Department of Neuroscience (CCBN)

For someone with a neurological disorder that impairs their movement, such as stroke or Parkinson’s disease, getting to the doctor’s office for a checkup can be difficult. What if a patient could just take a video clip of their movements with a smartphone app that interprets the video and sends the results to their doctor?

Drs. Hardeep Ryait, Ian Whishaw and Artur Luczak, together with their colleagues from the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, propose just that in their paper, Data-driven analyses of motor impairments in animal models of neurological disorders, published today in the prestigious journal, PLOS Biology.

Genome sciences and bioinformatics research in the province is getting a huge boost thanks to a $3-million investment and the establishment of BioNet Alberta, a research network featuring the University of Lethbridge, the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, Genome Alberta, Genome Canada, Genome Alberta and other partners.

The network is supported by Genome Canada’s Regional Priorities Partnership Program (RP3) and features a BioNet hub at each university, with the newly established Southern Alberta Genome Sciences Centre (SAGSC) at the U of L serving as the lead hub.

Thanks to a grant of more than $530,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Dr. Artur Luczak, a neuroscientist with the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge, will investigate whether seizures can be triggered by memory.

Epilepsy and seizures can develop at any age and seizures affect about one per cent of people. Worldwide, more than 65 million people are affected by epilepsy. For some people with epilepsy, certain stimuli, such as flickering lights, particular sounds, specific odors or activities, evoke seizures. However, for most people with epilepsy, seizures have no identifiable triggers.