Dr. Peter Nickerson, dean, Max Rady College of Medicine and dean, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Ian Dixon as head of the department of physiology and pathophysiology. Dr. Dixon’s five-year term is effective July 1, 2023*
Dr. Dixon earned his bachelor of science in 1983, master of science in 1986 and PhD in 1990, all at the University of Manitoba. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto.
He is a past Medical Research Council Young Investigator, Manitoba Health Research Council scholar, and held studentships and postdoctoral fellowships from the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
In 1992, Dr. Dixon joined the Max Rady College of Medicine as an assistant professor of physiology. His lab has been continuously funded since then, with grants from the CIHR, Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada and the CANUSA program with the Mayo Clinic. He attained the rank of full professor in 2003.
Dr. Dixon’s current research interests include the identification of biomechanical and trophic factors in regulation of matrix deposition by cardiac fibroblasts and myofibroblasts, characterizing the activation of fibroblasts to myofibroblasts, and crosstalk between post-receptor signaling systems in cardiac fibroblasts and their derivatives.
His work also includes investigation of the modulation of fibroblast phenotype in skin wound healing, and in antigen-removed extracellular matrix scaffolds. Another focus of his research is on the expression and role of cardiac extracellular matrix in the development of heart failure.
Dr. Dixon has published 110 full-length research papers and 20 book chapters with 124 abstracts, in addition to editing four books. He has been an invited speaker around the world on topics such as “Clues and mitigating factors for fibrosis in the post-MI heart.”
Dr. Dixon, a principal investigator at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at St. Boniface Hospital, has served on many national and international review committees in basic cardiovascular sciences, including chairing for reviews on five different CIHR committees and the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He is a reviewer for several cardiovascular journals, including Cardiovascular Research, Circulation, British Journal of Pharmacology and American Journal of Physiology.
Dr. Dixon’s honours and distinctions include the Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology Service Award (2022), Max Rady College of Medicine Teaching Award (2011), the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Manitoba Robert E. Beamish Memorial Award for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research (2001 and 2007) and the Myles Robinson Heart Health Scholarship (2002-2005 and 2006-2009).