Grant: Foundation Grant

<html> <body> <p> <strong>The overarching goal</strong> of my program is to better understand, through quantitative imaging, the impact of vascular disease on stroke, cognitive decline and brain aging.<br> <br> My <strong>guiding hypothesis</strong> is that magnetic resonance (MR) imaging detection of the early vascular and brain changes will lead to improved outcomes and treatments in stroke and dementia. The objectives of my program are the targeted development of specific new imaging tools and demonstration that they can quantify early functional changes.<br> <br> I am developing innovative, quantitative MR imaging tools that measure early vascular and brain changes, including new acquisition techniques and analysis algorithms. Once fully realized, these tools will be applied to the <strong>themes of my program</strong>:<br> </p> <ol> <li>Characterize ischemic recurrence in stroke, and</li> <li>Identify early vascular and brain changes in cognitive decline and healthy aging.</li> </ol> <p>The program takes full advantage of the 7-yr program duration, as it allows for 5-yr serial imaging studies. The flexibility of my research program allows us to incorporate new findings from clinical and imaging studies as they emerge. Additionally, through my network of local experts and international collaborators, I will rapidly introduce new advances and gain advice to mitigate challenges.<br> <br> <strong>Anticipated program outputs</strong> include a battery of MR imaging tools that will allow:<br> </p> <ol> <li>Better prediction of ischemic recurrence in stroke, addressing a critical issue in patient management, and</li> <li>Establishment of new and sensitive, early measures of cognitive decline and brain aging, providing key new data about disease pathways.</li> </ol> <p>These tools will produce important new details about vascular/brain health, leading to improved patient diagnosis, prognosis and management.<br> <br> <strong>Expertise:</strong> This new program builds on my extensive track record of developing and successfully translating new imaging tools (<strong>CV Module</strong>), including developing time-resolved contrast MR angiography. Since 1999 at the Seaman Family Centre and with the Calgary Stroke Program, I have focused on imaging the brain and carotid arteries. I successfully developed a facility for analyzing images collected in multi-center clinical trials, which played a key role in my prominent contributions to an international consensus group, two national vascular imaging networks, and several multi-center imaging studies. My expertise is augmented by Program Experts in image analysis (<em>Lotufo</em>), stroke (<em>Hill</em>, <em>Menon</em>) and dementia (<em>Smith</em>).<br> <br> <strong>Training and mentorship</strong> is key to the sustained success of the program. Typically, I have 4 graduate students and 3 fellows in my group. I will continue to place a premium on research training, leadership development, and presentations and publications by trainees. Trainees are frequently co-supervised with colleagues (currently <em>Menon,</em> <em>Smith</em>), complementing my efforts to provide an interdisciplinary educational experience. I take advantage of the strong Calgary training programs in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Imaging&mdash;both of which I helped develop. Many of my trainees have won awards and all have been successful in their future endeavors. As a senior imaging faculty member, I am also active in providing mentorship to 5 junior colleagues.<br> <br> In summary, my record of academic leadership, neurovascular imaging expertise, excellent team members and talented collaborators, will be brought to bear to better understand the vascular contributions to stroke, cognitive decline and aging of the brain.</p> </body> </html>