New Neurodegeneration and Immunology Research

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease represent a growing public health challenge in Canada and around the world, driven in part by an aging population. While current treatments can help manage symptoms or slow progression, they do not stop or reverse the underlying disease processes, underscoring the urgent need for new approaches grounded in a deeper understanding of disease biology. 

Emerging research increasingly points to the immune system as a critical player in neurodegeneration. Chronic neuroinflammation within the central nervous system, as well as interactions with peripheral immune responses, have been linked to neuronal damage and the accumulation of pathological proteins. Advancing our understanding of these mechanisms may unlock new pathways for diagnosis, prevention, and treatment. 

“The Krembil Foundation recognizes that neuroinflammation is increasingly understood as a central driver of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Through our partnership with Brain Canada, we are proud to invest in neuroimmunology, supporting researchers working to uncover the fundamental biological drivers of these complex conditions and to unlock new avenues for prevention and treatment.”

- Mark Krembil, President & CEO 

The Accelerator Grants program supports innovative, high-risk research at early stages, prioritizing novel hypotheses and unconventional approaches that have the potential to shift existing paradigms. Funded teams bring together multidisciplinary expertise across neuroscience, immunology, and related fields to explore how immune mechanisms contribute to and/or modulate neurodegeneration. 

The recipients of the Accelerator Grants: Neurodegeneration x Immunology program are: 

• Carlos Camara-Lemarroy, University of Calgary  
  The small intestinal environment and Alzheimer’s Disease: a new frontier in the gut-brain axis 

• Tevy Chan, McGill University  
  Integrating multi-omics and neuroimaging to dissect crosstalk between the adaptive and innate immune systems in Alzheimer’s disease 

• Aurélie de Rus Jacquet, Université Laval  
  Shifting perspectives in Parkinson’s disease: can peripheral immune cells induce neurodegeneration without vascular transmigration? 

• Sarah Gagliano Taliun, Université de Montréal  
  Comprehensive analysis of genetic interactions between HLA and APOE alleles for lipid and cognitive traits in large-scale cohorts 

• Matthew Macauley, University of Alberta  
  Mechanistic Dissection of CD33 Isoforms within Microglia in Neurodegeneration 

• Shady Rahayel, Université de Montréal  
  Peripheral immune signatures of neurodegeneration in isolated REM sleep behavior disorder: an MRI-neuroinflammation study 

• Mark Reed, University of Toronto  Pharmacological Inhibition of TRPM2 in Neuroinflammation & Infection Models 

• Jo Anne Stratton, McGill University  
  Untangling the adaptive immune response in PD 

• Carmela Tartaglia, University of Toronto  
  Decoding Regional Neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s Disease Through Seeding–Proteome–Spatial Integration 

• Martine Tetreault, Université de Montréal  
  Stearoyl-CoA Desaturases in Neurodegeneration and Immunity in Parkinson’s Disease 

Through this partnership, Brain Canada and the Krembil Foundation are advancing research in historically underfunded areas, accelerating discovery, and supporting new directions that could ultimately improve outcomes for people affected by neurodegenerative disease. 

This program has been made possible by the Canada Brain Research Fund (CBRF), an innovative arrangement between the Government of Canada (through Health Canada) and Brain Canada Foundation and the Krembil Foundation.