SynAD Initiatives

The major goal of SynAD is to launch a series of initiatives that promote new and synergistic ADRD research in NMHI at the University of Alberta. We organize the initiatives in three main clusters: Catalyst Research, Small Equipment and Trainee Support. These initiatives are rolled out sequentially in annual waves of peer-reviewed competitions. The primary outputs for the SynAD program are the individual grants awarded in these clusters. We list all recipients, their affiliations, and the project titles on this page. At present, SynAD has awarded 64 grants across multiple faculties and departments.

2018 – 2019 SynAD Small Equipment Grants

We are pleased to announce the awarding of the following small equipment grants for ADRD research.

  • David Westaway (Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases): Wes System Protein Blotter
  • Bo Cao (Psychiatry): AI E5-2660 Dual Intel Xeon Artificial Intelligence Workstation
  • Satyabrata Kar & Sue-Ann Mok (Neurology & Biochemistry): BMG-415-101 FLUOstar Omega Microplate Reader
  • Marek Michalak (Biochemistry): Tissue Culture CO2 Incubator, PAN-MCO19AICUVH(D)
  • Simonetta Sipione & Elena Posse de Chaves (Pharmacology): Imaging Platform (Camera: Axiocam 503, and Software: Zen 2.3 Pro) and eBlot L1

2018 – 2019 SynAD Catalyst Grants

We are pleased to announce the awarding of the following SynAD catalyst grants for ADRD research.

  • Nathalie Daude (Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases): Defining Bacteria that Accelerate or Prevent Pathogenesis in a Mouse Model of Human Tauopathy
  • Jack Jhamandas (Neurology): Exosomes Generated from Amylin Receptor 3 (AMY3) Expressing Cells are Neuroprotective Against Amyloid Beta (Aβ) Toxicity
  • G. Peggy McFall (Psychology): Enhanced Genotyping to Create a Polygenic Risk Score for the Prediction of Brain Aging Trajectories and Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Anthony Ness (Biological Sciences): Glyco-engineered Passive Immunization for Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Trevor Steve (Neurology): Evaluation of Hippocampal Subfield Volumetry as a Noninvasive Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease
  • Robert Stobbe (Biomedical Engineering): Investigation of Sodium MRI in the Assessment of Alzheimer’s Disease

2018 – 2019 SynAD Trainee Awards

We are pleased to announce the following awards for enhancing ADRD trainee support.

SynAD ADRD Graduate Student Awards
  • Mohammad Alam (Psychiatry, FoMD): Ambient Temperature Effects in AD Pathology Propagation
  • Sebastian Caballero (NMHI, Science): Developing New AD Polygenic Risk Indexes
  • Paige Grant (Biochemistry, FoMD): Kinase as a Novel Target for AD
SynAD ADRD Postdoctoral Fellow Awards
  • Bibin Anand (Medicine, FoMD): Developing Nanoparticles for Treatment of AD
  • Richard Kanyo (Biological Sciences, Science): Modeling Prion Protein, Synaptic Activity, and Sleep in AD Pathology
  • Qi Wu (Medicine, FoMD): Prion-like Propagation of AD Pathology

2019 – 2020 NMHI-SynAD Studentship for Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

  • Hailey Pineau (Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases): Characterizing Alzheimer’s Disease Strains in a Novel Ex Vivo Model
    Supervisor: Valerie Sim

2019 – 2020 SynAD Small Equipment Grants

We are pleased to announce the awarding of the following small equipment grants for ADRD research.

  • Jack Jhamandas (Neurology): ANY-maze Video Tracking Software, Accessories (cable, digital camera, lens, mounting bracket) and Y-maze
  • G. Peggy McFall (Psychology): Three High Performance Personal Computer Stations for Advanced NeuroInformatics and Machine Learning Applications in ADRD Research (including software)
  • Valerie Sim (Neurology): Upgrade/replacement of 555 Laser Line for the LSM 700 Confocal Microscope within Prion Biocontainment at the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases
  • David Westaway (Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases): ANY-maze Controlled Fear Conditioning System (item 60461, Stoelting), One-year Subscription to Aiforia Artificial Intelligence Image Analysis Package

2019 – 2020 SynAD Catalyst Grants

We are pleased to announce the awarding of the following SynAD catalyst grants for ADRD research.

