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Funded Grants

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Validation of ocular measures as potential biomarkers for early detection of brain amyloid and neurodegeneration

Project Overview

500,000 Canadians have dementia, a number that will double within a generation due to the ongoing aging demographics of the population, with annual costs estimated to increase from $15B currently to over $150B by the year 2050. The estimated total cost to the society including the loss of productivity by the caregivers, is predicted to be $872B. Delaying dementia onset by 2y would reduce this cost by $219B. Diagnosis very early in the course of disease will be required to accomplish this goal. Brain imaging or a spinal tap is currently required to identify people at early stages of the disease, but such procedures are either too costly or invasive to be used broadly for screening and early detection. In this project Dr. Black and her team plan to test two non-invasive eye measurements to identify patients at early disease stages. One of these (spectral domain optical coherence tomography) involves assessment of changes in the nerves and blood vessels in the retina. The other (an infrared laser quasi-elastic light scattering procedure) has been developed to detect pathology related to a key protein called beta-amyloid (involved in development of AD) in the lens of the eyes prior to its accumulation in the brain. The effectiveness of these techniques will be tested by comparing them with brain imaging (MRI) and clinical, cognitive, behaviour, mood and functional assessments.

Principal Investigator

Sandra Black , Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Team Members

Anthony Lang, Krembil Research Institute

Chris Hudson , University of Waterloo

Lee Goldstein, Boston University

Barry Greenberg, Krembil Research Institute

Efrem Mandelcorn, Krembil Research Institute

Edward Margolin, Krembil Research Institute

Stephen Strother, Rotman Research Institute

Aristotle Voineskos, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Partners and Donors

Krembil Foundation

Project Ongoing

Validation of ocular measures as potential biomarkers for early detection of brain amyloid and neurodegeneration

  • Program Type

    Team grants

  • Area of research

    Neurodegeneration

  • Disease Area

    Alzheimer’s

  • Competition

    The W. Garfield Weston Foundation

  • Province

    Ontario

  • Start Date

    2014

  • Total Grant Amount

    $509,727

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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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