Leading the Canadian arm of the project is Dr. Lena Palaniyappan who is using Artificial Intelligence to help personalize treatment for patients with psychosis. Dr. Palaniyappan is an Associate Scientist at Lawson Health Research Institute, Associate Professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry and Scientist at Robarts Research Institute.

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Dr. Lena Palaniyappan who is using AI to help personalize treatment for patients with psychosis.

In collaboration with five European centres, Dr. Palaniyappan and a team at Robarts Research Institute and Lawson Health Research Institute, the research institute of London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care London, 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. 

“The study itself involves collecting neuroimaging and genetic information from multiple sites in order to understand the mechanisms of mental illness,” said Dr. Palaniyappan. “The translational portion of this is applying this information to clinic. How genes and brain networks interact to cause mental disorders, and how we can use this information to match patients to specific treatment choices.”

The group is specifically studying a treatment called magnetic stimulation which will be delivered within the mental health care program at St. Parkwood Institute, a part of St. Joseph’s, in collaboration with Dr. Amer Burhan. Dr. Burhan is a Lawson Associate Scientist, Associate Professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry and Clinical Physician Lead for Therapeutic Brain Stimulation (ECT and TMS) at Parkwood Institute. 

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Dr. Lena Palaniyappan is collaborating with Dr. Amer Burhan for this study. 

The treatment uses focused magnetic pulses that stimulate a specific group of neurons. Dr. Palaniyappan says the treatment is very effective, but only in one-third of patients.

“We want to know if there are clear markers that show who will respond to this treatment, and who will not. This will help reduce the burden of failed treatment trials for this challenging illness,” said Dr. Palaniyappan.

To enable this, the researchers will look for patterns in a very large amount of imaging and clinical data collected in Europe and Canada. That’s where Artificial Intelligence comes in. In order to understand the patterns that are clinically useful, they use a technique called Machine Learning that trains a computer to recognize expected patterns and then make predictions for new patients.

The data is being collected from six centres, coordinated by Dr. Emanuel Schwarz at the University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Germany. In addition to the centre here in London, Ontario, other partners include Munich, Germany; Oslo, Norway; Rotterdam, Netherlands; and Montpellier, France.

The research project will also mean that this form of magnetic stimulation treatment will be offered for psychosis patients in London for the first time.

“Magnetic brain stimulation is a safe and well-tolerated treatment that is used currently in London to treat depression, but now we will be able to offer this to patients with psychosis as well,” said Dr. Palaniyappan.

 The project will begin in May 2019 and will continue until the end of 2022.

In Ontario alone, an estimated 285,000 individuals currently live with some form of neurodegenerative disorder. This includes Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, mild cognitive impairment, dementia and movement disorders. 

The experiences and symptoms for each person vary, but they share a progressive decline in their cognitive and motor function. It can affect their ability to work, socialize and live independently. 

As our population ages, there is an urgent need to understand markers that will predict decline and identify targets for therapy that might improve long-term function and outcomes. 

This is where hospital-based research can make a real difference. 

On June 21, 2018, Lawson Health Research Institute hosted Café Scientifique, a community event highlighting the groundbreaking and specialized research on neurodegenerative diseases happening right here in London. 

Moderated by Lawson researcher Dr. Arlene MacDougall, a panel of three expert Lawson scientists shared their unique perspectives as both clinicians and researchers, and how the knowledge we are gaining is being applied to improve health and health care for people here and around the world. 

Watch the video from the event featuring the three talks from our experts. 

Café Talks

Back to the beginning: Targeting early markers for Alzheimer’s Disease

By Dr. Jennie Wells
Time stamp: 5 minutes

Dr. Wells is the Medical Care Coordinator for Geriatric Rehabilitation at St. Joseph's Health Care London's Parkwood Institute, and Chair of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Western Univeristy’s Schulich School of Medicine. Her clinical and research interests are Alzheimer’s Disease and Geriatric Rehabilitation. She has particular interest in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and the potential for non-drug interventions, such as exercise and nutrition to slow progression of dementia. She is a principal site investigator in randomized controlled trials of new drugs to treat dementia, MCI, and Subjective Cognitive Impairment (SCI).

Highlights:

• What causes dementia?
• How early do changes happen in the brain before symptoms even appear?
• What is the single best diet approach for a healthy body and mind?
• How does exercise keep your brain healthy? 

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Neuroinflammation and dementia: The old and the new 

By Dr. Elizabeth Finger
Time stamp: 24 minutes

Dr. Finger, a neurologist at St. Joseph's Parkwood Institute, received her MD from Cornell University. She completed an internship in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, followed by residency in Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Her research focuses on understanding the cognitive, neural, and genetic substrates of abnormal decision-making, emotion and social behavior. Using a variety of different diagnostic techniques and modalities, the research program investigates the cognitive and neural systems affected in patients with Frontotemporal Dementia, related disorders and their at-risk family members.

Highlights:

• Do anti-inflammatory medications reduce the risk of dementia or slow the rate of decline?
• How do genes related to the immune system increase the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease? 
• What about the effects from dysfunction of the brain’s own immune system?
• Do conditions or events causing systematic inflammation (surgery, infection, auto-immune diseases) also increase neuroinflammation which can lead to dementia?

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New Frontiers in the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease: Addressing the unmet needs 

By Dr. Mandar Jog
Time stamp: 45 minutes

Dr. Jog is a Lawson researcher, Director of the National Parkinson Foundation Centre of Excellence at LHSC, Director of the Movement Disorders Centre in London and Professor of Neurology at Western University. His research interests include topics such as motor control, neurophysiology and computational modeling, multichannel recording and web-based teaching of movement disorders. Dr. Jog has a passion for clinical and scientific innovation and holds numerous patents that are reaching commercialization with strong collaboration with university technology transfer and industry partners.

Highlights:

• How do clinician researchers take questions from the bedside and solve them at the bench using technology in order to treat movement disorders?
• How can wearable technology be used to detect movement disorders and monitor for optimized treatment – remotely from anywhere in the world?
• How can we use machine-guided sensors for personal diagnostics and therapy for essential tremors and Parkinson’s Disease?
• How can spinal cord stimulators improve movement and gait for patients, including those previously using wheelchairs and scooters?

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Did you miss the event? Add your email address to our Café Scientifique invite list so that you’ll be the first to know when the next event takes place. 
 

Sign up here. 

Go to Lawson’s Facebook page to see photos from the event.