{"id":53882,"date":"2019-02-21T10:28:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T15:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?p=53882"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:36:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:36:38","slug":"cihr-supports-carletons-leading-research-aimed-at-improving-the-health-of-all-canadians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/2019\/cihr-supports-carletons-leading-research-aimed-at-improving-the-health-of-all-canadians\/","title":{"rendered":"CIHR Supports Carleton\u2019s Leading Research Aimed at Improving the Health of all Canadians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n CIHR Supports Carleton\u2019s Leading Research Aimed at Improving the Health of all Canadians\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Carleton University\u2019s researchers have received over a million dollars in funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research<\/a> (CIHR) to support leading projects on the how exposure to nature can benefit individual health, reducing Parkinson’s-related neurodegeneration and understanding early life epilepsy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis funding from CIHR will enable Carleton to continue expanding its world-class research into areas that have a direct impact on the health and wellness of all Canadians,\u201d says Rafik Goubran, vice-president (Research and International).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Villeneuve<\/a>, a professor in Department of Health Sciences<\/a>, is leading an interdisciplinary team of researchers across several Canadian universities to determine whether living in close proximity to natural environments has a significant impact on an individual\u2019s mental health and well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver 80 per cent of Canadians live in urban areas and are exposed to traffic congestion, heat islands, and air and noise pollution,\u201d says Villeneuve. \u201cThis vital funding will enable our lab and our partners such as Dan Crouse at the University of New Brunswick, to explore whether natural features, including green spaces and views of open water, improves the health of older adults who live in Canadian cities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although previous studies have suggested that exposure to natural environments can benefit levels of well-being, there remains a lack of strong evidence. The study will develop methods to describe exposure to nature, including the application of deep learning techniques to identify specific features of nature within Google Street View images. The team will then describe the association between natural environments and indicators of positive well-being, including satisfaction with life, absence of depression and sleep disorders among participants of the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging.   The Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging, led by Parminder Raina at McMaster University, has collected data from nearly 50,000 adults 45 years of age and older from across Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A hallmark of Parkinson’s disease is the buildup of the neuronal protein alpha-synuclein. Some researchers believe it collects toxic oligomers which lead to neuronal death. With this in mind, Maria DeRosa<\/a>, a professor in the Department of Chemistry<\/a>, and Matthew Holahan<\/a>, from the Department of Neuroscience<\/a>, are looking at whether a DNA aptamer targeted to bind to alpha-synuclein can inhibit the buildup and reduce Parkinson’s-related neurodegeneration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWithout this CIHR funding, our team of Carleton students and researchers would not have the resources to determine if our DNA aptamer can inhibit neurodegenerative processes in Parkinson\u2019s disease,\u201d said DeRosa.  \u201cWe are grateful for this support from CIHR, as it will enable studies that bring new insights into the mechanism of the disease and take us one step closer to a possible therapeutic approach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite having a greater understanding and improved management of epilepsy, the disease continues to be a major problem in childhood. Early life epilepsy often does not respond to medical treatment and can result in serious long-term consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neurons in the brain are known to be heterogeneous, but these neurons may show very different activities during early life seizures.  For a precise understanding of early life epilepsy at the cellular level, Hongyu Sun<\/a>, professor in the Department of Neuroscience<\/a>, is selectively labelling neurons with different activities during seizures and analyzing their specific nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe identification of neurons active during early life seizures has never been done before,\u201d said Sun. \u201cWe have found unique physiological alterations that occur only in selectively activated neurons in early life seizures. This funding will enable us to continue this vital and groundbreaking research.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sun believes that the selectively activated neurons have crucial roles in early life epilepsy. He will probe the potential to reverse early life epilepsy and associated long-term cognitive deficits by suppressing the activity of these neurons. If successful, his research will identify novel cellular and molecular mechanisms and reveal potential therapeutic strategies for controlling early life epilepsy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media Contact
\n<\/strong>Steven Reid
\nMedia Relations Officer
\nCarleton University
\n613-520-2600, ext. 8718
\n613-265-6613
\nSteven_Reid3@Carleton.ca<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carleton Newsroom: https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/<\/a>
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\nNeed an expert?<\/strong> Go to:<\/strong> www.carleton.ca\/newsroom\/experts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carleton University\u2019s researchers have received over a million dollars in funding from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) to support leading projects on the how exposure to nature can benefit individual health, reducing Parkinson’s-related neurodegeneration and understanding early life epilepsy. \u201cThis funding from CIHR will enable Carleton to continue expanding its world-class research into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":52684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[160,104,162,111,91],"class_list":["post-53882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-releases","tag-chemistry","tag-science","tag-health-sciences","tag-neuroscience","tag-research"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53884,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53882\/revisions\/53884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}