UNews - Simon Spanswick

The next generation

trevor.kenney — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 18:58:15 +0000

The human brain is a remarkable organ. From the day we're born until the day we die, our brains evolve as we experience the world and expand our knowledge.

But the brain is also vulnerable to dementia-related diseases like Alzheimer's disease, which kills the brain's cerebral cortex cells and erodes short-term memory.

Dr. Robert Sutherland is an Alberta Heritage Medical scientist; the director of the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience; and a professor of neuroscience at the U of L.

This summer, Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience (CCBN) neuroscientist Dr. Robert Sutherland made international headlines when he and his research team became the first in the world to regenerate cerebral cortex brain cells in adult rats.

The research focused on a part of the brain called the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped region of the brain responsible for short- and long-term memory storage and retrieval. This is an area that is especially sensitive to illnesses or injuries that can create memory loss, explains Sutherland. It's also a part of the brain that throughout adult life spontaneously creates new cells that are able to easily find their correct position in the brain's circuitry.

The team began by killing off about half of these cells by depriving them of corticosterone, an important hormone the cells need to function, causing the rats to develop memory issues very similar to humans suffering with dementia. Through a combination of a specific protein therapy, an enriched living environment and exercise, the researchers were able to re-grow the lost brain cells and prove that the rats had regained their memory function.

Regenerating brain cells is a problem neuroscientists have been struggling with for many years, with limited success. The challenge stems from the nature of the brain itself. "If you open up a laptop and take a look at the circuit board, every portion you look at has a sophisticated set of connections with other pieces," says Sutherland. "The brain is even more complicated."

Sutherland and his team at the U of L's CCBN – including undergraduate and graduate students, post-doctoral trainee Jen Lai and doctoral candidates Simon Spanswick and Fraser Sparks – began working on the problem about five years ago.

Sutherland's history at the U of L goes back to 1980, when he completed post-doctoral training in neuropsychology and became a psychology faculty member until 1991. After a decade teaching and researching at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of New Mexico, he returned to the U of L to help launch the CCBN, Canada's first department of neuroscience, in 2001.

Sutherland says the facility offers excellent infrastructure (including high-tech lab space and funding), and a critical mass of expertise. "It's a highly collaborative place. I've worked and published with virtually every faculty member," he says.

The CCBN is also an important training ground for up-and-coming neuroscientists, like doctoral candidate Fraser Sparks, who helped with the brain cell regeneration project. Sparks says Sutherland's lab has a unique research environment, encouraging students to assist on each other's research programs and allowing them the chance to explore anything they find intriguing. "One thing we're not afraid to do in the Sutherland lab is criticize theories – including our own," says Sparks.

While Sutherland's regeneration technique is a major discovery, it is only the beginning. The next step will be to translate the research into therapies that work for patients. Sutherland and his team have received a second five-year grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to continue the project.

"Part of what we're doing is refining the treatments to get closer to an actual effective clinical therapy, and in an absolutely convincing manner, show that these cells are functioning the way they should," says Sutherland.

For patients with dementia diseases, a clinical therapy is desperately needed. Sutherland points out that at the current rate of growth, in 30 years, someone will develop dementia every two minutes.

"The total cost of dementia could reach $153 billion per year by 2038, up from the current cost of $15 billion per year. Without fundamental scientific advances such as ours, it is certain that the burdens will grow dramatically," says Sutherland. "It is urgent that we find ways of preventing, reversing and repairing injured brains. Our findings are a significant advance in that direction."

This story originally appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of SAM. For a look at the full issue of SAM in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Students earn significant traineeships

trevor.kenney — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 18:19:51 +0000

A total of five current ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge students, under the leadership of faculty supervisors Dr. Bryan Kolb, Dr. Robert MacDonald and Dr. Gerlinde Metz, have been named as successful applicants for the Alberta Innovates-Health Solutions (formerly AHFMR) Hotchkiss Brain Institute Provincial Program on Perinatal Determinants of Brain and Mental Health 2010-2011 Traineeships.

