$124,948 awarded to Dr. Lorne Zinman, University of Toronto with co-investigators Dr. Nir Lipsman, Dr. Kullervo Hynynen, Dr. Sandra Black, Dr. Todd Mainprize, and Dr. Agessandro Abrahao, University of Toronto.
Delivering promising treatments to the nervous system is challenging because our bodies have a specialized barrier called the blood-brain barrier that makes it difficult to introduce drugs into the brain or nervous system. Researchers at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University of Toronto have developed a new technology to deliver treatments through the blood-brain barrier using image-guided focused ultrasound that can open small spaces in the barrier to let the treatments cross into the brain. They have demonstrated the safety of this technique in people with essential tremor and are currently studying the approach in patients with Alzheimer’s disease in a clinical trial. In this project, Dr. Zinman and colleagues will test the safety of image-guided focused ultrasound in eight people living with ALS. If successful, the team hopes to use the technology to deliver promising treatments that target upper motor neurons to enhance treatments that are currently directed at lower motor neurons and are already being tested in clinical trials.