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Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease that affects the brain, leading to difficulties with movement, thinking, and mood. While current treatments help reduce relapses, they often fail to prevent the steady worsening of disability that many people with MS experience over time.

Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating disorder that slowly destroys brain function, leading to memory loss and cognitive decline. Despite decades of research, current treatments offer only modest benefit, and most are less effective in women than in men.

Brain disorders are among the leading causes of death and disability worldwide, affecting about 3.6 million Canadians. While we know that genetics play an important role, the specific genetic causes remain unknown for most people with the disorders.

In Canada, 1 in 20 people live with depression. While many treatment options exist, a significant number of individuals do not respond adequately to current therapies, highlighting the urgent need for more effective solutions. One effective alternative to medication is theta burst stimulation (TBS).

Melanoma, an aggressive skin cancer, often evades even today’s best immunotherapies. A surprising contributor is the nervous system. Tumors grow new nerve fibers and “talk” with nearby pain‑sensing neurons (nociceptors).

The primary motor cortex in the brain is responsible for voluntary movement. It has also been proposed to be one of the sites for motor memory formation and storage. Therefore, when the motor cortex is damaged following a stroke, we lose the ability to execute movements that were formerly part of normal daily life.

The brain is one of the most energy-demanding organs in the body, yet it has no energy reserves. To function properly, it relies on a finely tuned process that increases local blood flow whenever neurons become active: a process known as neurovascular coupling (NVC). This link between brain activity and blood flow is what allows brain imaging techniques like functional MRI (fMRI) to visualize “brain activity.”

Pain doesn’t feel the same at every hour of the day. Many people notice their pain is worse at night or first thing in the morning, but we don’t yet understand why.

Medulloblastoma (MB) is a brain cancer that affects children.

Medulloblastoma isthe most common brain cancer in children.