Just 11 traineeships were approved by Alberta Innovates this year and the U of L managed to garner five of those 11 positions. As well, alumnus Dr. Simon Spanswick (MSc '05), currently working on post-doctoral studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, was awarded another traineeship.

Following are brief descriptions of the successful applicants and their proposed research initiatives.

Robin Keeley (Dr. Robert McDonald) Chronic THC Administration During Puberty and its Effect on Behaviour and Brain Morphology in Adulthood

Keeley is starting her second year as a doctoral candidate at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge where her thesis will address the effect of chronic recreational drug use during puberty on adult male and female rat behaviour and brain morphology. Focusing on THC, the active component of marijuana, Keeley intends to evaluate gender-specific differences in adult cognition, and brain morphology and electrophysiology in two rat strains following pubertal THC exposure. She will also look at the priming effect of THC as a "gateway drug" whereby increased exposure may induce individuals to develop a propensity towards consuming more rewarding and harmful recreational drugs such as amphetamine.

Dr. Richelle Mychasiuk (Dr. Bryan Kolb) The Effect of Cumulative Experience on Brain Plasticity

In a continuation of the work presented in her doctoral thesis, Mychasiuk will investigate the hypothesis that early experiences alter experience-dependent plasticity later in life. She will conduct anatomical studies and investigate gene methylation and gene expression in brains of rats that have been exposed as pups to a variety of early experiences such as manipulated play partners and play-time, separation stress, or complex environments, followed by nicotine exposure and sensitization, complex housing, or elevated platform stress as juveniles and adults. By focusing on studies of cumulative experiences, Mychasiuk's work will contribute to a better understanding of how brain development is affected, and continues to be affected, by early experiences.

Dr. Farshad Nemati (Dr. Bryan Kolb) Neuroplasticity in Adolescence

Nemati (PhD '08) will continue his studies on neural plasticity that were initially funded under the 2009-2010 AI-HS/HBI Program. In his previous work, Nemati discovered differential neural reorganization and behavioural recovery in adult rats that had received brain injuries at different times in the lifespan. He will now look at the effect of long-term vs. short-term administration of nicotine alone or in combination with complex housing as an experience in rat subjects at two different ages. His results will provide insight into the neural, cognitive and behavioural responses of adults who experience drug addiction as adolescents.

Dr. Fabiola Zucchi (Dr. Gerlinde Metz) Brain MicroRNA (miR) Expression in Response to Prenatal Stress

Zucchi has been successful in obtaining a second year of funding as a post-doctoral fellow from the AI-HS/HBI Program. Zucchi achieved several milestones in her first year of funding towards determining the effects of prenatal and adult stress on brain gene and miR expression, as well as the ability to recover from stroke. She plans to continue the studies of adverse experience on miR expression and gene regulation by exploring molecular correlates of stress at the epigenetic, genetic and behavioural levels. Another objective of her work is to evaluate possible intervention strategies such as massage therapy in reducing the impact of prenatal stress and improving motor recovery after stroke.

Muhammad Arif (Dr. Bryan Kolb) Developmental Factors Related to Drug Addiction

Arif has been awarded funding for a second time under the AI-HS/HBI Program. He previously determined that pre- and postnatal tactile stimulation during development reduced amphetamine-induced behavioural sensitization and, hence, may play a protective role against drug addiction. Building upon the discovery that tactile stimulation has a positive influence on cognitive and social behaviours, he plans to investigate structural plasticity associated with experience (e.g. tactile stimulation) and drugs in modulating brain regions (e.g. reward circuit) with the aim of developing new treatment strategies and public policies to ameliorate drug addiction.

