Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects (NSERC partnered)

As the average age of the population of Canada and the developed world rises, neurodegenerative conditions will become increasingly prevalent and a growing burden on the healthcare system and economy. A major neurodegenerative disease is Alzheimer's disease (AD), which causes memory and cognition loss. AD and dementia affect roughly 1.1 million Canadians and incur an economic cost of $10.4B per year in Canada. Currently, there is no cure or effective treatment. The Lancet Neurology Commission recently stated, "an effective therapy for AD is perhaps the greatest unmet need facing modern medicine." This project addresses the challenge of understanding neuron circuits in the brain involved in memory, with the goal of improving the efficacy of neurostimulation therapies for AD and dementia. Such treatments would stimulate specific brain circuits to promote memory encoding and/or retrieval in patients with AD or dementia. The project will create a new type of wireless, implantable deep brain probes for rodent experiments on memory loss rescue that uses optical stimulation and electrical stimulation+recording of specific groups of neurons. Importantly, these brain probes will be made using the same processes and infrastructure as semiconductor microelectronics to ensure compatibility with volume manufacturing and a viable technology translation path that will widely benefit neuroscientists and clinical researchers. This project brings together world-class expertise from around the globe in photonics, electronics, neuroscience, and deep brain stimulation. In addition to the Canadian team members, the project involves collaborators in France and United States who will provide complementary expertise in the design, fabrication, and testing of the neural probes. The results of this international project will benefit the health of Canadians and lead to high-value neurotechnology products that are designed and integrated in Canada.