What cells can teach society'

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What cells can teach society.

• Lessons learned from our HELP sponsored research.
• Dr. Brian Christie

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Year 1
3

• FAS/FASD is characterized - by neuronal loss.
• impaired cognition.
• Exercise
• increase neuron production
• improves cognition

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Really HELPed

• Awarded ABMRF Young Investigator award (50,000
  USD/yr for 2 yrs).
• 4 research publications.
• 2 reviews.
• 1 additional publication in press.

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Year 3
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But thats not all.

• People with Fragile-X are also very anxious.
• The Ventral Hippocampus appears to be more
  involved in anxiety behavior than the dorsal
  hippocampus.
• Anxiety might be related to a problem with
  neurogenesis in the ventral hippocampus.

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What have we learned?

• Fragile-X is characterized by abnormal dendritic
  spines.
• Fragile-X is characterized by reduced
  neurogenesis in the ventral hippocampus.
• Anxiolytics increase neurogenesis!
• mGluR5 antagonists reduce spine proliferation and
  seem to enhance cognition in children with FXS!

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Really HELPed

• Awarded Fragile-X Foundation of Canada Grant.
• Awarded Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation
  Research Grant.
• 2 research publications.
• 1 reviews.
• 2 additional publications in preparation.

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Last Year Downs Syndrome
Dr. Cheryl Wellington, Dept. of Pathology and
Laboratory Medicine

• Downs Syndrome is a Chromosome 21 defect.
• One of the things this gene does is regulate
  lipid metabolism.
• Children with Downs have dyslipidemia,
  cholesterol gallstone formation, and Alzheimer's
  disease all of which are connected to
  cholesterol metabolism.
• Weve hypothesized that an extra copy of ABCG1 is
  responsible for causing the AD symptoms at such
  an early age.

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In Progress

• Does ABCG1 over-expression cause behavioral
  deficits in mice?
• Does ABCG1 over-expression alter neuronal
  morphology?

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HELPed bring us all together!
England
U.S.A.
China
Romania
Africa
Quebec
Alberta
Ontario
Sask.
B.C.