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OTTAWA, October 19, 2010  —  Thanks to a new $1.8M grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Dr. Steffany Bennett of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa is collaborating with exceptional researchers to identify and reverse changes in brain lipid metabolism that contribute to brain injury associated with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. This major investment is part of a six-year Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research Training Program in Neurodegenerative Lipidomics.

As Director of this new trans-institutional program, Dr Bennett leads a team of outstanding researchers at the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, the University of Toronto, the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) dedicated to training the best and brightest undergraduate, graduate, post-professional and post-doctoral fellows in the new field of neurolipidomics. The program is centred at the Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology (OISB).

“Not all of the mysteries of life lie in our genetic code. Some can be found buried in our membranes. These shells of fat, sculpted in the brain into the cellular boundaries of our brain cells, are themselves complex systems of information. Brain lipids can shape-shift at will. They have the power to take on any one of a number of forms in response to environmental change while retaining the capacity to regenerate their original nature. But what happens when this capacity fails?” asks Steffany Bennett.

To answer this question, CIHR has invested in the approach of 18 principal investigators to train highly qualified students and early-career professionals in the systems biology of lipids. New recruits are taught to apply lipidomic technologies, strategies and visualization methodologies to the study of small fat molecules that render brain cells vulnerable (or resistant) to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease and stroke.

“Lipidomics uses the power of mass spectrometry, the depth of lipid biochemistry, the insight of neuronal cell biology and, unique to our team, the communication afforded by hybrid visualization technologies to define the crucial role that brain lipids play in neurodegenerative disease and to identify new potential treatment,” explains Bennett.

The research is moving forward rapidly. While completing his PhD research in Bennett’s laboratory, first author Scott Ryan collaborated with other network scientists such as Dr. Paul Fraser (Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CRND)), Dr. David Park (OSIB), Dr. Daniel Figeys (OSIB), and their trainees from the universities of Ottawa and Toronto to publish some of the first findings generated by the team in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They found that specific lipid pathways are disrupted in Alzheimer’s disease and that strategies that prevent these changes in animal models protect the brain from degeneration.

The program is accepting trainees in the fields of neuroscience, biology, architecture, engineering, medicine, psychology, analytical chemistry and bioinformatics.

For the complete list of researchers involved and for more information about the Neurodegenerative Lipidomics Training Program visit the program’s website.