Investing In Mental Health

trevor.kenney — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:43:06 +0000

Just 11 traineeships were approved by Alberta Innovates this year and the
U of L managed to garner five of those 11 positions. As well, alumnus Dr. Simon Spanswick (MSc '05), currently working on post-doctoral studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, was awarded another traineeship.

Following are brief descriptions of the successful applicants and their proposed research initiatives.

Robin Keeley (Dr. Robert McDonald) Chronic THC Administration During Puberty and its Effect on Behaviour and Brain Morphology in Adulthood

Dr. Richelle Mychasiuk (Dr. Bryan Kolb) The Effect of Cumulative Experience on Brain Plasticity

Dr. Farshad Nemati (Dr. Bryan Kolb) Neuroplasticity in Adolescence

Dr. Fabiola Zucchi (Dr. Gerlinde Metz) Brain MicroRNA (miR) Expression in Response to Prenatal Stress

Muhammad Arif (Dr. Bryan Kolb) Developmental Factors Related to Drug Addiction

Brain cell re-growth confirmed at CCBN

trevor.kenney — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:02:34 +0000

A research team at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge's Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience has confirmed -- through extensive research and peer-reviewed testing -- the world's first successful example of brain cell re-growth in an adult mammal.

CCBN Researcher Robert Sutherland, postdoctoral trainee Jen Lai , and doctoral candidates Simon Spanswick and Fraser Sparks -- along with a large number of undergraduate and graduate student assistants -- spent the past five years on a project funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) to refine a definitive demonstration to confirm how cortical cells can be encouraged to re-grow in the adult brain.

The implications are significant for further research into dementia-related diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease, involving death of cerebral cortex cells, which affects thousands of people each year in Canada.

Other diseases that can have memory deficit at their core include stroke, the side-effects of most cancer therapies, epilepsy, chronic stress and substance abuse. Their funding was recently renewed by the CIHR at more than $680,000 over the next five years to continue the project.

"At the current rate, in 30 years someone will develop dementia every two minutes," Sutherland said.

"The total cost of dementia could reach $153 billion dollars per year by 2038, up from the current cost of $15 billion dollars per year. Without fundamental scientific advances such as ours, it is certain that the burdens will grow dramatically. It is urgent that we find ways of preventing, reversing, and repairing injured brains, and our findings are a significant advance in that direction."

Sutherland stressed that at this time the research focuses on the reliability of a specific method to re-grow damaged cells in the hippocampus -- and while successful in rats, requires significant further research to be useful to humans in the future.

"Re-growing brain cells has been a central challenge in neuroscience and has been explored in many forms since the late 19th century," Sutherland said.

We took the approach that we should look for a simple way to prove that cells can be re-grown and restore lost functions."

The researchers focused on the hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped area of the brain which is responsible for short and long-term memory storage and retrieval.

"The hippocampus is very similar in rats and humans, and generally is the part of the brain where cells governing memory die first, or are affected by illness or injury," Sutherland said.

"Another important fact about this part of the hippocampus is that it has the ability to produce a small number of new brain cells, even in adults, so we knew that the process to make cell re-growth happen was there, but was not able to be turned on or increased at will," Sutherland said.

In Sutherland's experiments the loss of cells was caused by eliminating a hormone called corticosterone that is necessary for keeping alive certain brain cells in the hippocampus.

After these cells died Sutherland and his students showed that the rats had memory problems that resemble dementia.

Through a combination of exercise, an enriched living environment, and a specific protein therapy, the rats, when tested on a complicated exercise field, were proven to have fully recovered their memory, and showed regrowth of the damaged hippocampus parts.

Sutherland said people should be heartened by the fact that there is now a lot more definition to the process of testing cell re-growth. "The long-term goals are to develop treatments for cognitive disorders, especially due to anti-cancer therapies, age-related dementias, and related forms of brain injury."

Parts of this research have been presented at several international neuroscience conferences and published in several peer-reviewed journals, referenced below.

UNews - Simon Spanswick

The next generation

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Investing In Mental Health

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