Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive and fatal brain disease. Today, half a million Canadian have AD, with 71,000 of them under age 65. AD destroys brain cells, known as neurons, causing memory, thinking and behavior to become seriously affected. AD patients have less brain tissue compared to normal people and the shrinkage will get worse over time. At present, once a particular ability is lost, it is not known to return. However, it has recently been discovered that some special cells in the brain, called neural stem cells (NSCs), can generate new neurons throughout life, hence a potential therapy to replenish the loss of neurons in AD. Unfortunately, the capacity of these NSCs to generate new neurons declines with age. It is currently unknown whether such decline is, at least partially, causing the death of neurons in AD. My research will examine whether there are any NSCs and their descendent progenitor cells in AD human patients using post-mortem tissue samples. I will inspect the NSCs and progenitor cells in terms of their distributions, properties and what cell types they give rise to. Likewise, I will also examine NSCs and their descendent progenitor cells in a mouse model of AD and evaluate the ability of NSCs to generate new neurons. Altogether, my research will provide fundamental understanding of neuron-generating mechanisms in humans throughout adult life, the consequence of extensive neuronal loss in AD on NSCs and progenitor cells, as well as the influence of aging on progression of AD. Ultimately, my research will provide valuable information when considering therapeutic application of replacing neurons from NSCs.