Carleton Experts Available – Brain Awareness Week
This week marks Brain Awareness Week and the 10th anniversary of the Department of Neuroscience at Carleton University. Carleton experts are available to speak on related topics.
Argel Aguilar-Valles
Professor, Neuroscience
Email: Argel.AguilaValles@carleton.ca
Aguilar-Valles oversees the Aguilar-Valles Lab, which focuses on the molecular mechanisms that underlie psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders. They use a combination of biochemistry, molecular biology, and animal models to understand how genetic risk factors contribute to mental illness. They are investigating how genetic mutations affect brain development and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) pathophysiology and how antidepressant activation of the mTORC1 pathway contributes to major depressive disorder (MDD) treatment.
Shawn Hayley
Professor, Neuroscience
Email: Shawn.Hayley@carleton.ca
Hayley is an active researcher in many facets of depression and Parkinson’s disease. He oversees the Hayley Lab, which focuses on how interactions between the brain and immune system may influence the development of psychiatric and neurological conditions. His current projects are also exploring how environmental factors and immune insults may cause brain inflammation that contributes to neurodegeneration.
Kim Hellemans
Professor, Neuroscience
Email: Kim.Hellemans@carleton.ca
Hellemans is available to discuss her ongoing work exploring how COVID-19 is impacting student mental health and substance use.
Hellemans’ research interest lies in the study of vulnerability to mental illness. Her current research examines how prenatal exposure to alcohol influences later life susceptibility to mental illness. In the past, her research explored the role of adverse environmental experiences in susceptibility to drug addiction.
Hellemans is also interested in sex differences in mental illnesses; depression is twice as common among women. She is a co-host of the Minding the Brain podcast.
Michael Hildebrand
Professor, Neuroscience
Email: MikeHildebrand@cunet.carleton.ca
Hildebrand oversees the Hildebrand Pain Lab, which investigates spinal mechanisms of pain processing. They use a combination of molecular, pharmacological, electrophysiological, and behavioural approaches to identify the molecular pathways that regulate pain sensation in both acute and chronic pain. He is available to discuss mechanisms and new treatment approaches for pain and sensation more broadly.
Matthew Holahan
Professor, Neuroscience
Email: Matthew.Holahan@carleton.ca
Holahan is available to speak about concussions, neurodegeneration, memory and addiction. He oversees the Holahan Lab, which examines the emergence of spatial information processing and long-term memory storage in rodents during development. They also use mouse models to investigate potential novel therapeutic targets in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. They also study exogenous (environmental toxins, experimental brain injury, pharmacological manipulations) influences on brain function (immediate early gene expression, inflammatory markers) and structure.
Media Contact
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Communications Co-ordinator
Carleton University
brenna.mackay@carleton.ca
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