The protein fragment beta-amyloid has long been a key suspect in Alzheimer’s disease. Beta-amyloid molecules have a normal function, but in Alzheimer’s they form clumps called oligomers and plaques that may be toxic to nerve cells. Recent studies indicate that beta-amyloid is more likely to form…
New neuroimaging techniques enable us to measure the key hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology before symptoms appear. The AD pathologic process is known to begin decades before the appearance of dementia symptoms such as memory or language deficits. Therefore, Dr. Villeneuve will use th…
Pain affects millions of people worldwide and has a profound negative effect on quality of life. Untreated pain is the most common cause of disability that impairs life. Acute pain is a normal sensation triggered by the nervous system to alert the body to an injury. Chronic pain, on the other hand, …
Alzheimer’s disease causes progressive neurological decline and substantially decreases the quality of life of the individuals with the disease and their caregivers. Today, there are over half a million Canadians living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related form of dementia, directly costing Can…
Aberrant control of protein synthesis (also termed translation) leads to pathological conditions like cancer, obesity, memory impairment and has been hypothesized to cause the development of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and Fragile-X syndrome (FXS). Synaptic connections are regulated by translati…
Learning disorder diagnoses are dependent on behavioural assessments that cannot be administered until the school years. As such, children do not get access to extra attention and services they need until they have already fallen behind their peers. Gaining a better understanding of the aetiology an…
Recent estimates indicate that 1 in 5 Canadians are affected annually by mood, anxiety and other mental illnesses. These issues are exacerbated by stress. This is important because an acute episode of stress is the most common trigger for breakthrough presentations of many mental illnesses, and when…
This research will identify how pain changes over several weeks and will assess how these short-term pain trajectories impact self-reported physical and psychological well-being in children and youth with cerebral palsy. The proposed work aims to improve pain management and the clinical care for tho…
This project will use cells found in bone marrow as a potential means of delivering treatments to the diseased area in brain and spinal cord. One of the biggest hurdles in treating ALS is that even if something was developed to slow down or stop the disease, the brain and spinal cord are very diffic…
To improve outcomes in brain cancer, better tools are needed to diagnose brain cancer, surgically remove brain tumours and monitor how they respond to therapy. Glioblastomas, aggressive brain cancers, are treated by surgical removal of the tumour followed by radiation and chemotherapy. A molecule fo…
Dr. Richard’s project is developing a cognitive rehabilitation program to address impaired cognitive abilities following cancer treatment in patients. Two protocols (one offering targeted rehabilitation, the other patient support and education) are being developed to address specific needs of adul…
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for over two thirds of cases. As of 2013, there are over 44 million people with dementia worldwide. This number is estimated to increase to over 75 million in 2030; 1.4 million of these will be in Canada. Today, the combined…
500,000 Canadians have dementia, a number that will double within a generation due to the ongoing aging demographics of the population, with annual costs estimated to increase from $15B currently to over $150B by the year 2050. The estimated total cost to the society including the loss of productivi…
TDP-43 is a protein that behaves abnormally in the motor neurons of 97 per cent of people with ALS. It is usually found in the nucleus, but in people with ALS, it becomes trapped outside in the cytoplasm where it forms aggregates. One theory is that these aggregates are toxic to motor neurons. There…
The goal of Ms. Rajakulendran’s project is to characterize the role of Wnt signalling in glioma progression. The primary objective is to determine whether glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is dependent on Wnt signalling for cancer stem cell self-renewal. The secondary objective is to identify the Wnt …
The traditional target-based drug development strategy (in vitro screening) has had poor success in developing new drugs. The vast majority of Investigational New Drugs (INDs) fail in clinical trials due to toxicity or lack of efficacy. On the other hand, mammalian models are excellent tools to stud…
Infections with Zika virus (ZIKV) constitute a major global public health concern worldwide. Indeed, the recent ZIKV outbreak in the Americas revealed that infection of pregnant women can lead to congenital transmission, infection within the fetal developing brain and eventually to microcephaly in t…