January 21, 2021 Dr. Elizabeth Finger is working to test behavioural and pharmacologic treatments for patients with Frontotemporal Dementia with the hope of reversing deficits in emotional processing and empathy.
January 19, 2021 Olivia Ghosh-Swaby, PhD Candidate in Neuroscience, is a strong advocate for equity, diversity and inclusion in academia and sport. She has been playing football since 2008 and led the creation of the Ontario Women’s Intercollegiate Football Association in 2017.
January 19, 2021 Mila Uzelac, MSc candidate Neuroscience, is one of 10 inaugural recipients of the Dean’s Research Scholarship. Mila is working on translational research projects that aim to improve care for cancer patients.
January 06, 2021 This month we celebrate the accomplishments of Dika Ojiakor, PhD candidate in the Rylett lab and Olivia Ghosh-Swaby, PhD candidate in the TCN lab.
December 03, 2020 This month we celebrate the accomplishments of Dr. Kasey Van Hedger, Postdoctoral Fellow in the MacDonald lab and Niveen Fulcher, PhD candidate in the Schmid lab.
November 30, 2020 Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo has been re-appointed as the Provincial Endowed Academic Chair in Autism at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University
September 11, 2020 Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo, Lyle Muller, PhD, Wataru Inoue, PhD, and Stefan Everling, PhD, are part of the Next Generation Networks for Neuroscience (NeuroNex) . Theirs is one of four NeuroNex projects covered by the US National Science Foundation, receiving $10 million during the next five years.
August 10, 2020 Western is home to four new Canada Research Chairs, professors whose work will have global impact on autism, data science and children’s learning. Two chairs, in business sustainability and neuroscience, have been renewed.
July 20, 2020 Wataru Inoue, PhD, studies the effect of chronic stress on the brain. His latest paper shows that the neurons in the brain actually change their size and microstructure, and become desensitized to stress signals over time.
June 25, 2020 The Western Institute for Neuroscience will provide a framework that coordinates and unifies neuroscience expertise at Western, Lawson Health Research Institute, London Health Sciences Centre and other campus and community collaborators by creating an entity that provides academic leadership related to a shared vision, program alignment and advocacy.
June 23, 2020 The COVID-19 Brain Study looks to recruit 50,000 individuals who received a confirmed positive diagnosis of the virus in order to answer pressing questions about the disease’s direct and indirect effects on the brain.
June 23, 2020 BrainsCAN postdoctoral scholar Jonathan Michaels has been awarded a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship to continue his work around brain activity during reach control.
June 23, 2020 A special congratulations to all the Graduate and Undergraduate Award winners in Neuroscience: Matthew Demmings (PhD), Faraj Haddad (PhD), Michael MacKinley (PhD), Braeden Terpou (PhD), Rubina Malik (PhD), Mary Taylor (BSc) and Mila Uzelac (BSc).
June 18, 2020 New research from Ravi Menon, PhD, shows that mild impacts during a season of contact sports are causing subtle brain changes, even in the brains of otherwise, healthy symptom-free athletes. “Even with no concussions, the repetitive impact experienced by players clearly had effects on the brain,” he said.
June 17, 2020 Congratulations to Rodger Hudson, a PhD student in Dr. Steven Laviolette's lab and Jeff Weiler, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Andrew Pruszynski's lab, co-supervised by Dr. Paul Gribble. They have both received a CAN-CIHR-INMHA BrainStar Award.
April 20, 2020 Working in partnership, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies (SGPS), the Provost, and Faculties have created a one-time, needs-based 2020 Graduate Student Summer Term Bursary. This bursary will help to enable continuing full-time PhD students, and continuing full-time research Master’s students, to progress in their research programs without disruption despite the social and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 02, 2020 Western remains committed to the health and well-being of our students, faculty, staff and campus community as the situation around the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve. We know this is an especially challenging and disruptive time for our students, some of whom are facing significant challenges as they navigate the unexpected and far-reaching implications of COVID-19.
March 05, 2020 Congratulations to Gregory Brooks and Rebecca Kozak! They are two of eight graduate trainees from Schulich Medicine & Dentistry are among the 20 Western finalists at this year’s Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. The Western 3MT Finals take place on March 12 at the Wolf Performance Hall.
