Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging - Full Proposal

The neurodegenerative brain diseases - Alzheimer's Disease, Vascular dementia, Frontotemporal dementia, and Dementia with Lewy Bodies - will be the "diseases of the 21st century" due to aging of our population. The decision by CIHR to establish a Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) represents a timely response to this urgent health problem. Canadian researchers have made significant contributions to dementia research, but progress can be immeasurably hastened by collaborative and synergistic efforts supported by necessary infrastructure platforms shared across the country. Our application to establish the CCNA includes 47 principal applicants (of whom 19 are junior researchers) and 340 total members of the dementia research community, grouped into 20 research teams and supported by eight new national platforms. Our mission can be summarized as follows: to do transformative research advancing our understanding of the biology, natural history, clinical presentation and management of neurodegenerative diseases (NDD). We will create a novel cohesive clinical research infrastructure in Canada. We will catalyse development of new molecules and therapies, which can be tested in appropriate patient groups to be established within the CCNA, leading to new treatments and approaches to prevent NDD. As well, we will seek to advance care of affected individuals and their families through innovative research focused on improving management of NDD with a special focus on the unique needs of rural and indigenous communities. Our Teams will be national, rather than local or regional, and will promote the active engagement of junior researchers, building the next generation of dementia researchers. We will also establish Programs to address the ethical, legal and social issues pertaining to research on dementia, to promote knowledge transfer and capacity building, and to address the special issue of women and dementia.