Research

Current epigenetic research indicates that adverse prenatal and childhood experiences can manifest in health problems across a person’s life spectrum, right into old age, increasing susceptibility to depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. A growing array of physical and mental illnesses already have some level of evidence indicating epigenetic mechanisms. Although the developmental processes through which these factors operate are poorly understood, 70 percent of mental disorders as well as some neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s, dementia, and Parkinson’s, are believed to have their genesis in the prenatal or early-childhood periods. Research into how individuals react to similar adverse events also suggests this impact is not immutable, underscoring the existence of a ‘resiliency factor’ as well as environmental factors that reinforce it. A relatively new field of study, epigenetic research provides renewed hope for the identification of diagnostic bio-markers, early intervention plans, tailored-treatment plans, and prevention strategies.

In addition to supporting the basic research generating novel epigenetic datasets and innovative research, the Ludmer Centre develops and provides the computational tools to facilitate their timely and automated analysis using state-of-the-art computational approaches and high-performance computing. The Centre’s epigenetics researchers are both targeted users of the resulting neuroinformatics infrastructure as well as a vital contributor to the development of novel epigenetic tools and datasets. The Centre also aims to expand epigenetic research through collaborations with other longitudinal studies.

Area of Research

Dr. Patricia Pelufo Silveira and her lab, the Silveira Lab provide leadership of this research pillar. Dr. Silveira’s group is devoted to investigating how the early environment can impact and modify brain maturational trajectories that result in the development and progression of many psychiatric disorders. Dr. Silveira’s research group investigates how individual differences in the vulnerability to psychiatric conditions, and informs preventative and therapeutic measures.

Over the last few decades, the global neuroimaging community has converged towards real-time collaborations encompassing large-scale, data-sharing repositories build by and open to researchers globally. MCIN has been a key partner in over 25 of these initiatives covering multiple normative brain development initiatives as well as Alzheimer’s, autism, mental health, and more. These repositories not only increase the availability of vital datasets but also maximise the cost-effectiveness of imaging research.

MCIN is also collaborating on the development of the BigBrain atlas. The first of its kind, the atlas is a virtual reference brain with an isotropic 3D spatial resolution of 20 µm—50 times greater than the 1mm resolution of previous 3D human brain models.

Dr Alan Evans and his Lab –the McGill Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (MCIN) – provide leadership for this Pillar. Dr Evans is a James McGill Professor of Neurology & Neurosurgery, Psychiatry, and Biomedical Engineering and Director of MCIN. A world authority on brain mapping and imaging technologies, Dr Evans ranks among the top 1% of cited researchers. He has developed important biomarkers for the early diagnosis of neurological and psychiatric disorders and pioneered neuroimaging techniques and neuroinformatics technologies that are now universally utilized.

Data is noisy – they can contain residual data-collection artefacts or confounding variables (physiological, participants’ age and gender, etc.). Interpreting individual datasets, let alone multivariate datasets, presents unique hurdles. Unlike cancer where we can see and track the growth of a tumour, for brain disorders we still do not know what to track, nor do we have a clear understanding of what constitutes normal brain development. The ability to extract and translate results into meaningful patterns requires sophisticated statistical tools–complex models and algorithms–most of which have yet to be developed.

Dr Greenwood’s team drives and supports research by developing specialized statistical techniques tailored to the data and capable of integrating and linking phenotype, epigenetic, genetic, imaging and clinical datasets that enable researchers to identify recurrent patterns. The resulting tools can be applied to advance research across multiple research domains (e.g., brain health, cancer, etc.).

Dr Celia Greenwood and her lab –Statistical Genetics – provide leadership for this Pillar. Dr Greenwood is a professor in the departments of Oncology, Human Genetics, and Epidemiology; Biostatistics & Occupational Health; and Division of Cancer Epidemiology at McGill University; Director of the McGill’s Quantitative Life Sciences PhD program; a Senior Scientist at the Lady Davis Institute’s Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, and a member of the board of directors of the International Genetic Epidemiology Society. She has made significant contributions in genetics, genomics, and genetic epidemiology.

Recognising the research potential inherent in neuroinformatics, corporate and academic researchers alike are seeking better ways to collaborate and drive cost-effective brain research innovations. Many have or will be looking to partner with research centres that have a demonstrated capacity to provision the neuroinformatics infrastructure (platforms, tools, high-capacity computation capacity, etc.) as well as research leadership and access to vital databanks of epigenetic, imaging and genetic datasets. For more and more collaborative initiatives, MCIN neuroinformatics ecosystem is the option of choice.

Initially developed to support Dr Evans’ neuroimaging research, the neuroinformatics ecosystem, through decades of research collaborations, now enables computationally intensive brain research. The infrastructure applies innovative mathematical and statistical approaches that allow researchers to integrate clinical, psychological or neuroimaging phenotypes with genotypic and epigenetic information. Further, MCIN’s neuroinformatics ecosystem streamlines the hosting, analysis and visualization of these and other complex datasets.

Continually innovated, MCIN tools are specifically designed to facilitate large-scale multivariate data analysis for researchers with limited informatics and statistical expertise. With over 700 researchers in 22 countries, MCIN is already the go-to facility for the storage and analysis of neuroimaging datasets by multiple large-scale international projects. The global neuroscientific community is converges towards even larger, real-time collaborations, as exemplified by projects such as the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility, Neugrid4U (EU), LONI (USA), the Human Brain Project (EU), and ADNI (Asia). As an active partner in these initiatives and global standardization governing bodies, as well as through 2016 funding to expand the MCIN platforms across Canada, MCIN is now uniquely positioned to bridge Canadian researchers with global neuroscience initiatives.

The Ludmer Centre aims to provide researchers around the world with access to MCIN’s innovative neuroinformatics ecosystem and databases by maintaining, expanding and developing databases populated with heterogeneous datasets while concurrently innovating and expanding the computational infrastructure and tools required for their analysis.

Dr Alan Evans and his Lab –the McGill Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (MCIN) – provide leadership for this Pillar. Dr Evans is a James McGill Professor of Neurology & Neurosurgery, Psychiatry, and Biomedical Engineering. He is the Director of MCIN and the Scientific Director of McGill’s ambitious neuroscience initiative, Healthy Brains for Health Lives, which was awarded $84M under the Canada First Research Excellence Fund.