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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Imagine a neurosurgeon using light or sound to manipulate specific cells in your brain and restore your brain health. Instead of implanting electrodes and buzzing broader areas of your brain to help relieve symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, for example, a neurosurgeon would use gene therapy to deliver light-sensitive proteins into specific brain cells affected by the disease and use light to stimulate only those cells.
Brain Canada and Brain Changes Initiative recently announced $1.1 million in funding for new brain research in Canada through the Innovation Grants for Research Impact in Traumatic Brain Injury program. Two of the three recipients are focusing on an area of research that has emerged over the last decade: traumatic brain injury (TBI) related to intimate partner violence (IPV).
Clinical trial to help children recover from brain cancer
A pilot project funded through a W. Garfield Weston Foundation – Brain Canada Multi-Investigator Research Initiative (MIRI) grant in 2012 proved the feasibility of repairing brain injuries in children caused by radiation treatment. Now, the team is running a phase three clinical trial to test the efficacy of repurposing metformin, a drug widely used to treat diabetes and metabolic disorders in children, at a larger scale to improve outcomes in children recovering from brain cancer.
In 2021 we reported on the progress of Dr. Mari DeMarco’s IMPACT-AD project funded in part by Brain Canada, which was evaluating the implementation of a comprehensive biomarker testing strategy for Alzheimer’s disease.
There are many neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases that affect men and women differently, but we don’t have a clear picture as to why. One factor that may be important is the influence of hormones during puberty, which can change the way in which genes are used by brain cells, affecting their function.
There are many neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases that affect men and women differently, but we don’t have a clear picture as to why. One factor that may be important is the influence of hormones during puberty, which can change the way in which genes are used by brain cells, affecting their function.
According to data collected by Public Health Agency of Canada, approximately 878,500 Canadian adults over the age of 20 have experienced a Stroke, a sudden loss of brain function caused by a brain blood vessel blockage or rupture.
