2008 Age Plus Prize Winner

Karen Bell
McGill University
Paradoxical upregulation of glutamatergic presynaptic boutons during mild cognitive impairment

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia in Canada's seniors. Despite this, our understanding of the pathological changes occurring early on and throughout the stages of AD remains vague. An improved understanding would enable earlier therapeutic intervention, ideally slowing the disease progression and prolonging the autonomy of the AD sufferer.

In collaboration with the Religious Orders Study, a large US-based brain bank where nuns and priests donate their brains to science at death, Dr. Bell and her colleagues were able to quantitatively assess changes in the morphology and in the number of excitatory brain cell contacts (synapses) throughout the progressive stages of AD.

They identified a novel, unexpected increase in the number of excitatory synapses during an early stage of dementia called Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Typically, the more synapses the better the cognitive ability. Yet subjects with MCI showed higher numbers than normal. This elevation might represent a compensatory response to existing AD. If so, MCI represents an ideal window where researchers could work in coordination with the brain's own attempts at reparation to prevent further damage.

The research experience from her PhD will be of immense benefit to Dr. Bell's career as she intends to continue to work in neuroscience. Currently in summer 2008, Dr. Bell is presently completing her post-doctoral studies at the University of Toronto, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She has two separate projects (one at each location), focusing on neuroprotection and stroke respectively. After completing her post-doc she hopes to become a principal investigator at a Canadian academic institution.