TNMU Team Won a Grant of Temerty Ukraine-Toronto Education & Collaboration Fund
The TNMU team presented the research project Folate Status and Risk of Neural Tube Defects in Western Ukraine and won the selection of the Temerty Ukraine-Toronto Education & Collaboration Fund. The competition was established by the Temerti School of Medicine of the University of Toronto in Canada to support young leaders in healthcare in Ukraine through joint research and educational programs, initiatives and activities. Folate deficiency is one of the causes of congenital malformations of the foetus, primarily neural tube defects, which often cause infant mortality and disability. The frequency of neural tube defects in Ukraine is the highest in Europe. The aim of the project is to determine the folate status of non-pregnant women of reproductive age and factors influencing folate metabolism, establishing the role of folate as a biomarker of neural tube defects in Ukraine, development of recommendations for folate status control. The the alimentary supply of folate, the level of folate in erythrocytes and serum, the level of other B vitamins, homocysteine and zinc in women of two regions of Ukraine, including those with a high frequency of neural tube defects, will be studied. Recommendations will be offered regarding folate status control in order to improve reproductive health and reduce the incidence of neural tube defects.
The Temerty Foundation has long been supporting the Ukrainian community and diaspora, and the Temerty family has established a number of pro-Ukrainian programs and initiatives, i.e. Temerty Contemporary Ukraine at Harvard; “Ukraine in European Dialogue” at the Institute of Humanities in Vienna; Kyiv-Mohyla Business School; Temerty Endowment Fund – Help Us Help; Atlantic Council of Europe Initiative; and a research and education consortium on the study and research of the Holodomor, etc..
James Temerty’s career is dedicated to green energy and technological progress. Mr. Temerty’s Ukrainian-born family moved to Canada in 1950. Prior to his entrepreneurial career, he worked at IBM and started with the ComputerLand franchise, which grew into the largest ComputerLand chain of stores in the world. He then founded Northland Power, an environmental innovation leader in Canada, from Canada’s first large-scale biomass project to high-efficiency cogeneration of clean natural gas and early introduction of onshore wind and solar energy. Mr. Temerty also facilitated a lot creation of SoftChoice Corp., which he ran for 16 years.
James and Louise Temerty, Temerty Family Foundation
Mr. Temerty’s entrepreneurial career and charitable work have been honoured with many awards. In 2008, he became a member of the prestigious Order of Canada in recognition of his contribution to public life. In 2010, he was awarded the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in Canada. Mr. Temerty received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Medal in 2012 for his contribution to the country development. In 2013, Mr. Temerty became the first laureate of the Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi Medal, an award for his contribution to Ukrainian-Jewish mutual understanding and cooperation, and in 2015 he was awarded the Order of Yaroslav the Wise, the highest honour Ukraine awards to a foreign citizen.
Information by Professor Ivan Klishch, the Vice-Rector for Research