Turning discoveries into care: Dr. Manoj Lalu recognized with national award

Dr. Manoj Lalu has been awarded the prestigious Joe Doupe Young Investigator Award from the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation in recognition of his innovative work to help researchers bring their laboratory discoveries to clinical trials.  This award recognizes investigators within the first 10 years of their academic appointment.

As a clinician scientist with a PhD in pharmacology, Dr. Lalu has investigated the barriers to developing new therapies, including issues in reporting, rigour and reproducibility at the laboratory stage. His team found that results are more reproducible when lab experiments are conducted at multiple centres, something that is common in clinical trials but not in lab research. He is now leading Canada’s first multi-laboratory studies on lung injury and sepsis.  

Dr. Lalu also championed patient and public engagement at the earliest stages of discovery research, with the idea that aligning lab research to patient priorities will improve the chance of results reaching clinical trials. 

Putting his findings into practice, Dr. Lalu co-founded the Blueprint Translational Research Group’s Excelerator program at The Ottawa Hospital, in partnership with the University of Ottawa. This program arms researchers with evidence, best-practice guidelines and tools to move their research into clinical trials. The Excelerator has collaborated on over 10 projects and has been instrumental in multiple world-first trials, including trials of cell-based therapies for cancer and COVID-19.