A former Kamsack resident, who is an assistant professor of pharmacology at Dalhousie University in New Brunswick, was recently named the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation’s (NBHRF) Health Researcher of the Month.
Dr. Keith Brunt, son of Russ and Nancy Brunt of Kamsack, who received the honour for the month of June, is an adjunct professor and honourary research associate in biology at the University of New Brunswick’s Saint John Campus and a translational scientist at the New Brunswick Heart Centre.
Brunt obtained his Ph.D. in experimental medicine from Queen's University in 2009, said information from the NBHRF. To date, he has mentored five undergraduate, three master’s and one Ph.D. students and he supervises nine scientific and technical research staff and one postdoctoral fellow.
Brunt has attracted over $1.22 million in combined salary awards, establishment, equipment and operating grants, the information said. He is also the primary and/or co-author of 31 oral/poster presentations and 23 publications in peer reviewed journals and two book chapters. He also has one patent pending: the “Reduction of necrosis following application of a novel pharmacological intervention strategy (2014).”
After having received a bachelor of science degree with honours in physiology from the University of Saskatchewan, Brunt obtained a master of science equivalent in physiology and a doctor of philosophy degree in experimental medicine from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont.
Brunt’s research includes investigations into bioactive molecules, cell signaling, muscles, physiology and pharmacology.
Brunt earned a reputation in New Brunswick as a man of many hats and that’s because he works in a relatively new scientific field, called translational medicine, it said. The field of translational science is a multidisciplinary approach to ensure that barriers between fundamental scientific knowledge and the application of that knowledge for benefit are achieved. In medicine, this means improving the health of people by looking for problems that require science-based solutions and then implementing new science-based innovations into treatment, practice, policies, strategies or product development and commercial venture.
In 2014, Brunt co-founded NB-BioMatrix Inc., a nanotechnology company to commercialize innovative research products to improve the health of Canadians and their environment, it said. He currently sits on the board of directors and serves as the chief scientific officer of this company.
Brunt has been recognized for his work in experimental therapeutics by the American College of Cardiology as a Young Investigators Awardee. He was also the recipient of the BioInnovation Challenge and BreakThru Entrepreneurship awards for innovations in nanotechnology commercialization. He is a member of the Faculty Council and Research Advisory Council in Medicine at Dalhousie University.
Born and raised in small town Saskatchewan, Brunt credits this, in part, for his pioneering nature. Following his graduate studies, the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada provided Brunt with a research fellowship to pursue his clinical interests at the Toronto General Research Institute’s McEwan Center for Regenerative Medicine and the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the Toronto General Hospital.
Once recruited to Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick, Brunt established a translational research program that seeks to translate science into new clinical practices and innovate new solutions to existing health problems, the information said. His program explores experimental therapeutics for cardiovascular disease, including ways to improve stem cell therapy to repair the heart after myocardial infarction (heart attacks), optimization of therapeutic management and nanopharmacology.
He currently oversees five clinical trials in cardiology and cardiac surgery at the Saint John Regional Hospital. Numerous trainees in science and medicine are mentored in his laboratory with projects that seek to discover the basic mechanisms that determine the balance between health and disease, to outcomes in patient management in obese surgeries and prevention of adverse drug events in frail patients. As a member of the clinical research team at the New Brunswick Heart Centre, Brunt seeks to translate advances in medical technology, cloud computing, and internet-based communications to promote patient-centered care and data utilization by health professionals. His team of medical students, research associates and clinical specialists are interested in identifying patient-tailored drug selection and preventing drug-related side-effects, particularly amongst patients with diabetic-hypertension.
His research findings have been published in several high-impact, international journals including: Blood, European Heart Journal and Cell Transplantation. He is the youngest member ever to be invited to serve on the editorial board for the International Society of Heart Research, and is the youngest associate editor for the journal, Frontiers Physiology. He has presented his research talks in France, the United States and throughout Canada and yet, he is most interested in sharing, what he refers to as his ‘tubthumping’ experiences with local youth, so they learn that success is about getting back up when you get knocked down.
As such, Brunt has done community outreach talks to youth organizations such as FRED-Talks and the Canadian Medical School Hall of Fame, it said. He believes young people need inspiration and guidance to help them see their future as a world of problems that can be turned into research questions and translated into solutions.
“When I think of my earliest memories living on a reservation in Northern Saskatchewan or those of my small-town high school, my young adult life at university and even right now, fighting for a small business and medical program that I believe in, there is one perpetual truth: life is unfair, filled with hard work, and the only difference between success and failure is having the guts not to quit,” he said.
He and his wife Aimee live in Rothesay, N.B.
The New Brunswick Health Research Foundation was created in July 2008 with a mandate to co-ordinate, support and promote health research in New Brunswick, the information said. “Our vision is a healthy and prosperous New Brunswick through excellence in health research and innovation. Our mission is to provide leadership and support to build health research capacity, improve the health of New Brunswickers and advance the knowledge economy.
“The NBHRF is an independent organization governed by a board of directors comprised of key stakeholders from the health research community in New Brunswick. Provincial funding is provided by Business New Brunswick,” it said. “Our vision is to enable a healthy population, a high performing health system, and a vibrant knowledge economy through health research and innovation, and our mission is to promote, co-ordinate and support all aspects of the health research enterprise and innovation activities in New Brunswick.
