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:
Approximately 1 in 5 adolescents who report having a Brain Injury experience persistent and long-lasting emotional and behavioural challenges. The reasons why have been difficult to tease apart – until recently. Future Leader, Dr. Anne Wheeler and her research team studied pre- and post-concussion data from male and female children.
A growing number of kids’ brains have likely been spared injury thanks to enhanced safety guidelines informed by a large-scale Brain Canada-funded research platform. A series of studies made possible by the Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping (CFMM) at Western University (Western) in London, Ontario found that even minor concussions cause changes to the brain’s structure and function. These findings from the CFMM, which operates some of the most sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) instrumentation in the world, informed a series of policies to protect youth while playing contact sports like soccer and hockey.
Personalized therapies are not yet a reality for children with medulloblastoma, a highly aggressive form of Brain CancerTreatment involves invasive surgery, radiation to the whole brain and spinal cord, and high doses of chemotherapy. Not only does this approach not cure all patients – the survival rate is 60% – those that do survive face lifelong side effects of radiation on the developing brain, including intellectual disability, growth issues, early strokes, and hearing loss.
Dr. Yuen discovered and patented a method to detect tandem repeat expansions in complex brain disorders. He and his research team used this method to determine that tandem repeat expansions contribute to at least 3% of autism cases.
Rates of cannabis use across all age groups have increased by 7.3% since legalization, with many users perceiving it as natural and therefore safe. However, the evidence used to assess cannabis safety and toxicity has an important limitation; most people consume cannabis by inhalation, while most of the research to date has involved injecting rodents to study cannabis’ effects.
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).
Funding solutions for people with spinal cord injury
Spinal cord injury (SCI) often leads to a secondary problem of irregular blood pressure. That pressure problem then leads to an elevated risk of heart disease and stroke. Dr. Aaron Phillips has developed an innovative new technology that acts like a thermostat to regulate blood pressure in individuals with SCI.
Could a ketogenic diet slow the progression of ALS?
“Increase your caloric intake.” This is the number one recommendation that a clinician will make to a person recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease affecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord, causing loss of muscle control. A high calorie diet is linked to better outcomes for ALS patients, but the question is – why? And what is the optimum diet to slow progression of the disease?
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.
Reprogramming cells to replace neurons damaged by ALS?
Meet the junior researchers behind the 2022 ALS Canada – Brain Canada Trainee Awards. Dr. Hussein Ghazale is the recipient of a $165,000 ALS Canada – Brain Canada 2022 Trainee Award.
Meet the students who received the 2022 ALS Canada – Brain Canada Doctoral Awards. PhD student Lucia Meng Qi Jadon (previously Liao) is the recipient of a $75,000 ALS Canada – Brain Canada 2022 Trainee Award. She will use the funding to investigate whether a newly discovered tag on TDP-43 might have an important role to play in ALS.
