Skip to content
Project Directory
  • Français
Donate Now
  • Français
  • About
    • What We Do
    • Leadership
    • Team
    • Publications
    • Careers
  • Diseases/Disorders
    • One Brain
    • ALS
    • Alzheimer’s
    • Autism
    • Brain Cancer
    • Brain Injury
    • Epilepsy
    • Mental Illness
    • Multiple Sclerosis
    • Parkinson’s
    • Stroke
    • Other
  • Research
    • Programs
    • Funding Opportunities
    • Program Partners
    • Announcements
  • Impact
  • Ways To Give
    • Your Impact
    • How You Can Help
    • Events

Funded Grants

Back to results

Novel therapeutic strategies to repair brain abnormalities in psychiatric disorders

Project Overview

Communication between brain cells is essential for normal brain function. Healthy brain cells are controlled through chemical messengers that stimulate or inhibit brain activity. Current theories indicate that psychiatric disorders such as addiction, schizophrenia, autism and mental retardation evolve from an imbalance of these chemical messengers leading to a disruption in the way brain cells are able to communicate with each other.

Drugs currently available for the treatment of psychiatric disorders often target multiple receptors throughout the brain. Although these compounds have therapeutic efficacy in subgroups of patients, negative side effects often develop which limit their use. Accordingly, new Pharmacotherapies, designed to target more specific brain processes implicated in various aspects of psychiatric illness, are urgently needed.

Dr. Wang and his team investigated a novel method for treating these disorders, whereby small peptides can target specific sub-cellular processes that disrupt the balance of chemical messengers and hence the normal communication between brain cells. Dysfunction of the normal communication between brain cells has been linked to psychiatric diseases and this new class of drugs is designed to restore normal function in a highly specific manner that will minimize negative side effects. The team’s initial focus was on developing a therapy for drug addiction, however the principles underlying the action of these new drugs could lead to the development of similar treatments for other neurological and neuropsychiatric illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s disease, autism, mental retardation and schizophrenia.

Principal Investigator

Yu Tian Wang , University of British Columbia

Team Members

Stephen S.G. Ferguson, University of Western Ontario

Alaa El-Husseini, University of British Columbia

Ridha Joober, McGill University

Anthony G. Phillips, University of British Columbia

Project Complete

Novel therapeutic strategies to repair brain abnormalities in psychiatric disorders

  • Program Type

    Team grants

  • Competition

    Brain Repair Program

  • Province

    British Columbia

  • Start Date

    2007

  • Total Grant Amount

    $1,500,000

Contact Us

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

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

Playing with Marbles Podcast

Join us and take a journey to the real last great frontier – the brain.

Listen

Subscribe to Brain News

Receive our monthly electronic newsletter with updates on funded projects, upcoming events and breakthroughs in brain research.

Sign up

© 2023 Brain Canada Foundation

Registration number: 89105 2094 RR0001

  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Design by Field Trip & Co