked is ‘What else can I do to improve my outcome?’” says Dr. Christopher Booth, one of the study’s co-leads. “These results now provide us with a clear answer: an exercise programme that includes a personal trainer will reduce the risk of recurrent or new cancer; make you feel better and help you live longer.”

The future of primary care is collaborative

Expanding access to primary care in Canada requires more than just graduating additional family doctors. It also means rethinking how primary care is delivered and who should be a part of care teams.

Researchers at Queen’s Health Services and Policy Research Institute are helping occupational and physical therapists step into more primary care roles through newly developed, targeted training. Their new education program equips learners with the skills needed to thrive in team-based care: from understanding service models and social determinants of health, to communicating effectively across health disciplines.

Freely available through national professional associations and eligible for inclusion in continuing education portfolios, these modules are helping to lay the groundwork for stronger, more collaborative care teams. This, in turn, helps deliver more accessible health care for everyone.

Want to know more about these projects?

Share your research story!

Are you a Queen’s health researcher part of an unfolding story or bringing hope to the future of health? We’d love to hear from you. Pitch your story using this form, and your work may be featured in an upcoming column or shared across Queen’s Health Sciences social media channels.

Read time

4 min

Written by

Laura Dyer