  • Jeremy Caplan (Psychology): Overcoming Obstacles to Mnemonic Training in Neurocognitive Aging
  • Leonardo Cortez (Medicine): Clinical-pathological Correlation in Dementias: Linking Prion Particle Size with Brain Region Tropism
  • Fabrizio Giuliani & Satyabrata Kar (Neurology): Effects of Acidic Nanoparticles on β-amyloid Aggregation and Toxicity of Neurons Derived from Alzheimer’s Disease Patients
  • Jitendra Kumar (Biochemistry): Characterization of Extracellular Vesicles in Neuronal Cells
  • G. Peggy McFall (Psychology): Machine Learning Multi-modal Biomarker Risk Factor Discovery and Validation in Parkinson’s Disease: A Two Sample Analysis
  • Satish Nemani (Medicine): Propagation of Chronic Wasting Disease Prions in a Humanized Prion Organotypic Slice Culture Assay
  • Elena Posse de Chaves (Pharmacology): Testing Cannabinoids as Agents that Reduce Cholesterol Burden in Alzheimer’s Disease Models
  • Valerie Sim (Medicine): The Role of TREM2 and Microglia in Prion Disease
  • Simonetta Sipione (Pharmacology): Role of Ganglioside GM1 in the Clearance of Pathogenic Misfolded Proteins by Microglia

2019 – 2020 SynAD Trainee Awards

We are pleased to announce the following awards for enhancing ADRD trainee support.

SynAD ADRD Graduate Student Awards
  • Abhishek Dahal (NMHI, FoMD): Role of Astrocytes and Tau in Kainic Acid-induced Animal Models
  • Shelaine Fleck (Biochemistry, FoMD): Structural Analysis of Human and Transgenic Mouse-derived Tau Protein Aggregates
  • John Monyror (Pharmacology, FoMD): The Role of Gangliosides in the Secretion and Clearance of Misfolded Proteins in ADRD
  • Samantha Perreault (Psychiatry, FoMD): Machine Learning Predicted Outcomes of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders
  • Wojciech Pietrasik (Biomedical Engineering, Engineering): Diffusion Tensor Imaging of Prefrontal White Matter Across the Lifespan: Associations Between Microstructure, Genetics, and Cognitive Ability
  • Andrew Schmaus (NMHI, FoMD): Thermal Response of Amyloidogenic Elements in Cultured N2a Cells: Potential Relevance to Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology
  • Fernanda Talarico (Psychiatry, FoMD): Sleep Quality as a Potential Predictor of Alzheimer’s Disease
SynAD ADRD Postdoctoral Fellow Awards
  • Karthivashan Govindarajan (Medicine, FoMD): Potential Role of PLGA Nanoparticles on APP Metabolism in Mouse Primary Cultured Neurons
  • Yang Liu (Psychiatry, FoMD): Developing Brain Age Indices over the Lifespan of Non-human Primates
  • Ivana Noelia Machado (Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases, FoMD): Behavior Evaluational of TgTau P301L Mice Model of Frontotemporal Dementia

2020 – 2021 SynAD Small Equipment Grants

We are pleased to announce the awarding of the following small equipment grants for ADRD research.

  • Richard Camicioli (Neurology): OPAL Body Worn Sensors
  • Bo Cao & Andrew Greenshaw (Psychiatry): Portable Wireless Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy System by Soterix Medical
  • Roger Dixon (Psychology): Two High Performance Personal Mobile Computer Stations for Remote Machine Learning Analytics in Neurodegeneration
  • Satyabrata Kar & David Westaway (Neurology & CPPFD): Leica CM1950 Cryostat: A Multi-use Freestanding Cryostat with Encapsulated, Splash-proof Microtome

2020 – 2021 SynAD Catalyst Grants

We are pleased to announce the awarding of the following SynAD catalyst grants for ADRD research.

  • Bo Cao & Andrew Greenshaw (Psychiatry): A Pilot Study on the Effects of Routine Medication on Aging Using Cognitive Assessments and Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy
  • Jeremy Caplan (Psychology): Adapting Mnemonic Training for Neurocognitive Aging
  • Satyabrata Kar & Holger Wille (Neurology & Biochemistry): Effects of Acidic Nanoparticles on Spontaneous Tau Protein Aggregation and Their Ability to Disassemble Aggregated Tau Isolated from Alzheimer’s Disease Brains
  • Nikolai Malykhin (Psychiatry): Episodic Memory Function in Healthy Aging: Contribution of the Dentate Gyrus Activity to Memory Performance
  • Elena Posse de Chaves (Pharmacology): Regulation of the Release of Aβ-containing Extracellular Vesicles by Statins
  • Valerie Sim (Medicine): Correlating Amyloid Beta Size Distributions with the Rate of Alzheimer’s Disease Progression
  • Simonetta Sipione (Pharmacology): Role of Gangliosides and Siglec-1 in the Clearance of Pathogenic Misfolded Proteins by Microglia

2020 – 2021 SynAD Trainee Awards

We are pleased to announce the following awards for enhancing ADRD trainee support.