February 10, 2020 Susanne Schmid, PhD, has been appointed as the Vice Dean, Basic Medical Sciences, at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University effective July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2025.
October 23, 2019 Western researchers have moved a step closer to identifying a ‘brain fingerprint’ for consciousness - a discovery that will unlock further understanding into why some patients, presumed to be vegetative, are still aware of the world them.
October 01, 2019 Steven Laviolette, PhD, and his research team including Vanier Scholar Roger Hudson have shown for the first time the molecular mechanisms at work that cause cannabidiol, or CBD, to block the psychiatric side-effects caused by tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive chemical in cannabis.
September 13, 2019 New research from Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo’s lab shows that eye movement directly influences the brain signals in the part of the brain responsible for new memory formation and recall.
August 15, 2019 Dr. Lena Palaniyappan has been appointed as the Endowed Tanna Schulich Chair of Neurosciences & Mental Health, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University effective July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2024.
August 14, 2019 It is with great sadness that we share news of the unexpected passing of Michael Poulter, PhD, professor in Physiology and Pharmacology, Clinical Neurological Sciences and scientist at Robarts Research Institute. Poulter was a devoted scientist and teacher whose contributions to the School and the research community will be greatly missed.
June 04, 2019 An implantable device is restoring movement for Parkinson’s patients. "For them to go from being home-bound to being able to go on trips to the mall and have vacations is remarkable," said Dr. Mandar Jog.
May 31, 2019 Every office or family has one – the colleague who mistakenly walked into a wall or the sibling who mistook a closed glass door for an open entrance.
April 16, 2019 A new study led by Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute has found that most patients entering hospital intensive care units (ICU) for non-brain-related injuries or ailments also suffer from some level of related cognitive dysfunction that currently goes undetected in most cases.
April 12, 2019 Six new interdisciplinary research teams have received funding from the Collaborative Research Seed Grants (CRSG) program at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry.
March 25, 2019 A new grant from CIHR in collaboration with the EU consortium has provided a total of $2.1 million to establish a network of research centres focused on personalized medicine for mental disorders. In collaboration with five European centres, Dr. Lena Palaniyappan will be collecting brain scans and genetic information from more than 60,000 patients in order to understand the relationship between genetics and brain development.
February 14, 2019 Schulich School of Medicine & Dentitry professors Tim Bussey and Marco Prado are enthusiastic about an open-science initiative – named MouseBytes – that highlights international collaboration among rodent-cognition researchers.
January 09, 2019 The research team used a technique that combined multiple brain imaging measures to be able to look at structural and functional information at the same time. The result was a much more sensitive and complete picture of concussion injury.
January 07, 2019 Renowned Western neuroscientist Adrian Owen has been named an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) as part of the 2019 New Year’s Honours list recognizing “the achievements of a wide range of extraordinary people” across the United Kingdom.
November 26, 2018 Two of the world’s most accomplished neuroscience centres – Western’s BrainsCAN and McGill’s Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives – are sharing their expertise in seven ground-breaking team projects.
November 19, 2018 Ali Khan, PhD, was named the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Computational Neuroimaging. Khan is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Medical Biophysics, Scientist at Robarts Research Institute and member of the Neuroscience program.
November 16, 2018 Neuroscientists from Western University’s renowned Brain and Mind Institute released their findings in the high-impact journal, SLEEP.
November 15, 2018 Congratulations to Qingfan Liu, Kartik Pradeepan and Megha Verma on their winning proposal “Opinion Galaxies: A Machine Learning Network Approach to Big Data in Medical Research”.
October 12, 2018 Epilepsy is a complicated neurological disorder with no clear answers. Solving the puzzle requires strong, interdisciplinary research – the kind taking place at Robarts Research Institute.
July 09, 2018 An unexpected result discovered by neuroscientists at Western University won’t prevent the formation and growth of Alzheimer’s disease but it potentially rules out a major potential treatment focus
June 12, 2018 Research led by Dr. Julio Martinez-Trujillo has shown that our brains are pre-wired to perceive wrinkles around the eyes as conveying more intense and more sincere emotions. This eye-wrinkle feature, called the Duchenne marker, occurs across multiple facial expressions, including smiles, expressions associated with pain, and—as found by these researchers—expressions of sadness.
