Funded Grants

This project is studying a novel intervention in 250 older persons whose major depression has been successfully treated with an antidepressant medication: a combination of cognitive remediation (CR, consisting of memory and problem solving exercises) plus transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS, a non-painful low electrical current that circulates through the brain of awake patients and stimulates their neurons).

Many childhood disorders, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), are a result of abnormal growth and connections throughout the brain, rather than being caused by some specific pathology, such as a tumour.

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).

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is rising dramatically on a yearly basis and new interventional strategies are required to treat ASDs and related disorders like Fragile X syndrome.

Parkinson’s disease and addiction have tremendous human and economical costs for our society.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive fatal disease that affects the nerve cells responsible for muscle movement (motor neurons).

Neuroscientists and engineers at the University of Toronto, Hospital for Sick Children, and University Health Network and Thunder Bay Regional Research Institute have joined together to develop a novel next generation non-invasive treatment technique, MR guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS), for two common and disabling pediatric neurological conditions, stroke and drug resistant epilepsy. MRgFUS allows clinicians to perform “incision-less” surgery by using focusing ultrasound energy through the skull to specific point for heating and mechanical disruption.

It is estimated that diseases of the brain currently affect over 1.5 billion people worldwide and account for approximately a third of global disease burden.

The entry of calcium ions into cells is mediated by a class of protein (called calcium  channels) that responds to electrical signals by opening of a calcium-selective pore.

Ms. Voronova is a postdoctoral student in the Developmental and Stem Cell Biology Department of The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario.