University of Toronto researchers have discovered a molecular link that explains why gonorrhea increases transmission of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) between sexual partners, a landmark discovery that could lead to better treatments for both conditions.

Each year, there are 5 million new HIV and over 100 million new gonorrhea infections reported worldwide. While scientists have always known gonorrhea increases the infectiousness of HIV, they didn’t know why. The study solves the mystery by discovering a long sought-after molecular link between the two sexually transmitted infections, says Scott Gray-Owen, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine’s Department of Molecular Genetics and senior author of the study.

“Gonorrhea is a global epidemic that spreads at astonishing rates, and emerging antibiotic-resistant strains are difficult to treat. Our discovery helps explain the relationship between gonorrhea and HIV, which could significantly impact the treatment of both infections,” says Gray-Owen.

When a person becomes infected with gonorrhea during sexual intercourse, the bacteria releases a molecule called heptose phosphate into their genital tract. Their body recognizes the heptose phosphate as a threat, and sends white blood cells to try to combat it.

However, if this person is already carrying HIV — even if it’s dormant — the process can actually activate the virus, which may otherwise be hiding in immune cells. This makes the person more infectious and increases the risk that they’ll transmit HIV to other partners.

“We discovered that the immune process meant to fight gonorrhea actually drives HIV replication,” says Gray-Owen. “This discovery is a game-changer that can help us tackle two very large global health crises.  By effectively treating gonorrhea we may be able to stop the spread of HIV.”

The study was published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the United States of America.

There are a significant number of children with complex congenital anomalies who are treated at SickKids Hospital and Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital by numerous specialists until they reach 18 years of age. At that time, they are discharged with the expectation that they will continue receiving care at adult medical facilities, with care being provided by adult specialists.

In certain situations, this transition from child to adult care can be rather difficult to complete with ease. Adult facilities and practitioners are often inadequately prepared to assume care of such a complex patient population, especially when they have undergone multiple surgeries that are not commonplace in older patients. As a result, it is not uncommon for these patients to become “lost” in the system, sometimes with serious, and even fatal, consequences.

Moving Beyond Pediatric Incontinence: The Challenges of Transitional Care, being held June 6-8, 2013 in Toronto, aims to address these important aspects by providing open forums for discussion and education of health care providers that care for these complex pediatric patients as they transition beyond the children’s hospital environment into adulthood. Discussion of institutional, insurance, and governmental barriers to establish effective transitional processes will be a cornerstone of this meeting. Experts from around the globe will provide their insight and expertise into these issues. This meeting will help to promote support from public and private organizations in developing more optimal services for young adults with complex congenital anomalies as they reach the age of transition.

Media are welcome to attend free of charge. This meeting is open to the public and interested parties can register online under the Allied Health category at the cost of $300 dollars. 

Visit www.cepd.utoronto.ca/bpi/ for full meeting details and an online registration form.
For more information, please contact:

Continuing Education & Professional Development
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Tel: 416.978.2719
Email: info.cepd@utoronto.ca
Website: www.cepd.utoronto.ca

Once accepted into medical school, students are faced with an important question:  ‘What kind of doctor do I want to be?’

There are two general paths: medical and surgical. But with minimal access to operating rooms or surgical professionals during the first two years of medical school, students often make this decision without much first-hand experience.

Now in its second year, the Surgical Exploration and Discovery (SEAD) Program —spearheaded by U of T Medicine students and the Department of Surgery — is helping first-year students make this important decision.  Running June 10 to 21, SEAD offers exclusive access to Toronto’s most advanced operating rooms, highly sought-after mentorship opportunities with U of T’s diverse surgeons and hands-on skill development with cutting-edge simulators. It’s an introductory surgical education experience unrivalled by any other in North America.

“It’s like a Contiki Tour, but instead of countries, it provides all-access exposure to surgical hot spots,” says second-year medical student Neil D’Souza, the program’s current director.

“Last year’s SEAD experience introduced me to orthopedic oncology and vascular surgery, options I wouldn’t have considered without the program.  Learning surgical skills and principles at an early stage gives medical students a head start,” says D’Souza as he continues on his surgical exploration path.

An invaluable experience for 20 first-year students each June, SEAD participants shadow surgeons from each of the seven direct-entry specialties (as well as thoracic and pediatric surgery) and trauma team at St. Mikes and Sunnybrook. SEAD students also participate in hands-on simulations at U of T’s Surgical Skills Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital and Li Ka Shing International Heathcare Education Centre and can talk to leading surgeons about career development.

SEAD also benefits surgeons, who are eager to engage medical students early in their training and share their experience practicing their surgical specialty.

James Rutka, Chair of U of T’s Department of Surgery and neurosurgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids), says SEAD helps ensure adequate numbers of students enter key surgical specialties.

“There aren’t many opportunities for students to see first-hand how gratifying surgery is in the early years,  so students may be deterred by concerns about work-life balance, intensity of care and the high frequency of life-threatening conditions,” says Rutka, who describes his pediatric surgery elective at Sick Kids as his career’s defining moment.  “By giving students access, experience and mentorship, this unique program helps them to make a more informed decision about their career direction.”

The program was established by Nada Gawad, now a third year medical student, in June 2012.

Watch a video created by the inaugural SEAD class here.

When it comes to teaching, Professor Chris Perumalla is renowned for his dedication to students at the Faculty of Medicine and beyond.

An acclaimed lecturer in two flagship physiology courses and in "hands-on" laboratory courses where students get to know him personally, Perumalla is also director of the Division of Teaching Laboratories at Medicine, incorporating new research technologies to enhance the experience of undergraduate students.

In addition to his work as an undergraduate academic counselor and teaching assistant coordinator in the Physiology Department, he has helped create the Youth Summer Program for high school students interested in medicine, and developed online courses for the School of Continuing Studies.

Perumalla is one of three recipients of the 2012-2013 President’s Teaching Awards, along with Lawrence Sawchuk of the Department of Anthropology and Alissa Trotz, associate professor with the Women and Gender Studies Institute, cross-appointed to the Caribbean Studies program. (Read an interview with Trotz.)

Perumalla spoke with writer Gavin Au-Yeung about his passion for education and his commitment to his students.

How did you get into teaching?

As a graduate student and post-doctoral fellow I was really enjoying research and publishing extensively. But when I was a postdoc, I had the opportunity to work with Corey Goldman (previous PTA winner) in developing a first-year biology course at the University of Toronto. I really fell in love with teaching, designing curriculum and interacting with students. Teaching would provide me the opportunity to impact students, to cultivate in them a love for learning and to light a fire in their lives, rather than just fill their pail.

I was extremely passionate about teaching, so I had to make a hard decision of whether I would continue in basic research. But I decided that teaching was where my heart really was and that’s where I wanted to make the transition. After teaching several flagship physiology courses, and wearing the hats of Academic Counsellor and TA Coordinator in the Department of Physiology, I was appointed as the Director of Teaching Labs in Medicine in 2005; this gave me the opportunity to innovate and provide opportunities for students to use “cutting edge” technology in lab courses and embark on creating an online course.

How would you describe your teaching style?

My basic approach when teaching in a large class is to first give basic building blocks, connect them with practical life situations, and then to bring in the critical thinking and problem solving aspects to reinforce the concept. One of the ways I do this is by integrating news stories which are relevant. Students may not be thinking about physiology when they are exposed to the news, so I bring the relevance of that to the classroom – it’s very appropriate in helping students think outside the box.

What is the role of effective communication in learning?

A student coming to me for help or clarification may be intimidated if I just show off my knowledge. But if you can relate with the students it instils faith in them. Students should realize that everyone faces bumps along the road, myself included.

What have you learned from your students?

My responsibility as a teacher is to make students realize what they’re good at. There are times when I have to be brutally honest and say, “There’s no way that you are ever getting into med school… So let’s just work on plan B.” Students need to know that if plan A doesn’t work out, that doesn’t mean they have failed in life. It’s all about valuing individuals and helping them to find their career path. I’ve learned to treat every individual very differently based on where they are in life. This results in a powerful relation with my students. I’ve received hundreds of letters from former students and many still maintain contact with me.

Why is integrating teaching and research important?

Students tend to compartmentalize courses, marks, knowledge, research, their career and how much money they can make. But they have difficulties integrating what they have learned in the sciences and university environment to what’s happening in the broader world.

I would say this is a three-step approach: what is happening on the classroom, to what is happening on the research bench in a lab, to bedside delivery in a hospital. I have strived to enable students to see this connection.

Why teach at U of T?

I feel really privileged to work at an institution like the University of Toronto which maintains the balance and provides the opportunities to faculty members to be able to excel in research and teaching at the same time, while recognizing their importance and integrating both together.

Are there teachers you’ve had in the past who influenced you?

I originally come from India, and both my parents were teachers. They made a big impact on my life. Also, teaching at the university and my church on diverse topics has enabled me to exercise my gift of teaching. Furthermore, during my first year at U of T as a faculty member, I would sit in lectures and courses that I knew I’d be teaching in the future so I could learn from several amazing professors with incredible gift of communication.

What does it mean to receive the President’s Teaching Award?

I would say it’s very humbling and satisfying. U of T has given me the opportunity do what I love doing – teaching, mentoring and innovating, all geared to enhancing the educational experience of our students.

Today, the University of Toronto’s Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development and Mount Sinai Hospital launched the Ontario Birth Study. The largest Canadian study of its kind, it will follow thousands of women and their babies, helping scientists and health practitioners understand how genes and the environment interact to shape health.

"Everyone wants their children to grow up healthy, happy and do well in their lives,” says Professor Stephen Lye, Executive Director of the Fraser Mustard Institute for Human Development, which focuses on how critical the earliest days of life are to well-being across the lifespan.

“What we are exposed to in the womb, the nutrition of pregnant mothers, our experiences throughout infancy and early childhood, all interact with our genetic makeup and can impact our health throughout our lives,” continues Lye, a professor in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Physiology and scientist at Mount Sinai’s Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute.

Maternal nutrition during pregnancy, exposure to different stimuli in the womb and exercise in early childhood all have a major impact on disease susceptibility during pregnancy and can lead to health problems like obesity. By observing the health of pregnant women, tracking the progress of developing fetuses and monitoring early infancy into childhood, researchers hopes to discover how chronic diseases might be avoided. 

Lye and Alan Bocking, Chair of U of T’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, are leading a team of more than 30 clinicians and researchers to transform the standard of care for women and their babies, leading to a more personalized approach to their care.

“We’re focusing on the long-term prevention of common, complex illnesses,” says Bocking, also a physician in Mount Sinai’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. “By fostering healthy early development, we have a better chance of preventing common adult diseases and promoting long-term health.” 

The study is open to all pregnant patients at Mount Sinai Hospital and it is expected that over 1,200 women will be enrolled in the first year of this multi-year study. Patients will participate in regular lifestyle and diet questionnaires and provide biologic samples, such as blood tests during routine prenatal medical appointments. Data analysis will begin in the study’s second year.  The Ontario Birth Study hopes to expand to other hospitals across the province in a few years.

The Ontario Birth Study has partnered with TARget Kids!, a large network of child health researchers and practitioners in the Greater Toronto Area who will help track the health of children enrolled in the study.

A former Dean of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine will receive an honorary degree for his role in setting up Northern Ontario’s first medical school.

Laurentian University will award Professor Arnie Aberman with an Honorary Doctorate of Laws for his work with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM). The school, established in 2005 by Laurentian and Lakehead University in Thunder Bay — 1,000 kilometres apart — has transformed health care in Ontario by training and retaining doctors and health professionals to practise in rural areas.

“I’m really pleased to receive this honour, because it’s a recognition of the impact the school has made on health services in Northern Ontario,” said Aberman, a Professor in the Department of Medicine who was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1992 to 1999. “It’s been a terrific success. There is no medical school in Canada that is more integrated with the community it serves.”

Students at NOSM do placements in remote areas, small and large cities, and with aboriginal and Métis communities. They train with over 1,000 faculty members in community hospitals, clinics and family practices. More than 90 per cent of students are from Northern Ontario, and almost one-third are francophone or aboriginal, in an average year. About two-thirds of MD graduates from the school have chosen family medicine, improving access to primary care in underserviced rural areas.

“The presence of students and teachers in Northern Ontario health care settings has led to a greater breadth and quality of health services, and enabled better recruitment of health professionals to remote communities,” said Catharine Whiteside, Dean of U of T’s Faculty of Medicine. “The school is an outstanding example of distributed medical education, and it’s becoming a model for improving care in rural areas across Canada and around the world.”

Aberman was the only one of the school’s five-member Implementation Management Committee with experience running a medical school. He gave advice on accreditation, curriculum development and distance education, and came up with a solution for the challenge of establishing one faculty of medicine within two universities: the school as a not-for-profit corporation, with an independent board for fiscal matters and a line of reporting to each university for academic affairs. It was a unique governance model for a faculty of medicine, without precedent in North America.

“Success has many parents, and failure is an orphan,” said Aberman. “This school’s achievements are the result of hard work by countless individuals in medicine, academia, government and the private sector. Most of all, community involvement across Northern Ontario has been tremendous, and I’m most proud of that.”

Aline Chrétien, the Chancellor of Laurentian University, will present Aberman with the honorary doctorate at a convocation ceremony on June 4.

 World-renowned molecular geneticist Professor Peter St George-Hyslop, Director of the University of Toronto’s Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases, has won one of Europe’s top health awards for his pioneering work on the roots of neurodegenerative diseases.

The BIAL Foundation is honouring St George-Hyslop with a BIAL Merit Award in Medical Sciences, one of the world’s most prestigious awards for health research. Europe’s equivalent of Canada’s Gairdner Awards or the United States’ Lasker Awards, the BIAL Merit Award recognizes written work that has major scientific relevance.

St George-Hyslop’s winning research paper, Translating Discoveries in Basic Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Molecular Genetics into Transformative Approaches to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Currently Incurable Neurodegenerative Dementias, explores the key role that the discovery of genes with disease-causing mutations played in understanding the molecular pathogenesis of these diseases. It described the creation of useful model-organisms bearing these disease-causing mutations. Finally, it outlined the ongoing efforts to translate knowledge about the disease mechanism into potential diagnostics and disease-modifying therapies.

“I am honoured to work with some of the world’s finest researchers who are dedicated to helping millions of people around the world through the advancement of knowledge and accelerated research and discovery on neurodegenerative diseases,” says St George-Hyslop. “There’s a lot of work that still needs to be done, but together we are an innovative force for progress on one of the century’s most significant health challenges.”

St George-Hyslop — Director of UHN’s Memory Clinic — has produced an extensive body of research that focuses on understanding the causes and molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Frontotemporal Dementia. By discovering two genes responsible for early-onset Alzheimer’s, St George-Hyslop and his team have made early diagnoses and treatment of the disease possible, often before brain damage occurs. They are currently taking some of the knowledge about the molecular mechanisms of the disease that were uncovered by their genetic studies, and using this information to develop novel diagnostics and treatments.

“Professor St George-Hyslop leads a wonderful team that has made extraordinary discoveries. This latest recognition is another indicator of the impact and importance of his work, and a most fitting tribute to Peter’s brilliance, vision, and dedication,” says University of Toronto President David Naylor.

“Groundbreaking discovery requires intensive investigation, and, with Professor St George-Hyslop’s leadership, the Tanz Centre’s relentless approach to pursuing these discoveries will help solve the mystery of complex neurodegenerative illnesses,” says Faculty of Medicine Dean Catharine Whiteside.

Portuguese President Aníbal António Cavaco Silva presented St George-Hyslop with his Merit Award on May 14, 2013 in Porto, Portugal.

Photo: Portuguese President Aníbal António Cavaco Silva presenting Professor St George-Hyslop (far right) with his award.

Today, the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM) at the University of Toronto launches a website called DFCM Open. Inspired by open knowledge and collaboration initiatives, such as the open source software movement, DFCM Open (www.dfcmopen.com) will collect and store clinical, educational and research material that is created, peer-reviewed and voluntarily submitted by its faculty members and their collaborators. Presented in a state-of-the-art website, DFCM Open will provide a wide range of Canadian content focused on family medicine and primary care.

DFCM is believed to be the very first academic family medicine department in the world to create and open such a repository to the world, providing resources locally and globally, while fostering, sustaining and expanding scholarship and academic activity at the Departmental level. The work found in DFCM Open will continue to build upon the DFCM’s international reputation for clinical, educational and research excellence.

A community family physician from Barrie, Dr. Robert Gabor, is a DFCM faculty member. “What’s important to me as a family physician is having access to a set of tools and resources that are relevant and in one place – from guidelines, to teaching aids, to care pathways, for example.”

DFCM Open is a resource especially for family physicians and primary care health professionals, no matter where they live or practice. It provides community family physicians with a connection to professional resources; and it is free to use.

DFCM Open has its busy users in mind with functions like the bookmark feature which allows a user to save and revisit items on any device. By adding DFCM Open to an EMR toolbar, users can have quick, in-clinic access to their bookmarks instead of relying on their browser’s favourites. To stay informed of new and updated content added to DFCM Open, users can sign up for email alerts. And in sharp contrast to the complicated interfaces of library catalogues, research databases and online journals, DFCM Open raises the bar for ease-of-use through its simple and user-tested interface.

Users find material in DFCM Open by browsing categories, selecting from ordered topic lists or simply searching with keywords, Google-style. Materials include tools like clinical decision aids, calculators, order sets, mobile apps, and teaching, evaluation or research aids. Resources available also include guidelines, articles, reviews, reports, manuals, one-pagers, care pathways, clinical directives, EMR resources, lectures, seminars, workshops and patient education materials. Tools and resources exist in a variety of formats, such as documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, videos, audio or images. They can also be web links.

“Much more than an online binder or filing cabinet, DFCM Open is a platform from which family medicine can take flight, starting with our faculty members and extending around the world,” says Dr. Lynn Wilson, Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine.

“We want those in low resource settings to have access to the best of Canada’s family medicine resources; and our hope is that others will visit, learn and be inspired to take their own innovative work to the next level – and then share it,” she says.
For more information, please contact:

Danielle Wintrip

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto
416-978-8793
danielle.simpson@utoronto.ca

U of T Medicine researchers have won $998,546 in funding through Genome Canada's 2012 Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Competition, a partnership with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). The competition supports the development of next generation tools to deal with the large volumes of data produced by today’s genomics technologies.

Professors Michael Brudno and Gary Bader in the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Bimolecular Research and the Banting and Best Department of Medical Research are developing software that will help doctors use a patient’s genome to search for information about his or her risk of developing a disease.

“Genome sequencing is evolving from being a research project to a routine medical test,” says Brudno, also Director of the Centre for Computational Medicine at the Hospital for Sick Children. He and Bader want to help clinicians interpret these tests to better-target medical treatment.

The data generated when a genome is sequenced are in the terabyte range — much more than any human could make sense of (a terabyte of paper stacked would make a 66,000-mile tower). The team’s software will help distil the data down to a few megabytes of information that is actually useful (a megabyte is roughly equivalent to 500 pages of text).

