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Funded Grants

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Prioritizing Progressive Supranuclear Palsy: a transformative in vivo model of disease pathogenesis with strong translational value for future drug development

Project Overview

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is a deadly disease of the brain with no cure. By studying the brains of patients who have died scientists have discovered that PSP brains contain toxic deposits of a protein called tau. Tau deposits in PSP brain are seen in both nerve cells and support cells, called glia. These neuronal and glial deposits have a special pattern of distribution in different areas of the brain that is unique to PSP and allows scientists to identify patients with PSP from other patients with different diseases that also involve tau deposition.

To better understand the causes of PSP and to test new treatments scientists need to use animal models, but there is no animal model that has the unique pattern of tau deposits in the neurons and glia in different regions of the human brain. Our study will develop the first animal model of PSP with the same pattern of tau deposits in human brain.

We will use human brains donated for research by PSP patients who have died. Toxic tau protein samples will be collected from areas of the PSP patients’ brains that have the unique tau deposits in neurons and glia. These samples will be injected into the brains of specialised mice whose brains contain the same form of tau as the human brain. Targeting the same regions of the mouse brain that are affected by tau deposits in the human PSP brain has never been done before. We hope that this specific targeting helps us better model the deposition of toxic tau in human brains.

If successful this better model can then be used to study 1) the underlying causes of toxic tau, 2) the spread of toxic tau throughout the brain and 3) testing of future treatments for this incurable and devastating disease.

Principal Investigator

Naomi Visanji , University of Toronto

Partners and Donors

Azrieli Foundation

Project Ongoing

Prioritizing Progressive Supranuclear Palsy: a transformative in vivo model of disease pathogenesis with strong translational value for future drug development

  • Grant Type

    Capacity building grants

  • Area of research

    Neurodegeneration

  • Disease Area

    Other

  • Competition

    Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research

  • Province

    Ontario

  • Start Date

    2023

  • Total Grant Amount

    $100,000

  • Health Canada Contribution

    $50,000

Contact Us

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

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

Please note all online donations will receive an electronic tax receipt, issued by Brain Canada Foundation.

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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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