Funded Grants

An understanding of emotional information from faces is critical for successful social interactions.

Aggression and agitation are common symptoms among patients with dementia.

Dr. Orlandi’s research seeks to investigate the effectiveness of 3D video-based method in early detection of motor impairment (MI), specifically looking at infants at risk of cerebral palsy (CP). The aims of this project are to: 1) develop a standardized protocol for 3D video recordings; and 2) develop a novel method for the automated General Movement Assessment (GMA) based on 3D video analysis to distinguish aytpical/typical general movements (GMs).

Medulloblastoma is a pediatric cancer of the brain and is the most common solid tumour in children.

Amblyopia (commonly known as “lazy eye”) is a common developmental visual disorder, caused by eye misalignment, unequal refractive error between two eyes, or visual deprivation, with lifelong consequences on learning and academic achievements that we do not fully understand. It affects 4.7% of Canadian children, and 22-41% of children do not respond to conventional treatment.

Dr. Eid will test the hypothesis that the Trio gene is a central regulator of the development and maturation of cortical interneurons (INs) and that its loss underlies some genetic forms of epileptic encephalopathies (EE) by disrupting cortical network development and function.

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.