Funded Grants

Alzheimer’s disease can affect memory and thinking by changing how brain cells communicate. Our project looks at early changes in the hippocampus, a part of the brain important for learning and memory.

The clock drawing test is a simple, familiar task — patients are asked to draw a clock — that doctors have used for decades to check for memory and thinking problems. Today it is usually scored only as a pass or fail, even though the drawing holds far richer clues about a person’s thinking skills. Our project, Clock2Vec, uses artificial intelligence to read a photo of a hand-drawn clock and identify specific patterns of errors.

Brain-based disabilities, such as autism, ADHD, cerebral palsy, and rare genetic conditions, affect one in five children and often lead to lifelong challenges. These conditions are complex and vary widely from child to child, making it difficult to find treatments that work for everyone. Despite years of research, we still lack the tools to understand this diversity and provide personalized care. To address this, we propose WONDER (Whole-Child Open Neuroscience Data for Empowering Research), a new national research platform that will securely connect and analyze data from across Canada.

Depression and bipolar disorder, known as mood disorders, significantly impact the lives of many Canadians, especially women and the LGBTQ+ community. Although many treatments are available, it is often challenging for clinicians to determine which treatment is the right one for a particular individual.

The Centre for Neurotechnological Innovation to Application (CRANIA) transforms routine neurosurgical procedures into valuable research opportunities to advance brain science and treatment. Currently, when patients undergo procedures like deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease or surgery for epilepsy, the unique brain data captured during these interventions often remains isolated in specialized hospitals, limiting scientific discovery.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is well known for its essential diagnostic role in modern medicine, but it is also an invaluable tool in studying the structure, function and metabolism of the brain for fundamental research and clinical translation.