Funded Grants

Using the mirror image of body’s main sugar glucose (so-called L-glucose), we plan to hijack the sugar addiction of glioblastoma (GBM) as a therapeutic target.

Feasibility RCT of a digital tool for management of bulbar disease in ALS.

Regardless of disease etiology, ~97% of ALS patients display TDP-43 pathology. TDP-43 is an RNA-binding protein that is involved in the cellular stress response. Following a stressor, TDP-43 translocates to the cytosol and is thought to be protective. However, with chronic stress and/or ALS-relevant mutations TDP-43 is depleted from the nucleus by translocating to the cytosol, where it ultimately aggregates.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) can result from many different mutations in the same gene, making mutation-specific treatments challenging.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, affecting memory, thinking, and daily functioning. AD is characterized by the buildup of two proteins, amyloid-β and tau. Specifically, tau protein is responsible for the loss of brain cells, leading to dementia. In addition to these two proteins, however, studies have also shown that inflammation plays an important role in how the disease develops and progresses.

Impairments in social cognition (SC), such as difficulties in understanding emotions, social cues, and maintaining meaningful interactions, are key contributors to the loss of social inclusion and quality of life in individuals with neurodegenerative diseases (ND).

Investigating the role of EPG5 in Parkinson’s Disease pathogenesis

Jenna Hanrahan, a Doctoral Student at Memorial University of Newfoundland, aims to characterize the brain of a humanized mouse model of Huntington’s disease.

There is a lot of talk about the gut microbiome in neurology. This is important, because people with neurological diseases, including Alzheimer´s disease (AD), change their diets and think about probiotics when finding out about their diagnosis. Researchers study the gut microbiome by analyzing stool samples and then seeing if it is different in AD compared to healthy people. However, there is a major flaw in this research.

Sofia Gentile, a Master’s Student at University of Toronto, is investigating the role of immune cell activation in a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disease called progressive supranuclear palsy.