New awards increase the number of researchers studying women’s brain and heart health

In partnership with Heart & Stroke, Brain Canada is supporting doctoral and postdoctoral awards across Canada

Brain Canada is pleased to announce, in partnership with Heart & Stroke, 15 personnel awards to advance research and improve understanding of conditions affecting women’s heart and brain health.

As in all other areas of health, women have been historically under-represented in neuroscience research. While most research has been focused on men, we know that women have different risk factors, symptoms, and recoveries.

These personnel awards are part of a multi-faceted approach by Brain Canada to support more sex- and gender-based brain science and to ensure inclusion of diverse and under-represented populations.

“As in all other areas of health, women have been historically under-represented in neuroscience research. While most research has been focused on men, we know that women have different risk factors, symptoms, and recoveries,” says Dr. Viviane Poupon, President and CEO of Brain Canada.

Advancing heart and brain health

Among researchers supported by the personnel awards is Dr. Rachel Yep, a postdoctoral fellow at Sunnybrook Research Institute in Toronto.

“Receiving this support to conduct much-needed research on brain health in diverse Canadians is immensely meaningful to me,” Dr. Yep says. “As this study is the first of its kind, it will yield currently unavailable data on the association between vascular risk factors and cognitive decline in women belonging to Canada’s largest Asian subgroups. This knowledge is essential for developing effective and culturally appropriate prevention strategies for dementia in women from historically under-represented groups.”

Dr. Megan Mio, a post-doctoral fellow at CAMH, is another awards recipient. As part of a broader research project called VIBE, she is studying a subset of youth with mental health diagnoses like major depression and psychosis to determine how heart health risk factors and blood vessel health are related to brain health in young women versus men. 

Risk factors begin to build early in life

“It’s been very exciting to see organizations like Heart & Stroke and Brain Canada fund a youth mental health project, and recognize that heart and brain outcomes in adulthood are influenced by risk factors that begin to build early in life,” Dr. Mio says.

“This fellowship is not only an amazing opportunity for me to expand upon my own research and integrate a larger focus on women’s health, but it may also help to inform new heart-brain prevention and treatment approaches that are tailored to youth experiencing mental health challenges.”

Visit the Heart & Stroke website to meet other recipients of the 2024 Personnel Awards for Women’s Heart & Brain Health.