The Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan contributes to the funding and promotion of research to find a cause, a cure, and better treatments for Alzheimer's disease. The Society supports the National Joint Alzheimer Society Research Program and supports several research initiatives in Saskatchewan.
Spotlight on Research
Spotlight on Research is coming to Regina on Monday, September 27, 2010. Please click here for more information.
To register for Spotlight on Research please click here.
The Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan's Spotlight on Research event in Saskatoon on September 29, 2009,
gave more than 20 researchers the opportunity to share information about their projects with approximately 150 attendees. Thank you to the Saskatchewan Health
Research Foundation, Novartis, Pfizer and Phenomenome Discoveries for their support for this event.
To see abstracts of the researcher's poster presentations please click here.
Saskatchewan Research Chair in Alzheimer's disease and related dementia
The Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation are partnering to fund a 5-year,
one-million dollar Research Chair in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia. The Chair will focus on finding cause and cure,
and will build research capacity in Saskatchewan. University of Saskatchewan researcher Dr. Darrell Mousseau was awarded the
Saskatchewan Research Chair in Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia. For more information on Dr. Mousseau's appointment and research, please click here.
Scholarship at the Neuropsychiatry Research Unit - University of Saskatchewan
The Alzheimer Society has established a scholarship at the Neuropsychiatry Research Unit (NRU) at the University of Saskatchewan. The scholarship will allow a student to gain research experience with pay while continuing his or her studies at the University of Saskatchewan. The Alzheimer Society has entered into a four year partnership with the NRU to provide summer research scholarships of this type.
The scholarship will support the research that is being carried out by the NRU under the direction of Dr. Peter Yu to determine the role that semicarbazide-sensitive amine oxidase (SSAO), a naturally occurring enzyme, has in the development of the characteristic plaques found in Alzheimer patients. Dr. Yu's research is based on the hypothesis that SSAO plays an important role in the pathogenic process that causes the inflammation and development of the plaques that lead to the debilitating effects of Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Yu believes that the research being conducted surrounding SSAO might one day lead to a diagnostic tool and also to a treatment that could inhibit this development of plaques before they cause the memory loss and other deteriorating symptoms that are associated with Alzheimer's disease. Since the development of protein plaques is also characteristic of other diseases such as diabetes, he feels this research could have wide ranging impact.
Grant to Fund Research for Care of Persons with Dementia in Rural and Remote Areas
The Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan is proud to partner with the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation to fund a five year New Emerging Team Grant entitled "Development and Evaluation of Strategies to Improve the Care of Persons with Dementia in Rural and Remote Areas".
The New Emerging Team program of CIHR encourages the creation of collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams that explore today's pressing health research questions from a broad range of perspectives. It is designed to support the creation and development of new competitive health research teams, laying the foundation for future success in Canadian research. The Institute of Aging, the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, and the Rural and Northern Health Research Initiative of the CIHR will partner with the Alzheimer Society Of Saskatchewan, the University of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation to fund this important project.
The team is lead by Dr. Debra Morgan (PhD, Nursing) who is an Associate Professor with the Institute of Agricultural Rural and Environmental Health and an Associate member in the College of Nursing at the University of Saskatchewan. Other team members include Norma Stewart, PhD (Psychology), Professor, College of Nursing; Margaret Crossley, PhD (Psychology), Associate Professor of Psychology; Carl D'Arcy, PhD (Sociology), Professor and Director of Applied Research, Department of Psychiatry; Jay Biem, MD, MSc, FRCP, Assistant Professor of Medicine; Andrew Kirk, MD, FRCPC (Neurology), Professor and Head, Division of Neurology, College of Medicine. Also joining the team as a New Investigator is Dorothy Forbes, PhD (Nursing), Associate Professor, College of Nursing, and as a Doctoral Student, Mary Ellen Andrews, who has her master's in Nursing from the University of Saskatchewan.
The goals of the project are three-fold: to improve the availability of specialized personnel and services needed to provide assessment and management of seniors with dementia in rural and remote communities; to improve accessibility of programs aimed at supporting formal and informal caregivers; and, to improve acceptability of services for people with dementia and their caregivers in rural and remote areas.
The project will focus on three main areas: 1) developing and evaluating an interdisciplinary distance case consultation program focusing on assessment and management of dementia, which will use telehealth videoconferencing for pre-screening and follow-up, 2) evaluating a distance education program designed for nursing aides from rural nursing homes and home care agencies, and 3) examining health service utilization by person with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias in Saskatchewan and Canada, comparing rural, remote and urban areas.
The Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan supports Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of CIHR when he states: "I am proud CIHR supports projects that reflect such a collaborative approach to health research, an approach that helps us to examine pressing questions from a variety of angles. By partnering with organizations in the research and voluntary sector, we can share information and hear directly from patients, helping us to ensure that the research we fund reflects the needs of Canadians". We too are proud to support this exciting project that will make a difference in the lives of people with Alzheimer's disease and those that care for them.
Alzheimer Society Young Investigators Grant Program
The Alzheimer Society of Saskatchewan is a partner in funding the Young Investigators Grant Program with the Alzheimer Society of Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The program is specifically designed to encourage promising young scientists at the beginning of their careers to carry out Alzheimer research. In this way, we are assured that there will be teams of researchers working on a cause and a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
Learn about research the Alzheimer Society of Canada funds through the Alzheimer Society Research Program with the help of Canadians like you. This program provides grants and training awards to Canadian researchers in the Alzheimer field.
If you would like more information about Alzheimer research please contact our offices at 1-800-263-3367 or e-mail execdir@alzheimer.sk.ca
If you would like to make a donation to support research please
contact fund@alzheimer.sk.ca, or to make a donation online, click the image below:
