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Funded Grants

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2015 Barbara Turnbull Award for Spinal Cord Research

Project Overview

Dr. David and his research team are studying the mechanisms that control the delivery and release of iron in the nervous system. Iron is required for the survival and functioning of nerve cells. However, too much iron can cause damage to nerve cells. Their work has an impact on our understanding of damage following spinal cord and brain injury and diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and ways to promote recovery after nervous system damage. Iron is essential for life. In the nervous system, iron is required for the survival and functioning of nerve cells; and for the formation of myelin, the insulating fatty coat that surrounds nerve fibers that is required for proper conduction of nerve impulses. However, too much iron can cause damage to nerve cells. How normal iron levels are maintained in the nervous system and how iron is delivered to different types of cell in the nervous system is still not known. The aim of this proposal is to study the delivery and release of iron in the nervous system. In particular to study the role of a molecule called “ferroportin” in myelination, and in damage caused by excessive iron after nervous system injury and disease. This work will have an important impact for spinal cord and brain injury and diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, and help to develop treatments to promote recovery after nervous system damage. Understanding the long term alterations which take place in the spinal cord after injury is of critical importance to design treatments for the prevention and alleviation of chronic neuropathic pain syndromes such as postherpetic neuralgia, causalgia following damage to a major nerve, diabetic neuropathy, allodynia, hyperalgesia, and spontaneous or phantom limb pain.

Principal Investigator

Samuel David , McGill University

Partners and Donors

Barbara Turnbull Foundation

Project Complete

2015 Barbara Turnbull Award for Spinal Cord Research

  • Grant Type

    Capacity building grants

  • Area of research

    Injury

  • Disease Area

    Other

  • Competition

    Barbara Turnbull Award for Spinal Cord Research

  • Province

    Québec

  • Start Date

    2015

  • Total Grant Amount

    $50,000

  • Health Canada Contribution

    $25,000

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1200 McGill College Avenue
Suite 1600, Montreal, Quebec
H3B 4G7

+1 (514) 989-2989 info@braincanada.ca

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Territorial acknowledgement

The offices of Brain Canada Foundation are located on the traditional, ancestral territory of the Kanien'kehá:ka Peoples, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst nations. We honour and pay respect to elders past, present and emerging, and dedicate ourselves to moving forward in the spirit of partnership, collaboration, and reconciliation. In our work, we focus our efforts on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action, particularly those that pertain to improving health for Indigenous Peoples and that focus on advancing our own learning on Indigenous issues.

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