Brain Canada Platform Support Grant: Over $2 Million dollars for the Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank

A major Douglas-led project has been awarded a Brain Canada grant. The Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank, an essential platform for brain research in Canada will receive $2,028,000 in new funds under the Canada Brain Research Fund, half being provided by the Government of Canada and half provided by private donors, research institutions, provincial funding agencies, and charitable organizations partnering with the Brain Canada Foundation. This Brain Canada Platform Support Grant was obtained in part thanks to the support of several partners : Bell Canada, Santé , Économie, Innovation et Exportation Québec, the Réseau Québécois sur le suicide, les troubles de l’humeur et les troubles associés (FRQ-S), the Douglas Institute and Foundation.

Canadian Minister of Health Rona Ambrose, along with Inez Jabalpurwala, President and CEO of Brain Canada, has announced funding for 32 projects, among which a project led by Drs. Gustavo Turecki and Naguib Mechawar to update the infrastructure and further increase the efficiency of the Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank.

The Douglas-Bell Canada Brain Bank (DBCBB) is one of the rare brain banks in the world to collect brains from people who suffered from diverse mental disorders, including schizophrenia, major depression, bipolar disorder, and substance use disorders, as well as brains from individuals who were affected with different neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and other dementias. This bank has access to a wealth of longitudinal data from its donors, and fulfills a large number of tissue requests from researchers around the world. The current funded proposal will help update the infrastructure of this highly essential bank, streamlining its operations to make the excellent resources available to the world in a more efficient and timely manner.

Read the Press release by the Government of Canada.