April 25, 2018 Steven Laviolette, PhD, and his team at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry have shown that the recall of traumatic memories enhances the rewarding effects of morphine, shedding light on the neurobiological link between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and opioid addiction.
February 05, 2018 Congratulations to Andrew Pruszynski, PhD, on receiving the inaugural Early Career Award from the Society for Neural Control of Movement (NCM).
February 04, 2018 Paul Gribble has received a CIHR grant to research sensory motor neuroplasticity and motor learning by observing. The grant will allow Gribble to build on previous research and deepen the understanding of how the brain reacts to watching others perform an action.
February 04, 2018 Congratulations to David Cechetto, PhD, who will be appointed to the Order of Ontario later this month. Cechetto is a Neuroscientist and professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry whose research focuses on the cardiovascular risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and vascular cognitive impairment.
January 26, 2018 Unwavering determination earned PhD Candidate Tamara Tavares first place at Western's Three Minute Thesis competition in 2017. Through her success, she has raised awareness of frontotemporal dementia at the University level and beyond.
January 25, 2018 Drs. Rob Bartha, Michael Strong, Greg Dekaban, Jane Rylett, Marco Prado, Vania Prado, and Robert Petrella are using a collaborative approach that focuses on early detection and easing the strain on adults living with Alzheimer’s and their families.
January 19, 2018 Dr. Susanne Schmid has been appointed as the Associate Dean, Graduate & Postdoctoral Studies, at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University effective January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2022.
January 16, 2018 Dr. Michael Strong and his team at Robarts Research Institute have uncovered a unique neurobiological pathway triggered by head trauma which underlies both Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease).
October 26, 2017 Young hockey players who have suffered concussions may still show changes in the white matter of the brain months after being cleared to return to play
September 29, 2017 Stephen Lomber, PhD, and a team of researchers at Western’s renowned Brain & Mind Institute are learning from the walking habits of cats by pinpointing a part of the brain involved in acquiring and maintaining the memory of obstacles in our environment.
September 22, 2017 With marijuana legalization looming in Canada, scientists like Steven Laviolette, PhD, fear that the psychiatric disorders associated with the use of the drug haven’t been adequately studied and leave adolescent populations at risk
September 11, 2017 Lisa Saksida, PhD, has been named as the Canada Research Chair in Translational Cognitive Neuroscience allowing her to advance her work improving treatment outcomes by identifying novel therapeutic targets for cognitive abnormalities in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disease.
July 13, 2017 Ravi Menon knows he and his fellow BrainsCAN researchers are on the clock. “Seven years sounds like a long time. But it is not, in terms of impact,” the Western researcher stressed.
June 27, 2017 Award-winning BBC medical reporter Fergus Walsh spends three days at Western volunteering himself as one of the first participants in Dr. Adrian Owen’s sleep study.
June 23, 2017 With the release of Western neuroscientist Adrian Owen’s book about the borderlines of consciousness, that phrase may well enter the international lexicon as a shorthand offering hope to intact minds locked within unresponsive bodies.
June 15, 2017 A newly minted PhD graduate of the Neuroscience program at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, Oliver discusses her thesis research on empathic function, her experiences leading up to her doctoral studies and the lessons she has learned during her time on campus.
June 13, 2017 The Neuroscience Program would like to congratulate Benjamin Kolisnyk, PhD, on receiving the Collip Medal Award; as well as our other award recipients Chris Norris, Niveen Fulcher and Alex Major.
May 26, 2017 Research by Dr. Ruth Lanius may offer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients wrestling with one of its main symptoms long-term relief beyond medication.
April 26, 2017 Western’s Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping (CFMM) is the recipient of a $2.7 million Platform Support Grant from the Canada Brain Research Fund, as part of $29 million in funding announced today by Jane Philpott, Minister of Health.
April 18, 2017 Tamara Tavares, a PhD Candidate at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, took the top spot in Western’s sixth annual Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition last week, tackling the complex world of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder.
April 10, 2017 Dr. Lena Palaniyappan, an associate professor with the Departments of Psychiatry, Neuroscience and Medical Biophysics and scientist at Robarts Research Institute, received the 2017 Young Investigator Award from the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology (CCNP).
March 10, 2017 Nerve cells in our brains work together in harmony to store and retrieve short-term memory, and are not solo artists as was previously thought, Western-led brain research has determined.
