Medical Biophysics professor Dr. Robert Bartha of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry has been awarded the Alzheimer Foundation London and Middlesex Premier Research Grant, a $100,000 grant (over two years) to support research, personnel and supportive infrastructure. Bartha is a member of Western’s Brain and Mind Institute and a Robarts Research Institute scientist.
His project, Metabolic and Functional Brain State: New Indicators of Early Alzheimer’s Disease, looks to develop a sensitive test for early Alzheimer’s Disease using the most powerful magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment in Canada. With this grant, Bartha’s team will combine a novel measurement of brain glutamate with a new measurement of brain function to identify the presence of Alzheimer’s disease. They will study normal elderly individuals, people with mild cognitive impairment and people with Alzheimer’s disease. If successful, they will develop a sensitive test to detect the disease at a time when the brain can still be repaired. Such a test would speed up the development and testing of new drugs to treat Alzheimer’s disease
Supported by the Alzheimer Foundation London and Middlesex, this program primarily promotes overall scientific excellence and relevance to Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.