“Often, it is hard to figure out the exact type of disorder a patient has. Two disorders that look the same may have different genetic causes — and need different courses of treatment,” says Brudno, adding that sequencing a patient’s genome allows for precisely targeted treatment.

The software can also be used to help healthy patients understand their risk of developing genetic diseases like cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

“Bioinformatics becomes increasingly important as researchers are able to generate more and more data,” said Judith Chadwick, U of T’s Assistant Vice-President, Research and Innovation.  “Tools that help us make sense of these data are the keys to better health and quality of life. On behalf of the University of Toronto, thanks to Genome Canada for these awards — and to the Ontario Genomics Institute for facilitating them. And congratulations to the researchers on these richly deserved awards.”

This work was funded by the Government of Canada through Genome Canada and the Ontario Genomics Institute, as well as by the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), which will allow the researchers to test and refine their software in collaboration doctors treating patients at SickKids. Brudno notes that a previous grant from the Ontario Genomics Institute was instrumental in getting the project started.

Brudno is also affiliated with the Department of Computer Science. Bader is also affiliated with the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Molecular Genetics and the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital.
 

U of T’s Neuroscience and Brain Health Network
My Virtual Dream

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto (U of T) is a vibrant and diverse academic community of 80,000 students, 12,000 faculty and 6,000 staff members across three distinctive campuses and many partner sites, including world-renowned hospitals.

As an international research pacesetter, U of T is second only to Harvard in research publications.  U of T is also a leader in knowledge translation and entrepreneurship: Toronto students and faculty generated 25 spin-off companies in 2011 alone.

U of T graduates are strengthening their communities and creating successful and innovative societies. U of T claims 500,000 alumni in 175 countries, many of whom hold leadership roles in every sphere of human activity with surprising concentrations of influence everywhere from Hollywood to Hong Kong.

For more information about Neuroscience at U of T, please visit: link to A) new page with all content below or B) revamped Neurology at U of T site

Neurology at U of T

The Division of Neurology at U of T is composed of hospital-based neurology units at many teaching sites in Toronto, including:

• Baycrest
• Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
• Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital
• Mount Sinai Hospital
• St. Michael's Hospital
• Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• The Hospital for Sick Children
• University Health Network

Many of these programs are internationally renowned, receiving referrals from all parts of Canada, the United States and beyond.

A number of basic science laboratories are affiliated with the Division and located within the hospital-based research institutes and on the U of T campus, including the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

The Division of Neurology’s mission is:

• To expand knowledge of causes, treatments and cures for neurological disease;
• To provide unparalleled care to neurological patients;
• To train the next generation of Neurology practitioners and neuroscientists.

Bloorview Research Institute at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

The Bloorview Research Institute is dedicated to improving the lives of children with disabilities and their families through clinically linked and applied pediatric rehabilitation research. The Institute brings together scientists with expertise in medicine, surgery, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech- language pathology, engineering, epidemiology, biostatistics, psychology and more.

Led by Tom Chau, the Institutes areas of research include:

• Accessible spaces
• Acquired brain injury
• Attitudes toward disability
• Autism
• Bullying of children with disabilities
• Cerebral palsy
• Spina bifida

The Research Institute’s location inside Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital promotes collaboration and innovation. Children, families, therapists and researchers work together to identify real-world problems and develop products or treatments.

The Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

​The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is the leading mental health and addictions research facility in Canada, and one of the largest in the world. CAMH scientists are world leaders in understanding brain structure and function and furthering knowledge of the causes and best treatments for mental illness and addictions.

Led by Bruce Pollock, CAMH’s research program is comprised of four research departments:

• Clinical Research
• Neuroscience Research
• Research Imaging Centre
• Social and Epidemiological Research

CAMH’s research program has state-of-the-art resources and facilities and is home to internationally recognized scientists, including five Canada Research Chairs and 10 endowed U of T chairs and professorships.

