IA Newsletter – April 2012

In this issue:

Message from the Scientific Director

I am very pleased to be writing this message to let you know about the exciting activities underway at the CIHR Institute of Aging (IA).

As many of you are aware, the IA has embarked on a four phase strategic planning process to define the priorities in research on aging and knowledge translation for the next five years (2013-2018). The Institute Advisory Board Strategic Planning Working Group has been working diligently over the last few months to help move this process forward and I wish to take this opportunity to publicly thank them for their support.

As a first step in the strategic planning process, the IA recently completed (March 23rd) a web-based survey targeting a broad array of stakeholders engaged in research and knowledge translation on the current, short and long-term issues related to the Canadian aging population. Our philosophy was to make this web-based survey as inclusive as possible. We sought input on the opportunities and challenges of an aging population and eliciting opinions and diverse points of view on the priority research areas in the coming years. The web-based survey was a great success with over 840 stakeholders participating. This level of participation only helps to affirm the importance of this area of research for our many stakeholders. We thank all those who participated.

As a second and concurrent phase of the consultation process, approximately 30-targeted interviews with key and diverse stakeholders are currently underway. The third phase of the consultation process will involve a SWOT-type (Assessment of the Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) activity to be conducted at our Institute Advisory Board meeting in late April.

The fourth and final phase of the consultation for the strategic planning process will involve a pan-Canadian town hall tour to gather feedback on a preliminary version of the strategic plan that will be developed following the first three phases of the consultation process. These town hall meetings will take place in public forums to optimize attendance by all stakeholders. We will keep you informed on venues and dates as they become available. We are striving to be able to conduct this phase of the consultation process throughout the late spring and summer months.

As you will see throughout this April Newsletter, the IA has been very active and engaged with our community. We don’t foresee this level of activity diminishing in the future, and look forward to providing you with further updates in the coming months and years.

All the best,

YJ

IA News

November 2011

  • The Minister of State (Seniors), the Honourable Minister Alice Wong, visited with the Institute of Aging Advisory Board members. Minister Wong shared her priorities and reaffirmed her strong support for research in of aging.
  • IA also participated in the “Organizing a Care System for Older Adults in Ontario” program at the McMaster Health Forum along with stakeholders and researchers. View Dr Joanette’s video capsule.
  • IA co-hosted a Canada-UK research roundtable with the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme at the Canadian High Commission in London, UK. Through two rounds of competition the CIHR-IA offered research grants for Canadian researchers to participate in the seven-year multidisciplinary research teams supported through the the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme with the aim of improving the quality of life of older people. The participants exchanged on the benefits and challenges of conducting international research. While in London, IA participated in the Workshop on Social innovation from the Young Foundation. The Young Foundation brings together insight, innovation and entrepreneurship to meet social needs across the UK and internationally.
  • IA was the only-non-European country to be invited to participate in the FUTURAGE official presentation in Brussels. FUTURAGE benefitted from a two-year support by the European Commission, under the Seventh Framework Programme, to create a road map for ageing research in Europe for the next 10-15 years.

December 2011

  • IA welcomed at its head office in Montréal, officials from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) to explore methods of working together. Aging has recently become the main research priority for the CSA under the leadership of Dr. Nicole Buckley. As result of these discussions, the CSA, in partnership with IA and in collaboration with other CIHR Institutes, are planning a National Workshop on “Parallels between aging and changes in space” to be held in June 2012 in Ottawa. This Workshop, aims at identifying areas of mutual interest and shared challenges common to aging and long-duration space travel; encouraging Canadian researchers and technology developers to make use of the very unique International Space Station as a research platform, to work together to develop excellent research and development (R&D) and foster the transformation of this R&D into innovative solutions for Canadians.

ICRSAD News

As the lead Institute (co-led by the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction) for the International Collaborative Research Strategy for Alzheimer’s Disease (ICRSAD), one of CIHR’s Roadmap Signature Initiatives, the IA will now include information in this initiative in our newsletter.

