Health Canada, through the Canada Brain Research Fund (CBRF) Program, has committed an overall federal investment of $200 million to Brain Canada in support of brain health discoveries. Awarded through Brain Canada's 2021 Platform Support Grants Program, these projects are supported by Health Canada and matched funding from Brain Canada's sponsors, donors and partners. These projects will improve health outcomes for Canadians by advancing knowledge of the brain through research.
These projects include:
SPRINT: Fnirs Platform for Brain Monitoring
Dr. Emma G. Duerden, Western University, London, ON
Health Canada/CBRF funding: $638,951.00
Total grant amount: $1,277,902.00
Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a technique to monitor and study blood-flow changes in the brain in a variety of clinical and research settings and applications. This platform will be useful not only for brain analytics and providing a data repository to evaluate human behaviours but will also serve as an alternative data collection method for patients who cannot undergo traditional imaging. The platform aims to develop novel fNIRS technologies and apply them to patients with brain-based disorders to better understand the brain health of individuals thus improving medicine and rehabilitation.
MouseTRAP: The Mouse Translational Research Accelerator Platform
Dr. Lisa Saksida, Western University, London, ON
Health Canada/CBRF funding: $712,500.00
Total grant amount: $1,425,000.00
This project will enable new approaches for developing treatments for neurological illnesses, like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and will enhance Canada's capacity in neuroscience research. The platform will address this critical need by using cognitive tests for mice that are identical to those used in human patients.
The Canadian Alzheimer's Prevention Data Repository and Sharing Platform: Accelerating Alzheimer's disease research and treatment in Canada and beyond
Dr. Sylvia Villeneuve, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal, QC
Health Canada/CBRF funding: $1,140,000.00
Total grant amount: $2,280,000.00
The Canadian Alzheimer's Prevention Data Repository and Sharing Platform (CAP platform) will be the first Canadian platform enabling the collection and sharing of data with the scientific community on preclinical Alzheimer's disease at no cost. A dementia prevention clinic will also be launched in 2023 and will use the CAP platform and feed into the data repository. Overall, this platform will help to accelerate research on Alzheimer's disease and related treatments.
The Canadian Pediatric Imaging Platform (C-PIP): A platform to support research in child brain health
Dr. Signe Bray, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB
Health Canada/CBRF funding: $2,802,500.01
Total grant amount: $5,605 000.00
This platform aims to help understand how the brain's development is disrupted by injury, exposures and genetics, and how these disruptions put children and youth at risk for behavioural and mental health challenges. C-PIP will help facilitate the development and scaling of new methods for collecting, processing and analysing data from children, hence building a national reference sample that can be used to understand how brain disruptors alter neurodevelopment.
