Research & development

$20 million invested in new brain centre at Baycrest

TORONTO – Baycrest has been awarded $10 million from the Ontario Government to create the Centre for Brain Fitness – a commercialized enterprise to tackle the challenge of cognitive decline in an aging population.

The province’s $10-million investment matches $10 million from private donors. “The Ontario government and our donor families understand how important it is to invest in brain research and development of innovative products for the future benefit of all Canadians,” said Mark Gryfe, president of the Baycrest Foundation.

“These funds will provide a strong foundation for a major campaign to raise additional funding for the Centre for Brain Fitness, to address the fastest growing healthcare concern of our time.”

Baycrest will partner with the Toronto-based MaRS Venture Group to develop and market scientifically-proven products for the clinic, workplace and home environments. MaRS connects science and technology with networks and capital to stimulate innovation and accelerate the creation and growth of successful Canadian enterprises.

Products in development over the next 10 years will include: Clinical assessment software for use by doctors to assess memory, processing and reasoning in patients (from stroke survivors to those with Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive impairments). Baycrest is currently developing a prototype diagnostic tool (computer tablet) with patients in its Louis and Leah Posluns Stroke and Cognition Clinic.

The tool – being developed in collaboration with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre – standardizes test administration and scoring for reproducibility, automatically generates reports, and facilitates information transfer among care providers (such as hospitals); Brain fitness products to help healthy aging adults (ages 45 – 75) maintain their cognitive functions, plus an additional product suite for caregivers to provide cognitive rehabilitation to people with mild cognitive impairment and dementia who live in long-term care facilities and retirement homes.

Also in development is an executive training program for corporations wishing to help their aging employees improve cognitive functions to remain productive; and a Web-based outreach program to support people caring for loved ones with mild to medium cognitive impairment.

The clinical assessment software – once it is widely adopted across the province – will accelerate the collection of population and patient data, provide a rich data source for the neuroscience research community, and lead to improved evidence-based strategies for diagnosis and treatment.

“The Centre for Brain Fitness is an important step in the development of research at Baycrest – in making science serve the public good,” said Dr. Donald Stuss, vice-president of Research and Academic Education, and director of the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest.

The progressive decline in brain fitness, whether through the normal course of aging or from devastating brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and cerebrovascular disease, is expected to put great pressure on the healthcare system in coming years, especially with an aging population.

The innovative products being developed at the Centre for Brain Fitness are aimed at early detection and prevention of neurocognitive decline, repair and rehabilitation of function in response to disease insult, and maintenance of cognitive abilities to help aging adults live independently as long as possible.

The Minister of Research and Innovation, John Wilkinson, was joined by MPP Mike Colle to make the announcement at Baycrest, an academic health sciences centre that is internationally renowned for its care of aging adults and its excellence in aging brain research, clinical interventions and treatments, and promising cognitive rehabilitation strategies.

As the province braces for a doubling of its senior population over the next 20 years, the Centre for Brain Fitness will develop and commercialize a range of innovative products aimed at improving the brain health of aging Ontarians.

“One of Ontario’s greatest strengths is the incredible depth of our research talent. Our government is proud to support Baycrest and its invaluable work, which is already leading to the discovery of important new tools and approaches to treating brain diseases associated with aging,” said Wilkinson.

“Baycrest is one of North America’s leading research institutes in geriatric medicine and care. This investment demonstrates our commitment to research and innovation as a means of building a stronger, healthier Ontario – by both improving our quality of life and healthcare here at home, while producing new tools for diagnosis and treatment that we can market to the world,” said MPP Colle.

“There are few things as frightening as the prospect of declining brain fitness as we age and the loss of our mental faculties,” said Dr. William E. Reichman, Baycrest president and CEO. “Baycrest’s strengths in aging brain research, cognitive assessment and rehabilitation make it well positioned to develop innovative, market-driven research products that will transform the way we age.”

Photo: Syed Bukhari, a patient in Baycrest’s Louis and Leah Posluns Stroke and Cognition Clinic, takes a test on a computer tablet that will assess his cognitive fitness for memory, processing and reasoning. The clinical assessment software and tablet is a prototype clinical tool currently in development in the newly created Centre for Brain Fitness at Baycrest. Watching the patient do the test is Dr. Jon Ween, the clinic’s medical director.