NMD4C: The Neuromuscular Disease Network for Canada

We are excited to announce the recipients of the 2025 NMD4C Early Career Awards! This is the third year of our annual award program, celebrating excellence and contribution to the neuromuscular field from early career investigators across both clinical and basic science streams. This year, the NMD4C awarded four awards as a part of this program: Early Career Biomedical Researcher of the Year, and Early Career Publication of the Year, and two Early Career Clinicians of the Year.

Early Career Biomedical Researcher of the Year award:

Dr. Kiran Polavarapu – Postdoctoral Researcher, CHEO Research Institute

Through exceptional research abilities and a desire to work on novel analysis methods in rare disease genomics, Dr. Polavarapu pushes analytic and scientific boundaries to make a difference to patients who remain without a diagnosis after standard diagnostic workup. His medical background and seven years of clinical experience in a neuromuscular clinic mean that he has a clinical understanding of neuromuscular phenotypes and presentations that are rare to find in a dry lab researcher. He combines this with a depth of expertise in medical genomics in his work with Dr Hanns Lochmüller’s team, solving many undiagnosed cases from this neuromuscular cohort. 

Read more about Dr Polavarapu!

Early Career Publication of the Year:

Liver SMN restoration rescues the Smn2B/- mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy, published in the journal eBioMedicine

Dr. Emma Sutton – Postdoctoral fellow, The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Dr Sutton is the first author on a paper published at eBioMedicine entitled “Liver SMN restoration rescues the Smn2B/- mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy”. Through this research, Dr Sutton shows that liver pathology in Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a direct impact of liver intrinsic survival motor neuron (SMN) depletion, and demonstrates that the liver contributes to whole-body pathologies in SMA. This is significant because the importance of peripheral liver SMN is not yet known and could help further elucidate therapeutic targets for SMA.

Read more about Dr Sutton!

Early Career Clinical Researcher of the Year award:

Dr Grayson Beecher – Assistant Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta

Dr. Beecher is a clinician-researcher, mentor, educator, and leader in neuromuscular ultrasound (NMUS) clinical research and integration in clinical practice and education. Since 2017, Dr. Beecher has published 34 journal articles and a book chapter and his research has spanned diagnostic, therapeutic, and educational innovations.

Read more about Dr Beecher!

Early Career Clinical Researcher of the Year award:

Dr Xavier Rodrigue – Associate Clinical Professor, Rehabilitation, Université Laval, Chief Physiatrist, Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de la Capitale-Nationale

Dr. Xavier Rodrigue has made exceptional contributions to the field of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) care and research. In 2022, he co-founded the Quebec spinal muscular atrophy network (RQAS), uniting over 130 rehabilitation clinicians, researchers, and patient partners across the province to standardize evaluations and update outcome measures. His leadership in this area extends nationally as in 2021 he helped initiate a project with Dr. Colleen O’Connell to develop a national consensus for a Canadian SMA measurement toolkit, and was among the group of Canadian experts that helped update these recommendations in 2023.

Read more about Dr Rodrigue!

Through these awards, the NMD4C provides a method of recognizing outstanding achievement by early career neuromuscular researchers and clinicians on behalf of the Canadian neuromuscular community. Recipients receive a tangible accolade to bolster their academic CVs in pursuit of future academic appointments and grant applications. This award program is a part of the network’s broader strategy to provide support for Canadian early-career neuromuscular investigators.

Congratulations to this year’s award winners and thank you to all those who submitted nominations for these awards; we look forward to hosting this competition again for the coming year. More information on the application process for 2026 will be available on our early-career awards page.