  • In December 2011, IA participated in the first follow up meeting of the International Network of Centres of Excellence in Neurodegeneration (COEN) in Milan. As one of the founding members of this initiative, with the UK Medical Research Council and the German Research Institute of the Helmholtz Association, this six-country initiative is now considered to be a first activity of the European Union Joint Programme in Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND).
  • In January, Dr. Joanette led a delegation of Canadian researchers to France and the UK. The objective of these meetings was to strengthen the links between industry and academia and to foster and promote international collaboration in Neurosciences and Aging. The Canadian delegation was comprised of Drs. Don Stuss (Ontario Brain Institute), Neil Cashman (PrioNet Canada, University of British Columbia) and Julien Doyon (Réseau de bioimagerie du Québec). Dr Joanette was a keynote speaker in one of the “One Nucleus” events in Cambridge aiming at sharing knowledge and partnership between academia and industry to the benefit of new treatments and technologies. A short video with a summary of Dr Joanette’s message has been provided by One Nucleus.
  • In early February 2012, Dr. Joanette, as the Executive Director of ICRSAD, was invited to participate in the launch of the Joint Programme-Neurodegenerative Disease Research (JPND) in Brussels, Belgium. This is a European Union member state-led initiative that involves over 22 countries throughout Europe. Canada, through CIHR, is again the first non-EU country to participate in this Programme.  
  • In mid-February the IA also met with Dr Magali Haas from “One Mind for Research”, a US-based organization that has the mission to develop a roadmap of research for treating all brain disorders within a ten-year period. One Mind for Research, invited the IA sit on the Alzheimer Disease Council, an Initiative led in collaboration with along New York Academy of Sciences. To learn more about One mind see their video.
  • IA also participated in the outGRID initiative meeting in Geneva in February. OutGRID is a worldwide e-infrastructure for computational neurosciences. There are currently three e-infrastructures for computational neuroscience presently active or under construction worldwide. In Europe, neuGRID aims to provide large sets of brain images paired with grid-based computationally intensive algorithms for studies of neurodegenerative diseases. In Canada, CBRAIN at McGill University in Montréal and in the U.S., the LONI-Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at UCLA, both offer computational resources and algorithm pipelines. The aim of outGRID is to ignite the process to lead the 3 e-infrastructures to converge into one unique worldwide facility.

CLSA News

The Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) continues to make great strides in implementing the largest study of aging ever undertaken in Canada. Over the past six months, the CLSA has expanded rapidly, hiring several new members to the national management team to oversee implementation, operations, partnership development and communications. Local CLSA sites across the country have also hired coordinators and staff in preparation for the launch of the Data Collection Sites (DCS) this spring. These sites will conduct physical and cognitive assessments as well as gather biological specimens for 30,000 participants across Canada.

  • In December, the DCS at McMaster University conducted a pilot study to fine-tune testing procedures. A second pilot was conducted with French-speaking participants at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre in February. All Data Collection Sites are currently gearing up for launch.
  • Three open-source computer software applications – Mastodon, Sabretooth and Beartooth – have been designed to enable paperless data collection, protect confidentiality and manage interactions with study participants. The web-based services will be standardized across Canada at the 11 CLSA Data Collection Sites and the four Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview sites, which are now fully operational.
  • The CLSA has also developed a coordinated ethics review process involving 11 ethics boards across Canada. The initiative has resulted in an efficient approval process across all participating institutions.
  • Recruitment is underway for both the CLSA Tracking and Comprehensive cohorts using provincial health registries and random digit dialing.

For the latest CLSA news, visit CLSA. You can also find us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Rising Stars

The CIHR Institute of Aging Age+ Prize recognizes excellence in research on aging carried out in Canada by graduate and postdoctoral students and clinical residents from all disciplines, working in the field of aging. It is awarded to the author of a published, scientific article on aging. The Institute of Aging is pleased to announce the latest winners:

  1. Cindy Barha, University of British Columbia
    C.K. Barha and L.A.M. Galea. Motherhood alters the cellular response to estrogens in the hippocampus later in life. Neurobiology of Aging 32(11):2091-2095. 2011.
  2. William Mortenson, University of Montreal
    W. Ben Mortenson, John L. Oliffe, William C. Miller and Catherine L. Backman. Grey spaces: the wheeled fields of residential care. Sociology of Health & Illness ISSN 0141–9889, pp. 1–15
    doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.2011.01371.x
  3. Dawn MacKey, San Francisco Coordinating Center
    Mackey DC, Black DM, Bauer DC, McCloskey EV, Eastell R, Mesenbrink P, Thompson JR, Cummings SR. Effects of Antiresorptive Treatment on Non-Vertebral Fracture Outcomes. J Bone Miner Res. 2011 Jun 27 doi: 10.1002/jbmr.446.
  4. Michelle Ploughman, Memorial University/Dalhousie University
    Michelle Ploughman, Mark W. Austin, Michelle Murdoch, Dr. Anne Kearney, Dr. John D. Fisk, Dr. Marshall Godwin,Dr. Mark Stefanelli. Factors influencing healthy aging with multiple sclerosis: a qualitative study. Disability & Rehabilitation early online Sept 8, 2011.
  5. Marie St-Laurent, University of Toronto and Rotman Research Institute
    St-Laurent, M., Abdi, H., Burianová, H., and Grady, C. Influence of Aging on the Neural Correlates of Autobiographical, Episodic, and semantic Memory Retrieval. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. Posted Online on June 14th 2011, doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00079

For more information on how to apply for the Age+ Prize, please visit the IA website.

