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

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease worldwide, characterized the death of certain nerve cells within the brain that produce the chemical dopamine. The loss of dopamine leads to movement symptoms such as tremors, problems with balance, and slowed muscle movement. In Canada, PD affects 1 in every 500 people. Genetic and environmental factors play a role, but in many cases the cause is unknown. PD is currently incurable and there is a desperate need for new and better treatment methods. Recently, the bacteria that live in the healthy human gut, or gut microbiota, have also been found to play a role in PD. Studies have found that PD patients have different amounts of certain bacteria present in their guts when compared to people of the same age without PD. Also, many patients report problems with their gut, such as constipation, that start many years before movement symptoms and official diagnosis with PD. This shows that we need to look more closely at what could be causing the early symptoms of PD, and that the gut microbiota might be a good place to start. In my study, I propose to use a mouse model of early PD. Mice are an excellent model for many human diseases because they are similar to humans in many ways, such as the fact that they have a gut microbiota. The model I propose to use has a genetic mutation that produces gut and movement symptoms similar to those in human PD patients. I plan to investigate how changing the gut microbiota influences these symptoms. The gut microbiota will be changed through treatment with antibiotics to wipe out bacteria or through the addition of certain bacterial species that are thought to influence PD. This study will reveal specific changes in gut bacteria that can influence PD and will increase our understanding of how this disease works. This is an important step towards understanding the early causes of PD, and developing better non-invasive treatments and preventative strategies.