MONTREAL NEUROLOGICAL INSTITUTE AWARDED $9 MILLION GRANT BY US NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH - Results to Shed Light on Correlation Between Brain Development in Children and Neurological Disorders MONTREAL, Dec. 14 /CNW/ - Researchers at the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), a teaching and research institute at McGill University, have won a contract from the U.S. National Institutes of Health to develop the world's first pediatric neuroanatomy atlas. MNI was chosen following a competition with top neuroscience centres across the United States.
The MNI's neuropsychologists will use the data to correlate brain development
with behaviour. The data will also be used for tracing the progress of neurological
disorders from early onset to later stages.
" This contract is a recognition of MNI's worldwide leadership in the neurosciences,''
says Dr. Alan Evans, the project's lead investigator and researcher at the MNI's
McConnell Brain Imaging Centre. ``The National Institutes of Health determined
that we have a unique means of analyzing data on such a large scale.''
The MNI's scientists working with NeuroVision Sciences Corp., a joint venture
between Siemens Canada Limited and the MNI, will coordinate and analyze regional
quantitative data from seven American research centres, including Children's
Hospital in Boston, University of Texas Health Science Centre in Houston, Washington
University in St. Louis, University of California in Los Angeles, University
of California in Irvine, Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, and
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. These locations will be conducting magnetic
resonance imaging of the brains of 500 children up to 18 years of age over a
seven-year period. The project, totaling $22 million, has the potential to be
extended beyond seven years to include brain development in young adults.
The Montreal Neurological Institute is a teaching and research institute of McGill University. It is one of the largest institutions of its kind in the world committed to understanding how the brain functions , and to alleviating neurological disorders.
The MNI and The Medical Systems Division of Siemens Canada Limited linked their expertise in NeuroVision Science Inc. to refine methods of imaging the brain to diagnose disease and to test drugs for treating neurological diseases.