October 24, 2016 An international team of neuroscientists has shown that a person’s ability to see fine visual detail can be sharpened by simply staring for a few seconds at a rapidly flickering display.
October 13, 2016 While there is no cure for frontotemporal dementia (FTD), one Western researcher is looking to mitigate symptoms of the disease for patients and, in turn, lessen the heavy burden faced by caregivers.
September 09, 2016
Beginning a new school year can be an anxious time for some children. For those shattered by early psychological trauma, it can be especially fraught with emotion.
July 22, 2016 From developing state-of-the-art techniques to image bones and joints while in motion, to helping more people receive a kidney transplant, researchers at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry have been awarded close to $30 million in funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR). More than half of that funding was awarded to five projects through CIHR's new foundation grants.
July 22, 2016 Schulich Medicine & Dentistry is proud to share that almost $30 million in CIHR funding was awarded to its researchers in the latest round of competition.
34 projects were funded across the School, Robarts Research Institute, and Lawson Health Research Institute including $14.8 million in project grants, and more than $15 million in foundation grants. Congratulations to all of the successful applicants.
June 28, 2016 The program celebrated the success it has had over the past quarter of a century by bringing together students, trainees, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members and alumni at its Neuroscience 25th Anniversary Research Day on May 27.
June 23, 2016 A new study from Schulich Medicine & Dentistry is helping to explain why the long-term use of common anticholinergic drugs used to treat conditions like allergies and overactive bladder lead to an increased risk of developing dementia later in life. The findings show that long-term suppression of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine results in dementia-like changes in the brain.
June 10, 2016 The grant will provide the Robarts scientist with more than $145,000 in funding over two years and supports his research into the basic biological mechanisms of the disease.
May 24, 2016 For patients who suffer from Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor, writing a grocery list or taking a drink from a cup can be a daily struggle due to disabling arm tremor. Now, technology developed in London provides a personalized therapy that is giving new hope for these patients.
May 13, 2016 Eric Lindros, former NHLer and See the Line Honorary, stopped by Robarts to get an update on the Institute's cutting-edge concussion research.
May 12, 2016 Adrian Owen, Professor in the Department of Psychology, is conducting research using fMRI technology to communicate with people thought to be in “vegetative states”.
May 05, 2016 Researchers at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry demonstrate that a chemical found in marijuana called cannabidiol affects the brain in a way that makes it an ideal treatment option for schizophrenia.
April 12, 2016 We are pleased to announce the 2016 Awards of Excellence award recipients and the recipient of the Dr. John D. Brown Memorial Resident Award. It is with great pride that we honour these talented and dedicated individuals. We look forward to celebrating each of them at the Celebration of Excellence event, May 19, at the Great Hall.
April 05, 2016 Follow your heart because a new study from Western University shows that your memories already do. Investigators at Western’s renowned Brain and Mind Institute have discovered that signals from inside your body can affect memories.
March 29, 2016 Congratulations to Stefan Everling, PhD, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology on being selected as one of Western University's 2016 Faculty Scholars.
March 09, 2016 As the Western Research Chair for Motor Control and Computational Neuroscience, and part of the Brain and Mind Institute, Diedrichsen explores how the brain produces movement, particularly for the hand, in hopes of unlocking better treatments for stroke victims, spinal cord damage and other motor control disorders.
February 24, 2016 Dr. Stephen Pasternak is one of 6 new recipients of the recent competition. CRSG provides approximately $250,000 in seed funding for the formation and development of new interdisciplinary collaborative research teams.
February 10, 2016 Congratulations to Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers Eric Arts and Andrew Pruszynski on being named Canada Research Chairs (CRC). Arts has been named Tier 1 CRC in HIV Pathogenesis and Viral Control, and Pruszynski has been named Tier 2 CRC in Sensorimotor Neuroscience.
February 01, 2016 The Prado lab is working hard to understand the biology behind Alzheimer's disease. A recent publication in the Journal of Neuroscience shows a promising new potential therapeutic target that could decrease cognitive dysfunction in the disease...
January 22, 2016 With media coverage of PTSD on the rise, the acronym has become a common household term. Drs. Paul Frewen and Ruth Lanius want to use events like Bell Let's Talk Day to shed light on the role traumatic life events can play in mental health issues.
