September 21 is World Alzheimer's Day
MUHC scientists leading innovation in Alzheimer’s research
Alzheimer's disease affects 500,000 Canadians and 25 million people worldwide. That number is expected to quadruple by 2050 as the proportion of the elderly continues to rise. At the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), researchers are using the most advanced techniques to investigate Alzheimer’s disease.
Here are some of them:
Dr. Edith Hamel
Dr. Edith Hamel’s research aims to understand how nerve cells control regional blood flow in the brain and how this relationship is altered in pathological conditions like Alzheimer's disease. Her research could contribute to the development of new drugs aimed at preserving a normal blood supply to the brain, and that may delay the onset of cognitive impairment in elderly people at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Louis Collins
Dr. Collins has developed a non-invasive computerized technique to predict both the early onset of Alzheimer’s disease and the pace of its progression with a high degree of accuracy. The technique involves using MRI to measure changes in the shape of the living brain. By correlating the changes to a database of thousands of patients, the technique can predict whether a patient will stay stable or get worse. These MRI tools will facilitate the development of drugs to treat prodromal Alzheimer’s.
Dr. Alan Evans
Dr. Evans is heading a project using the Canadian Brain Research and Informatics Platform (CBRAIN) which provides researchers with a web portal to the Canadian national high-performance computing infrastructure. It is integrated with Alzheimer’s disease initiatives in Canada, the US, Europe, India, China and Korea. The goal is to enable integration of imaging, behavioral and genetic data from large-scale Alzheimer’s disease initiatives under one roof and make it available to Canadian researchers for computer intensive analysis. Dr. Evans has recently been awarded the Margolese National Brain Disorders Prize and a major Brain Canada grant for his pioneering neuroimaging work.