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Canada's richest health research award attracts leader in brain science to Lethbridge

Alberta partners invest $20 million in the inaugural Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Polaris Award

(Lethbridge, Alberta) One of the world's foremost brain scientists, Bruce McNaughton, PhD, has moved his research program from the University of Arizona to the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN) at the University of Lethbridge. McNaughton is the first scientist to win Alberta's AHFMR Polaris Award, the richest health research award in Canada.

"Alberta's bold investment in this top health researcher will benefit people with brain injuries, addictions and age-related brain disorders not only in our province, but around the world," says Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach. "A strategic investment like the Polaris Award is what we need to support the next generation economy - an economy in which knowledge is our foremost renewable resource. That investment will pay dividends - for our health, and in the health of our new economy."

The Alberta government investment of $10 million, through the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research (AHFMR), has been matched by the University of Lethbridge and the Informatics Circle of Research Excellence (iCORE) for a total investment of $20 million into McNaughton's research and the CCBN.

"This multi-partner award is an outstanding example of the kind of alignment we want to see throughout Alberta's research and innovation system," says Doug Horner, Minister of Advanced Education and Technology. "Health research is an international enterprise, and to be competitive, it is essential that we align our resources. I look forward to witnessing the discoveries and breakthrough technologies that this new team will generate."

"This award was created in order to attract superstar medical researchers to Alberta," says Gail Surkan, Chair of the AHFMR Board of Trustees. "We worked with government and other partners to identify priority health areas to invest in. A rapidly emerging area of concern for everyone as we age is how to protect and heal the aging brain. Together with University of Lethbridge and iCORE, we chose Dr. McNaughton for the excellence and pace of his science, and his reputation as a consummate collaborator. His science shows us how brain cells work with the very latest imaging techniques."

McNaughton was most recently the Director of the Arizona Research Laboratories Division of Neural Systems, Memory and Aging at the University of Arizona. His research focuses on how brain cells process information and form memories, and how those processes are altered by aging, trauma or substance abuse.

"Every scientist dreams of this kind of opportunity," says Bruce McNaughton, PhD, AHFMR Polaris Awardee, and Professor of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge. "I am joining a team, lead by Drs. Bryan Kolb, Rob Sutherland and Deb Saucier, that is already known globally for its groundbreaking work in behavioural neuroscience. I want Albertans to know that this award allows us to attract some of the best young minds in neuroscience to tackle the complex problems of the brain."

"This is a great day for our university and the province of Alberta," says University of Lethbridge President Bill Cade, PhD. "We are thrilled that Dr. McNaughton has joined our team of world-renowned researchers at the CCBN. The CCBN has already established an unequaled reputation of innovative research; McNaughton's addition primes the U of L neuroscience team for unprecedented breakthroughs in discovery."

The Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research currently provides funding for more than 600 researchers and researchers-in-training at the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, and the University of Lethbridge. AHFMR's commitment is to fund health research based on international standards of excellence. In 2005 the Alberta Government pledged an additional $500 million to the Foundation's endowment. The endowment supports an annual investment of approximately $60 million in health research in Alberta. Since 1980 AHFMR has committed more than $1 billion in funding to Alberta's medical research community. For more information, visit www.ahfmr.ab.ca

The University of Lethbridge is home to the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN) and to a team of internationally acclaimed faculty members who engage in leading-edge brain research. The CCBN, which opened in 2001, is the only research facility of its kind in Canada. While continuing to maintain its tradition in undergraduate liberal education, the University of Lethbridge is emerging as a leading comprehensive academic and research institution, and is expanding its graduate programming. The U of L provides a personal, supportive learning environment for approximately 8,000 students on campuses in Lethbridge, Calgary and Edmonton, and offers relevant, progressive programs through six Faculties and Schools.

iCORE (Informatics Circle of Research Excellence) invests in people - the highest calibre research scientists who work on fundamental and applied problems in informatics. It operates several grant programs to develop iCORE Chairs at Alberta universities, around which world-class research teams are developed. Since its inception, more than 25 research chairs have been established to focus on emerging areas such as wireless communications, artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, and quantum and nanocomputing. For more information, visit www.icore.ca

Karen Thomas, Media Specialist
AHFMR
1.877.423.5727 x225

Robert Cooney, Communications Officer
Media Relations, University of Lethbridge
1.403.382.7173

BACKGROUNDER

Current research at CCBN includes:

  • new therapeutic approaches for stroke recovery
  • using stem cells to repair the brain after it has been injured
  • understanding and preventing age-related problems in memory and cognition
  • evaluating treatments with the potential to reverse problems in early brain development
  • exploring permanent changes in the brain resulting from prenatal exposure to alcohol and drugs
  • imaging changes in the brain of people with gambling and drug addictions
  • new behavioural and molecular therapies for Parkinson's disease
  • understanding the nature of amnesia
  • using MR imaging and high-density EEG to study attention deficit disorder
  • the differences in cognition between the male and female brain

Bruce McNaughton's research program:

  • revealing how the cerebral cortex functions
  • exploring age-related changes in brain plasticity
  • the cellular basis of long-term memory
  • how sensory experiences affect the dynamic interactions between brain cells
  • mapping out the activities of large numbers of individual brain cells when the brain is processing information
  • developing computer models of how the brain computes

"The work of our team impacts the understanding and treatment of stroke, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's," says Robert Sutherland, PhD, AHFMR Scientist, CCBN, University of Lethbridge. "The basic and clinical research we are doing provides new options for people with brain injuries, drug and gambling addictions, as well as cognitive decline with aging. These brain afflictions take an enormous toll on families and the health system. Our role is to find new solutions and offer them to our community, and all Canadians."

For more information:
Deborah Saucier, PhD, Director
Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience
403.332.5270

Major research announcement at University of Lethbridge

Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and partners introduce Alberta's first $20 million man

Media are invited to attend a news conference announcing the first recipient of Canada's richest health research award on Thursday October 23, 2008 at 11 am at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN), 4401 University Drive West, University of Lethbridge.

This news announcement includes Premier Ed Stelmach, Minister of Advanced Education and Technology Doug Horner, Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Board Chair Gail Surkan, University of Lethbridge Board of Governors Chair Robert Turner, QC, University of Lethbridge President Bill Cade, PhD, member of AHFMR's Scientific Advisory Council and former President of The Salk Institute (La Jolla, California) Richard Murphy, PhD, and the CCBN scientists.

The awardee, a high-profile scientist returning to Canada from the United States, is joining a team of 150 neuroscientists and staff at the renowned CCBN at the University of Lethbridge.

11 am - Media pre-tour with CCBN scientists. Highlights include a new animal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) facility, a rat navigating a water maze, brain cells in a high-powered electron microscope, molecular imaging of brain cell activities, a demonstration of how a rat creates a map of its world through the collective interaction of thousands of brain cells (like a neural "blogosphere"), and a real-time electroencephalograph (EEG) demonstration with a volunteer with sensors on his head.

12:30 pm - Formal program

1 pm - Tour of research laboratories with CCBN scientists for platform guests and media.
- A video news release will be available at the announcement, and on the AHFMR website.
- Still photos also available on request.
- Please use the main entrance to the University of Lethbridge at the intersection of Columbia Boulevard and University Drive. Turn left (east) on Valley Road to enter campus.