January 20, 2016 Researchers have published a study showing the significant, long-term impacts of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the psychoactive component in marijuana – on the adolescent brain.
January 14, 2016 Robarts scientists Marco Prado, PhD and Vania Prado, DDS, PhD, along with their lab and collaborator Michael Jackson from The University of Manitoba, have shown that this particular gene, TRPM2, is responsible for coding a protein linked to toxicity in Alzheimer’s.
December 18, 2015 University planners hope a new campus facility will provide researchers across varied disciplines an environment conducive to confronting the biggest questions facing society.
December 18, 2015
In Canada, approximately 2,000 - 3,000 people are currently living with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and two to three people with ALS die each day. Researchers at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry are working to improve these statistics, and recent support from ALS Canada will help make this possible.
November 21, 2015 Western University’s Brain and Mind Institute and the nearby Don Wright Faculty of Music have started to jam; call it the academic equivalent of the Traveling Wilburys.
October 26, 2015 Western neuroscientist Melanie Kok, PhD’15 (Neuroscience), has gone from athletic medals to academic medals with her research on the cerebral cortex for which she was recognized with a 2015 Governor General’s Academic Gold Medal.
July 09, 2015 Tamara Tavares has been awarded the Jonathan & Joshua Memorial Scholarship for Doctoral students. The award was given in recognition of her research specializing in the neuroscience of mental health disorders. She works in the lab of Dr. Elizabeth Finger and Derek Mitchell, PhD. Congratulations Tamara!
June 22, 2015 Dr. Susanne Schmid, associate professor, Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Western University, has been appointed to the position of the Director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program, at Western University effective July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2018
April 14, 2015 Already recognized as one of the world’s top centres for cognitive neuroscience and imaging research, Western University’s Brain & Mind Institute has added two new Canada Research Chairs. Its director, Melvyn Goodale, also had his Chair renewed for seven years.
The Chairs are among Canada’s highest research honours.
March 25, 2015 The Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, at Western University is seeking applications for the position of Director, Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience, to be effective July 1, 2015.
October 15, 2014 Drs. Virginia M.-Y. Lee and John Q. Trojanowski are on the front lines of a battle with one of the biggest global threats of the 21st century – one that continues to escalate and impact millions around the world.
September 12, 2014 Four Schulich Medicine & Dentistry researchers, Jane Rylett, Robert Bartha, Manuel Montero-Odasso, and Dr. Michael Borrie are leading the charge as part of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA), a collaborative research program focused on tackling the challenge of dementia and other neurodegenerative illnesses.
August 19, 2014 Robarts Research Institute presents Leaders in Innovation Dinner 2014. The evening will celebrate research innovations in neurological disorders and the achievements of the 2014 J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine recipients, Virginia M.-Y. Lee, PhD, and John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD.
July 30, 2014 As the most recent recipients of The Jonathan & Joshua Memorial Graduate Scholarship, Nole Hiebert and Tamara Tavares are one step closer to achieving their goals in mental health research.
July 30, 2014 Congratulations to Lindsay Oliver and Jennifer Au on being selected as this year’s recipients of the Masters and Doctoral Scholarships sponsored by the Alzheimer Society London and Middlesex.
July 10, 2014 Robarts Scientists Arthur Brown, PhD, and Greg Dekaban, PhD, are thrilled to see that what started out as a phone call to the head of athletics at Western University has quickly snowballed into a city-wide, cross-disciplinary effort to understand concussions from every possible angle.
June 18, 2014 A study led by Dr. Elizabeth Osuch of the Department of Psychiatry has shown that there are functional brain differences between people who deliberately self-harm and those who don’t. The finding, which was reported in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, helps increase understanding of why pain, which should be aversive, becomes reinforcing for some people.
March 27, 2014 Dr. Mandar Jog, Professor, Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, Neurology, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, has been selected as one of 13 Faculty Scholars recognized for their significant achievements in teaching or research.
January 21, 2021 Congratulations to Susan Simpson, Neuroscience Program Coordinator, who was named a 2018 Western Awards of Excellence recipient, the highest honour for staff member achievement.
January 21, 2021 Researchers at Robarts Research Institute have shown that a regular season of play can cause changes in the brain that are similar to changes caused by concussion, though less severe.