SynAD ADRD Graduate Student Awards
  • Laszlo Locskai (Biological Sciences, Science): Neural Activity During Traumatic Brain Injury May Reveal Mechanistic Links to the Development of Tauopathies
  • Wojciech Pietrasik (Psychiatry, FoMD): Aging of Prefrontal White Matter: Linking Microstructure, Genetics, and Cognitive Ability
  • Isha Ralhan (Physiology, FoMD): Mechanisms of Lipotoxicity in Alzheimer’s Disease
SynAD ADRD Postdoctoral Fellow Awards
  • Satish Nemani (Medicine, FoMD): Applications of a Novel Humanized Prion Slice Culture: Strain Propagation and Treatment
  • Pallabi Sil Paul (Medicine, FoMD): Role of Unconjugated PLGA Nanoparticles on β-amyloid-induced Aggregation of Tau Protein

2020 – 2021 NMHI-SynAD Studentship for Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

  • Lion Budrass (Department of Biochemistry and the Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases): The Effect of MicroRNA-155-3p on Molecular Chaperone DNAJA2 in Tau Pathology
    Supervisor: Sue-Ann Mok

2021 – 2022 SynAD Small Equipment and Analytics in ADRD Grants

We are pleased to announce the awarding of the following small equipment and analytics grants for ADRD research.

  • G. Peggy McFall (Psychology): For Enhanced ADRD Biomarker Prediction Analyses: Advanced Machine Learning Seminar offered by Statistical Horizons
  • Elena Posse de Chaves (Pharmacology): For Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles that Contain ADRD-related Misfolded Proteins: GFP ELISA Kit (ab171581) Abcam, Two Izon qEV Original / 70nm – 5 Pack
  • Valerie Sim (Medicine): For Comparison of ADRD-related Amyloid Beta and Tau Size Distributions: Two Postnova Analytics AF2000 Crossflow Syringes
  • Simonetta Sipione (Pharmacology): To Investigate the Role of Fractions Enriched with Extracellular Vesicles in Clearance of ADRD-related Misfolded Proteins: Izon Automated Fraction Collector (Izon AFC-V1)
  • David Westaway (Centre for Prions and Protein Folding Diseases): For Image Analysis of Tau Deposits from Frontotemporal Lobar Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease: Aiforia AI Image Analysis Seat Licenses

2021 – 2022 NMHI-SynAD Studentship for Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias

  • Noam Steinberg (Department of Pharmacology, FoMD): Microglia Dysfunction in Huntington’s Disease and Modulatory Role of Gangliosides
    Supervisor: Simonetta Sipione

Acknowledgments to NMHI Colleagues

SynAD appreciates the contributions of many University of Alberta consultants and reviewers. Our ambitious program of initiatives could not be implemented without their willingness to help in various aspects of the process. Our awards process requires multiple reviewers and follows high standards of integrity, including minimizing conflicts of interest. Many thanks to the following NMHI colleagues!

  • Dr. Christian Beaulieu
  • Dr. Richard Camicioli
  • Dr. Jeremy Caplan
  • Dr. William Colmers
  • Dr. Roger Dixon
  • Dr. Monica Gorassini
  • Dr. Jack Jhamandas
  • Dr. Satya Kar
  • Dr. Joanne Lemieux
  • Dr. Nikolai Malykhin
  • Dr. Elena Posse de Chaves
  • Dr. Chantelle Sedgwick (Translational Sciences Institutes, FoMD)
  • Dr. Valerie Sim
  • Dr. Trevor Steve
  • Dr. David Westaway
  • Dr. Douglas Zochodne (NMHI Director and SynAD Consultant)
  • NMHI Graduate Committee

Acknowledgment to University of Alberta Colleagues

Roger Dixon and the SynAD team sincerely and gratefully acknowledge the enormous and expert administrative contributions from many professional colleagues in various departments, divisions, centres, institutes, Research Services Office, and other units. We are especially grateful to Debbie Beaver (Psychology), Chantelle Sedgwick (NMHI), Jill Friesen (SynAD), and Shawna Forrest and colleagues (RSO). We could not have completed multiple funding competitions resulting in the awarding of over 60 different grants without the incredible energy and expertise contributed by our valued administrative colleagues. Thank you for making it possible to complete this massive effort to promote new synergies in research on ADRD at the University of Alberta!