New Site Leaders named to Planning and Priorities Committee
The 2016 slate of site leaders, who are appointed by the Scientific Director in consultation with their respective institutions, have been named to the CPSR's Planning and Priorities Committee (PPC).
Members of the PPC, which is chaired by Dr. Dale Corbett, provide advice about CPSR's research direction, operations and what’s happening at their institutions. They are appointed for three-year terms. Until recently, CPSR had two overlapping committees providing research direction -- the Site Leaders committee and the PPC. Under the new model, the site leaders will all serve on the PPC and there will no longer be duplication of effort.
Members of the PPC are as follows:
- Dr. Sandra Black, Site Leader, Sunnybrook, Ontario
- Dr. Lara Boyd, Site Leader, University of British Columbia, British Columbia
- Dr. Dar Dowlatshahi, Site Leader, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, Ontario
- Dr. Sean Dukelow, Site Leader, University of Calgary, Alberta
- Dr. Diane Lagace, Site Leader, University of Ottawa, Ontario
- Dr. Jed Meltzer, Site Leader, Baycrest, Ontario
- Dr. Alex Mihailidis, Site Leader, Toronto Rehab, Ontario
- Dr. Michelle Ploughman, Site Leader, Memorial, Newfoundland and Labrador
- Dr. Annie Rochette, Stroke Engine, Quebec
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MPP Lisa MacLeod and MP David McGuinty visited
CPSR facilities this month to learn
about stroke recovery research
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Ontario MPP Lisa MacLeod (Nepean-Carleton), left with CPSR Scientific Director Dr. Dale Corbett, and Ottawa South MP David McGuinty, right with CPSR's Dr. Diane Lagace, visited CPSR research facilities this month to learn more about stroke recovery research and the important work of the Partnership. Ms. MacLeod toured facilities at uOttawa with Dr. Dale Corbett. Mr. McGuinty spent more than two hours on July 7 with Dr. Diane Lagace, visiting the research labs and specialized facilities at uOttawa. Both Ms. MacLeod and Mr. McGuinty indicated a strong interest in the work of the Partnership and expressed their support for advancing awareness of stroke recovery research.
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There's no question our annual SPiN workshop is "stimulating"!
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Memorial University's Liam Kelly, left, and Dr. George Mochizuki of Sunnybrook Research Institute at the 2015 SPiN Workshop
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MARK YOUR CALENDARS – October 23-25, 2016
CPSR SPiN Workshop in Vancouver, BC
CPSR is pleased to announce that this year’s Stroke Program in Neurorecovery (SPiN) Workshop will be held on October 23-25, 2016 in Vancouver, BC. This annual multi-day workshop is designed specifically for trainees working in the area of stroke recovery research. This year’s theme is Biomarkers and Novel Rehabilitation Technologies in Stroke Recovery Research. Approximately 40 trainees will be invited to attend this workshop. Highlights include: interactive lectures, hands-on workgroup sessions, peer and mentoring networking opportunities, discussion with stroke patients, and a whole lot more.
More details about the workshop, how to apply, etc., will be forthcoming in next month’s newsletter and on the CPSR website.
Check back soon – this is an event you don’t want to miss!
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'Stroke Recovery Solutions' invited to submit full proposal
for Network of Centres of Excellence in Knowledge Translation
In the spring, CPSR worked in partnership with Dr. Mark Bayley of Toronto Rehab and Dr. Ian Graham of OHRI to submit a Letter of Intent to the federal Networks of Centres of Excellence program as part of a competition for an international knowledge translation network in stroke recovery. Last week, the "Stroke Recovery Solutions" team was notified that they have been invited to submit a full proposal. They are among only 8 of 59 applicants moving to the next stage of competition. In the end, three KT networks will be funded.
Over the summer, CPSR Central will be helping co-Directors Bayley and Graham and other partners to prepare the full proposal, which is due October 17th.
Funding available to successful KT Networks is $400,000 per year for four years with the potential to renew for an additional three years. The work will catalyze the international uptake of best practices in stroke recovery, with Canada playing a leadership role. If successful, Stroke Recovery Solutions will leverage the $200k/year currently invested by CPSR in knowledge translation and give the stroke recovery community a strong knowledge translation portfolio with international reach.
