A research project focused on helping children with ulcerative colitis has won Nikhil Pai an Innovation Fund Award from the Innovation Fund Provincial Oversight Committee.

Pai is an assistant professor through the Division of Gastroenterology and Nutrition of the Department of Pediatrics in the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University.

His research program is entitled: Pediatric Fecal Microbial Transplant for the Treatment of Ulcerative Colitis (PediFETCh): A Multicenter Pilot Study.

“This project will try to determine whether healthy human stool can be used as treatment for children with ulcerative colitis,” said Pai. “This will be one of the first, placebo-controlled trials of fecal microbiota transplant for children, with any condition, in the world.”

The Innovation Fund is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Ontario Medical Association.

“Innovation Fund Awards are provided to the best and most innovative projects,” said Bill Orovan, board chair of Hamilton Academic Health Sciences Organization and associate dean of clinical service and commercial enterprises at McMaster. “We are pleased to see Dr. Pai’s research recognized. His work could make a tangible difference in the quality of life for children with ulcerative colitis.”

Pai received his MD at McMaster in 2007, completed his pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition fellowship at Harvard Medical School in 2014, and joined the Faculty of Health Sciences that same year.