Recent Funding Highlights

Advancing Theoretical and Methodological Innovations Operating Grants

These grants support research that is informed by a range of disciplinary perspectives and that advances theories, conceptual frameworks, scientific methods, and/or measurement approaches towards a strengthened Canadian health care system and improved health for Canadians. We congratulate the following Institute of Aging awardees:

  1. Louis Bherer and Sarah Fraser, Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal 
    Combining functional near infrared spectroscopy and dual-task walking to track preclinical motor and cognitive declines and their evolution in aging individuals.
  2. Claire Bombardier, Murray Baron, Ronald Heslegrave, Bartha Knoppers, University Health Network
    Design and Evaluation of Electronic Consent and Governance Processes for Clinical Research
  3. Antonio Ciampi, McGill University
    Identifying states and courses of a mental disorder from longitudinal data: Delirium as an example
  4. Alan Cohen, Sherbrooke University
    Novel approaches to aging physiology: Using statistics and data mining to understand dysregulation of biomarker networks in human populations
  5. Raisa Deber, University of Toronto
    Development of a microsimulation tool to inform finance decision-making in healthcare
  6. Christina Wolfson and David Wolfson, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre
    Accelerating the Generation of Results from Longitudinal Studies of Aging

Voluntary Sector Outreach Prize

This prize aims to develop communications-related partnerships with Canadian voluntary sector organizations. Proposals may be targeted to a specific audience who would benefit from being better informed about the impacts of health-related research (e.g., improving communications with front-line physicians, policy-makers etc), or the scope could be more general for the greater public (e.g., proposing an event associated with a national or international initiative dedicated to increasing awareness). We congratulate the following grantees:

  1. Clara Fitzgerald, University of Western Ontario
    Mobilizing the Knowledge of Canada's New Physical Activity Guidelines for Older Adults
  2. Winnie Fraser-MacKay, Canadian Pensioners Concerned
    Working with seniors to improve transitions from hospital
  3. Benjamin H. Gottlieb, University of Guelph
    Volunteer! To Our Good Health
  4. Parkinson Society Canada
    Cognitive Impairment and Parkinson’s Disease Webinar

Current Funding Opportunities

Catalyst Grant: Health Services and Systems for an Aging Population

This funding opportunity provides seed money, on a short term basis, to:

  • support innovative ideas and projects aligned with the goals, objectives and principles of the Institute of Aging (IA)'s Health Services and Systems for an Aging Population (HSSAP) initiative;
  • support original, high quality projects which have the potential to generate high impact results and/or innovative research proposals, research tools, techniques, or methodologies;
  • encourage researchers from other fields to consider research questions related to Health Services and Systems for an Aging Population.

The total amount available for this funding opportunity is $600,000. The maximum amount awarded for a single grant is $100,000 per annum for up to 1 year. The registration deadline is June 15th, 2012.

In addition to leading ICRSAD, the Institute of Aging is participating as a partner in the following CIHR Roadmap Signature Initiative funding opportunities:

IA’s Upcoming Events

The Institute of Aging will participate at the following events in the coming months:

  • The 32nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Canadian Geriatrics Society (CGS), on April 19th to 21st, 2012, at the Loews Hotel Le Concord in Quebec City, Quebec
  • Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research (CAHSPR) Annual Conference, May 29th to 31st, 2012 at the Hilton Bonaventure Hotel in Montreal
  • The Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), on July 14th to 19th, 2012, at the Vancouver Convention Centre, Vancouver BC
  • The 41st Annual Scientific and Educational Meeting of the Canadian Association on Gerontology (CAG) on October 18th to 20th 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Vancouver, BC.

Did you know?

A centenarian is a person that has lived for 100 years or more. The US has the largest number of centenarians with 70,490 as of September 2010 followed by Japan with 47,7561 (September 2010).

  1. Japan Times "Centenarians to Hit Record 44,000", September 15, 2010