Dates/Calendar

Journal Club Meeting dates
ABI - Feb 20th
AMAP - Jan 30th
Interdisciplinary Science - Jan 24th
Undergraduate - Jan 24th
Vision Science - Feb 7th
Click here for more info on all the journal clubs

Toronto Rehabilitation Institute's
2020 Traumatic Brain Injury conference
Feb 7, 2020, Toronto, ON

8th Annual Atlantic Regional Developmental Biology Symposium
Friday June 5th, 2020
Mount St. Vincent University

14th Annual
Canadian Neuroscience Meeting
Montreal, May 31 - June 3, 2020 

Neuroscience 2020 (SfN)
Washingon, DC - Oct 24-28, 2020 
April 30: Deadline for abstract submissions

Trade Commissioner Sector
Events 2019-2020

BRC News

NS Brain Bee is coming back in 2020. Brain Bee is a competition for high school students, where competitors answer questions about the brain and neuroscience, competing for an opportunity to represent their province at The National Brain Bee at McMaster University in May. More details and registration form coming soon. NS Brain Bee will be part of Brain Awareness Week, taking place Mar 23-27 at the Brain Repair Centre, Dalhousie. 

Neuroscience as Art competition is launched! Get your entries in by Feb 14th. Details at Neuro as Art 2020. 

Dr Alon Friedman's research features in an article in Science Translational Medicine (Dec 2019). Read about it in DALNews or see the full article Drugs that quell brain inflammation reverse dementia.  

Brain Awareness Week 2020 happens in March. We are planning a number of local events and will be launching theis year's Neuroscience as Art Competition soon. Watch this space.

The Iulianella group recently published a paper detailing how a central signalling pathway regulates the formation and targeting of nerves in the spinal cord. The Hedgehog receptor Patched1 regulates proliferation, neurogenesis, and axon guidance in the embryonic spinal cord (published October 2019)

The 2nd AMAP Annual Meeting, held in September, was attended by almost 40 PIs, trainees and staff from PEI, NB & NS. It was a great opportunity to learn about each others work and to explore opportunities to collaborate. Save the Date for the 3rd AMAP Annual meeting, scheduled for Sept 27-29, 2020. Check out @BRCHFX on Twitter and Facebook for pictures. 

Congratulations to Jack P. Solomon, leader of the interdisciplinary Science Journal Club on another 'first author' publication . . . click for more info

The BRC Annual Report is off the press and can be viewed by clicking the link/image on the front page of this website.  

The 7th annual Atlantic Regional Developmental Biology Symposium is taking place in Halifax on June 7th. Click link for registration details. 

BRC Neurodegeneration Cluster Meeting 2019 is taking place on June 4th. Registration will be closing soon, so click the link for more info and registration details. 

The Neuroscience as Art Auction raised $930 for charity this year. A copy of the winning pictures will be on display on the walls of the BRC - our gallery is growing every year. 

Congratulations to BRC member, Dr Turgay Akay on receiving a CIHR Project Grant for his project "Sensory control of muscle synergies during walking". . . click for more info

In late August 2018, the NS Department of Health & Wellness and Government of Canada with MP Scott Brison and Minister Randy Delorey announced funding for ~$5M to support an ABI Strategic Action Plan based on recommendations by the ABI Strategy Report* co-chaired by BIANS. Executive Director of BIANS, Leona Burkey and her team were thrilled with this news and got straight to work planning and implementing projects such as . . . click to continue reading

BRC member Dr. Rudolf Uher was named a Highly Cited Researcher for 2018 by the Web of Science. This list recognizes world-class researchers selected for their exceptional research performance, demonstrated by production of multiple highly cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in Web of Science. The 2018 lists of 6,078 HCRs, of which 166 are from Canadian institutions, putting Canada in the Top Ten countries. 
Dr Uher is also a member of the Faculty of Psychiartry at Dalhouise and is the PI of the FORBOW project. 

Congratualtions to Lyna Kaminsky, a PhD student in Dr Alon Friedman's lab, who received the Mitacs Award for Outstanding Innovation (PhD) in November 2018. Lyna developed a technology to more accurately diagnose brain and eye-vein injuries, in partnership with Halifax start-up Emagix. Learn more about Lyna's work. 

Rafuse Lab members were delighted to host a lab tour for Rick Hansen at the BRC on October 26th. Click for more

October 25th - the 2nd edition of the BRC newsletter "NeuroTransmitter" is hot off the press. If you didn't receive a copy in your inbox, you can read it here or request a copy from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Congratulations to BRC members Dr James Fawcett and Dr Kazue Semba who have been awarded CIHR Project grants in the Spring 2018 competition. Dr Fawcett received a grant for his project titled Control of movement: contribution of cerebellar glial cells and Dr Semba for her project titled Microglia response to chronic sleep restriction. for more info, click on the project titles.

Dr Angelo Iulianella presented at CAN 2018 as part of the symposium: "Development and function of motor circuits: from hardwired patterning to functional maturation and sensory integration". The Brain Repair Centre and the Department of Medical Neuroscience at Dalhousie are pleased to have been sponsors of this international event.  

Gaming meets medicine to become a Nova Scotia neurosurgeon's essential tool. Read what Neurosurgeon - and BRC member - Dr David Clarke thinks on CBC News

Dalhousie medical researcher - and BRC member - Dr Sultan Darvesh - is making great strides in Alzheimer's research and his work can be supported through the Spring DMRF Molly Appeal

Dr James Fawcwett and colleagues reveal that the polarity protein Angiomotin p130 controls dendritic spine maturation downstream of the Lats1 kinase (published in Journal of Cell Biology, Jan 2018) 

Discovery at Dalhousie brain tissue lab could lead to Alzheimer treatment (Jan 2018) 

Attentional dysfunction and recovery in concussion: effects on the P300m and contingent magnetic variation
BRC Researchers Dr Steven Beyea, Dr Aaron Newman and Dr Tim Bardouille in collaboration with other investigators from Dalhousie University, IWK Health Centre, and the Nova Scotia Health Authority. 

Traumatic brain injury: a priority for public health policy (The Lancet, Dec 2017) 

Ventral neural patterning in the absence of a Shh activity gradient from the floorplate
A recent publication on the work of one of the Brain Repair Centre's researchers - Angelo Iulianella & colleagues.

Exenatide once weekly versus placebo in Parkinson's . . . (The Lancet)