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Ottawa research team awarded $100K by CIHR
for knowledge synthesis study in stroke
Co-Principal Investigators Dr. David Moher of the Centre for Practice-Changing Research at The Ottawa Hospital and CPSR Scientific Director Dr. Dale Corbett of the University of Ottawa were recently awarded a one-year grant of $100,000 from CIHR for their study "Identifying Stroke Therapeutics From Preclinical Models: Using Network Meta-Analysis". The grant was ranked 2nd of 193 submissions in the CIHR competition.
Reviewers said the proposal involved an "outstanding team" of 13 respected research experts and was "a highly original proposal for network meta-analysis in an area that is much underrepresented and underdeveloped in knowledge translation: from animal bench research to clinical research. This could set a new standard for knowledge synthesis."
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Presenting at the Canadian Stroke Congress in Quebec City?
All CPSR-funded researchers are asked to please ensure their posters and presentations include the CPSR branding. Download our logos and PowerPoint templates HERE.
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In our continuing series of profiles of CPSR research trainees, this month we introduce you to Dr. Matthew McDonald, winner of the 2016 CPSR Rothstein Post-Doctoral Fellowship Award, who is doing his post-doc at University of Ottawa, and Master's student Fares Ould-Brahim, winner of the 2016 CPSR Vanneste Graduate Studentship Award, also at uOttawa.
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Matthew McDonald
Q: Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from?
A: I was born and raised in Chatham, Ontario. I completed my undergraduate and graduate degrees in Kinesiology at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. Under the supervision of Dr. Jamie Melling, my graduate work investigated the role of regular exercise in improving cardiovascular health for populations with Type 1 diabetes mellitus.
Q: What compelled you to pursue stroke research?
A: Having witnessed family members affected by stroke, I am interested in using my background in exercise physiology to improve the quality of life for individuals following stroke. Despite compelling experimental and clinical evidence that post-stroke exercise is beneficial, many people are inactive before and following stroke. Further research is warranted in order to make exercise more easily attainable during the recovery from stroke.
Q: What is the focus of your research?
A: The emphasis of my research will be determining the ideal mode, intensity, and duration of regular exercise that results in the largest benefit for post-stroke recovery. I am particularly interested in the potential of exercise to stimulate cerebral angiogenesis and subsequently muscle and brain plasticity mechanisms commonly implicated in stroke recovery.
Q: At what stage are you in your research, and what are your current future plans?
A: I will begin my postdoctoral training in September 2016, working with Dr. Dale Corbett and Dr. Baptiste Lacoste at the University of Ottawa. My future plans are to remain in research and study physical activity as a treatment option for stroke recovery and for the co-morbidities common among individuals recovering from stroke (hypertension, dyslipidemia, vascular disease, diabetes, etc.).
Q: How do you and others benefit from being part of the National Trainee Association?
A: The CPSR’s National Trainee Association can be a beneficial experience for researchers early in their careers. The collaborations that it fosters provides opportunities to learn from leading stroke recovery researchers while also increasing the translational aspects of your research.
Q: What other interests do you have?
A: I enjoy spending my spare time with my family, my beautiful wife, and our dog. As an exercise physiologist, I enjoy playing recreational sports (baseball, golf, and hockey). I am also an avid fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Blue Jays.
Fares Ould-Brahim
Q: Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from?
A: I was born in Ottawa, where I completed my B.Sc. in Biomedical Science at the University of Ottawa. I am currently completing my Master’s in Neuroscience under the supervision of Dr. Jing Wang.
Q: What compelled you to pursue stroke research?
A: Throughout my undergraduate degree, I found myself working in the fields of forensic psychology, breast cancer and a few clinical studies in paediatric medicine. Despite my diverse interests, I found a passion for pre-clinical research, which led me toward working to develop and optimize a novel treatment to promote stroke recovery. Thanks to Dr. Wang, I have the opportunity to work with cutting edge technology and the labs of Dr. William Stanford and Dr. Dale Corbett.
Q: What is the focus of your research?
A: We hope to optimize neural stem cell transplantation for the treatment of ischemic stroke. To this end, my colleagues and I are treating human neural stem cells with a FDA-approved drug prior to transplantation to promote engraftment, growth and integration.
Q: At what stage are you in your research, and what are your future plans?
A: Currently, I am one year into my Master’s degree. Following completion of my studies, I hope to continue my education to build a career towards clinical research and patient care.
Q: How do you and others benefit from being part of the National Trainee Association?
A: The NTA facilitates and encourages collaboration between labs that has allowed the informed progression of my studies. It also provides the opportunity for trainees to really know other stroke research within the NTA and build off of each other’s experiences.
Q: What other interests do you have?
A: When I’m not at the lab, I enjoy cooking, skiing and a competitive game of soccer with friends and colleagues.
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Depression and diabetes "add up" to bad news for those recovering from stroke, CPSR study finds
Swardfager W, MacIntosh BJ. Depression, Type 2 Diabetes, and Poststroke Cognitive Impairment. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2016 Jun 29. [Epub ahead of print]
What was the purpose of this research?
Ten percent of stroke survivors develop dementia, and after multiple strokes, this increases to more than a third. Many risk factors for stroke are also risk factors for dementia, but some risk factors like diabetes and depression are overlooked as important contributors to stroke outcomes. We wanted to know if these problems were linked to cognitive impairment in the period after stroke, posing barriers for patients who are working with clinicians on their rehabilitation.
What were the major findings from this work?
Here we showed that depression and diabetes “added up†to bad news for those recovering from stroke. Having one of these problems doubled the risk of severe cognitive impairment, and having both tripled the risk. In women, depression and diabetes were closely related to the overall severity of impairments in addition to cognitive impairment. In men and in older people particularly, having both depression and diabetes upped the odds of cognitive impairment much more than having depression or diabetes alone.
What implications might this work have on stroke recovery?
Stroke comorbidities are not the exception, they are the rule - diabetes or depression affected nearly two-thirds of survivors. The implication is that determining optimal ways to manage these comorbidities in people at high risk for a stroke, or in the critical recovery period after a stroke, might also help to prevent dementia.
What are the major outstanding questions that arise from this work?
The work raises a lot of questions. For instance, future studies will continue to explore how diabetes and depression impact the brain’s recovery from stroke. New ways to boost cognitive recovery from stroke might stem from treatments that boost brain metabolism, protect blood vessels from the effects of diabetes, or protect neurons and enhance synaptic plasticity as they alleviate mood symptoms.
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Publications
Connell LA, McMahon NE, Tyson SF, Watkins CL, Eng JJ. Case Series of a Knowledge Translation Intervention to Increase Upper Limb Exercise in Stroke Rehabilitation. Phys Ther. 2016 Jun 23. [Epub ahead of print]
Desrochers P, Kairy D, Pan S, Corriveau H, Tousignant M. Tai chi for upper limb rehabilitation in stroke patients: the patient's perspective. Disabil Rehabil. 2016 Jun 27:1-7. [Epub ahead of print]
Edrissi H, Schock SC, Cadonic R, Hakim AM, Thompson CS. Cilostazol reduces blood brain barrier dysfunction, white matter lesion formation and motor deficits following chronic cerebral hypoperfusion. Brain Res. 2016 Jun 24. [Epub ahead of print]
Fujii S, Lulic T, Chen JL. More Feedback Is Better than Less: Learning a Novel Upper Limb Joint Coordination Pattern with Augmented Auditory Feedback. Front Neurosci. 2016 Jun 6;10:251. eCollection 2016.
Reeson P, Jeffery A, Brown CE. Illuminating the Effects of Stroke on the Diabetic Brain: Insights From Imaging Neural and Vascular Networks in Experimental Animal Models. Diabetes. 2016 Jul;65(7):1779-88.
Sam K, Conklin J, Holmes KR, et al. Impaired dynamic cerebrovascular response to hypercapnia predicts development of white matter hyperintensities. Neuroimage Clin. 2016 May 14;11:796-801. eCollection 2016.
Sam K, Crawley AP, Conklin J, et al. Development of White Matter Hyperintensity is Preceded by Reduced Cerebrovascular Reactivity. Ann Neurol. 2016 Jun 28. [Epub ahead of print]
Saposnik G, Cohen LG, Mamdani M, et al.; Stroke Outcomes Research Canada. Efficacy and safety of non-immersive virtual reality exercising in stroke rehabilitation (EVREST): a randomised, multicentre, single-blind, controlled trial. Lancet Neurol. 2016 Jun 27. [Epub ahead of print]
Swardfager W, MacIntosh BJ. Depression, Type 2 Diabetes, and Poststroke Cognitive Impairment. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2016 Jun 29. [Epub ahead of print]
Veras M, Kairy D, Rogante M, Giacomozzi C, Saraiva S. Scoping review of outcome measures used in telerehabilitation and virtual reality for post-stroke rehabilitation. J Telemed Telecare. 2016 Jun 24. [Epub ahead of print]
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