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Funded Grants

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The Aging Brain: Circadian, Transcriptomic, and Epigenomic Dimensions

Project Overview

One of the most important questions of biomedical research is “why do we ail as we age?”. This may be in part due to a breakdown of the body’s circadian rhythm – the physiological process that tunes up or down various bodily functions during the 24 hr cycle. Another aspect of our biology that changes in response to the aging process is the epigenome. This is an additional layer of information attached to DNA that regulates and directs how and when genes should be expressed, or transcribed, in each cell. This layer of information is not copied as accurately as DNA and is susceptible to environmental factors, which causes it to change gradually as people age. Preliminary results from Dr. Petronis and his team show that the underlying molecular infrastructure of our circadian rhythm is in part directed by changes in the epigenome. Given the concurrent deterioration of the epigenome and circadian rhythm during the aging process, it seems conceivable that well characterized alterations to the epigenome during the aging process are disrupting our circadian physiology and likely playing a significant role in our declining health in old age. For this project, the team is collecting brains from mice of 5 different ages, from adolescence to old age, over the course of 24 hours in each separate group to: 1) fully catalogue all the transcriptional and epigenetic components of the circadian rhythm, in different parts of the brain, 2) identify the ones that are affected by age, 3) analyze how these may be related to aging brain diseases, so that this effort can contribute towards a remedy.

Principal Investigator

Art Petronis , University of Toronto/CAMH

Team Members

Jose Nobrega, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Albert Wong, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Martin Ralph, University of Toronto

Partners and Donors

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Project Ongoing

The Aging Brain: Circadian, Transcriptomic, and Epigenomic Dimensions

  • Program Type

    Team grants

  • Area of research

    Neurodegeneration

  • Disease Area

    Other

  • Competition

    2015 MIRI Team Grants

  • Province

    Ontario

  • Start Date

    2017

  • Total Grant Amount

    $1,231,293

  • Health Canada Contribution

    $615,646

Contact Us

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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