Funded Grants

Dr. Sasaki research aims to (1) determine the mechanisms by which maternal synthetic glucocorticoids (sGC) modifies gene networks in a preclinical guinea pig model and (2) determine the mechanism by which a single maternal treatment of sGC modifies gene networks in human cord blood at term deliveries.

Adolescence is a time of rapid brain maturation that is partly influenced by sex hormones. In this project, magnetic resonance imaging will be used to assess the influence of sex hormones on brain structure and function.

The primary objective of Ms. Shea’s research is to investigate an optimized integration of event related potentials (ERPs) as a means to augment assistive communication devices.

Ms. Zeinab Mohanna’s research will test the hypothesis that CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing can increase the expression of PAX6 protein, improve the function of the neural and other tissues of the eye, and ultimately rescue the mutant phenotype in the mouse model of aniridia.

Ms. Shearer’s study is the first to address the knowledge gap related to multiple short-term pain fluctuations, the temporal association of pain trajectories on well-being, and the experiential assessment and data triangulation of pain trajectories and their impact, all using self-reported data.

The objectives of Ms. Siddiqua’s project are: (1) to examine the association between neighbourhood socioeconomic status (SES) and prevalence of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across jurisdictions; (2) to examine the association between neighbourhood SES and health service use among children with ASD across jurisdictions; (3) to examine the association between neighbourhood SES and developmental outcomes of children with ASD across jurisdictions.

Ms. Decker will test the hypothesis that myelin damage impairs episodic memory by disrupting neural communication between two memory relevant brain regions, namely, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Accordingly, she will examine neural synchrony, (a measure of neural communication), during an associative encoding and retrieval task in pediatric brain tumor survivors (PBTS) and age-matched healthy controls.

This project focuses on how inflammation, without an infection, can alter brain development when a baby was exposed during pregnancy.

The rapid formation of new memories and the recall of old memories to inform decisions is essential for human cognition, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood.

Recognizing that the 9 months before birth and the early years of a child’s life are the most critical period in the shaping of the structures and functions of the brain, and the importance of high quality, culturally appropriate early childhood programming for Indigenous children and families prior to kindergarten