Soheila Karimi, PhD

Soheila Karimi received her PhD degree in Neuroscience from the University of Saskatchewan in 2001. She then undertook a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Spinal Cord Injury and Stem Cell Research at the Toronto Western Research Institute. During her graduate and postdoctoral training, Soheila received a number of research awards including postdoctoral fellowships from the CIHR, the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. In 2006, she was the recipient of the prestigious Synthes Award from The American Association of Neurological Surgeons in USA for her work on spinal cord injury and neural stem cell therapy.  In 2007, Soheila joined the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto as an adjunct Assistant Professor until 2009 when she moved to the University of Manitoba. She has had a long term interest in spinal cord repair and regeneration with a special focus on the application of neural stem cells for the treatment of spinal cord injury. 

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Current research in her neuroscience laboratory has focused on uncovering disease mechanisms and development of regenerative medicine strategies for tissue regeneration and recovery of function after spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis. Her laboratory is physically located within the Regenerative Medicine Program at the University of Manitoba. Karimi's program is affiliated with the Neuroscience and Spinal Cord Injury Division of the Department of Physiology and  Pathophysiology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba.  Soheila has been supported continuously by national and international funding from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), the MS Society of Canada, NSERC, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Canadian Paraplegic Association and several US and European foundations. She has also received several awards including Merit Award from the University of Manitoba for her outstanding contributions to research, teaching and service,  and the 2017 Ed Kroeger Award for Distinction in Mentorship of graduate students. Soheila has been also been actively involved in national and international collaborations and leadership programs to serve the neuroscience community. She currently serves in the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN), Secretary of the International Neurotrauma Society (INTS) and the Executive Committee of the International Women in Multiple Sclerosis (iWiMS), in addition to serving in several academic and peer-review committees. She has organized and chaired high-profile local, national and international symposiums. She serves as associate editor for two neuroscience journals and has performed peer-review for over 30 scientific journals. In 2020, Soheila received the Manulife Award in Science and Technology and was named one of the Canada's Top 100 Most Powerful Women by Women Executive Network.