For every $1 we spend in seed funding through the Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research program, Future Leaders will attract an additional $7.75 to build on their findings.
For every $1 we spend in seed funding through the Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research program, Future Leaders will attract an additional $7.75 to build on their findings. Since 2019, the Future Leaders program has supported 131 promising early career researchers with $100,000 each to pursue bold ideas, advance their research programs, and launch their careers. This seed funding has allowed Future Leaders to:
Canada has one of the largest banks of brain tissue in the world, the Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank, which has received longstanding platform support from Brain Canada and other partners and has achieved significant research impact.
A Canadian research team, based in Montreal and Halifax, is using sophisticated stem cell technology to uncover the causes of bipolar disorder, develop new ways to screen for it, determine who will respond to treatment, and begin to identify new drug therapies.
AI tool improves treatment for depression and anxiety
An AI-powered smart-phone app that enables doctors to monitor their patients’ symptoms, and their response to medication between appointments, shows promise as a new tool in the treatment of depression and anxiety, according to a recent research study.
Canadian researchers are testing an innovative app-based therapy for postpartum depression and anxiety, and measuring whether improvements in a mother’s mental health result in changes to her child’s developing brain.
Scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto are set to test a novel approach to transcranial magnetic stimulation that may better organize the brain to relieve symptoms of depression, and possibly reduce the long-term risk of dementia.
Non-invasive brain stimulation to knock out depression
A major clinical trial of accelerated theta-burst brain stimulation, funded by Brain Canada and Bell Let’s Talk, holds the promise of potentially easing the debilitating symptoms of treatment-resistant depression within a week.
Basic discovery brings hope to those facing eating disorders
A fundamental research discovery from a 2012 Brain Canada MIRI grant is now bringing relief to patients living with an eating disorder, which has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disease after substance use.
What factors promote resilience to stress? Researchers have investigated this question at the level of neurons for decades, but Dr. Caroline Ménard found an answer where the blood system and the nervous system interact, the blood-brain barrier (BBB).
After becoming a neurologist in Germany, Dr. Zrenner moved to Canada, where he was awarded a Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research grant through Brain Canada’s flagship program, which provides funding to early-career researchers. This grant supports his innovative research that combines two distinct non-invasive methods for treating neurological and psychiatric disorders such as depression and OCD.
For years, interior designer Raija Hilska felt like she was “always dragging something along”. Deep melancholy, profound sadness, raw emotions and, sometimes, thoughts of suicide.