The Hospital for Sick Children

The Neurosciences and Mental Health program at Sick Kids focuses on the brain and the nervous system in health and disease. Led by Professor Michael Salter, the diverse group of researchers includes international leaders in the field of neurosciences and mental health.

Sick Kids researchers investigate both normal development and disorders of the nervous system from a broad range of perspectives in a highly collaborative and interactive environment. Investigators examine the role of genes, proteins and other molecules in brain function to determine the different causes of brain dysfunction and ultimately to develop novel therapies and prevention strategies that substantially improve a child’s quality of life at home, in school and within their environments.

Krembil Neuroscience Centre at University Health Network

The Krembil Neuroscience Centre (KNC), located at Toronto Western Hospital, is home to one of the largest combined clinical and research neurological facilities in North America. Since opening in 2001, KNC has been recognized as a world leader through its research achievements, education and exemplary patient care.

Led by Michael Fehlings, the Centre focuses on the advancement, detection and treatment of neurological diseases and specializes in movement disorders, dementias, stroke, spinal cord injury, blinding eye diseases, epilepsy and cancer-related conditions

This year marks the opening of the Centre’s new research facility, the Krembil Discovery Tower. This facility will house state-of-the-art equipment and world-renowned researchers to push the boundaries of discovery and seek answers to diseases and conditions of the nervous system including spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s disease.

The Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum at Mount Sinai Hospital

The Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital is a landmark in the Canadian biomedical research landscape. Home to 50 core investigators and 60 clinical researchers, the institute is small, but mighty. While seen as a top tier leader in discovery research in its own right, the institute also effectively synergizes with the clinical programs of the hospital, creating value for patients, researchers and the community.

Led by Jim Woodget, the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital is leading the way in health science research and helping advance the future health of Canadians.

The Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest

The Rotman Research Institute (RRI) is a premier international centre for the study of human brain function. The primary research focus is on memory and the executive (frontal lobe) functions of the brain, both in normal aging and in the presence of diseases and conditions which affect the brain, such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

Led by Randy McIntosh, RRI’s world-renowned scientists promote effective care and improved quality of life of the elderly through research into behavioural changes associated with the aging process.

RRI Research strengths include:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Population Neuroscience
• Neuroinformatics
• Auditory Neuroscience

St. Michael’s Hospital

St. Michael’s Neuroscience Research Program is built upon the well-established, clinical excellence in the areas of stroke, neurotrauma, multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Led by Tom A. Schweizer, the program brings together a unique group of nationally and internationally renowned neuroscientists. By mobilizing researchers in the areas of fundamental neurobiology, neuroimaging, clinical trials and knowledge translation, the Program works to unravel the mysteries of the brain and brain health.

St. Michael’s is a leading clinical site for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders, including:

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Traumatic brain injury
• Stroke
• Aneurysm
• Multiple sclerosis,
• Parkinson’s disease
• Brain tumours
• Subarachnoid hemorrhage and neuro-trauma

Sunnybrook Research Institute

Scientists in the brain sciences research program at Sunnybrook Research Institute work to identify the mechanisms underlying complex neurobiological diseases and to develop innovative strategies to help people recover from these mind-destroying illnesses.

Led by Sandra Black, Sunnybrook brain scientists perform basic, clinical and translational research from different perspectives. Those working in the lab are examining molecular interactions in the nervous system, while others are exploring new imaging techniques to map the brains of people with mood disorders, dementia and stroke.

The program also has clinical researchers developing new rehabilitation and drug therapies. The program’s varied areas of focus result in an integrated approach to neurological disease that ultimately improves clinical care.

Sunnybrook investigators focus on disorders and conditions of the brain and central nervous system, including:

• Stroke
• Alzheimer's, vascular, Parkinson's and frontotemporal dementia
• Anxiety and mood disorders
• Motor neuron diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
• Brain tumours
• Multiple sclerosis
• Traumatic brain injury
• Sleep disorders
• Effects of cognitive impairment on safe functioning in the community