Blog

Sleep is a crucial part of our health and wellbeing. Not only do we feel rested after a good night’s sleep, but behind the scenes, important functions are taking place which help keep us healthy. Our brain clears out the day’s metabolic waste while we sleep. Blockage in the perivascular spaces, through which the waste flows, may mean we sleep longer, to make up for it.

ONDRI researchers Miracle Ozzoude, Dr. Joel Ramirez and colleagues have devised methods that substantially improve accuracy of cortical thickness measures. This work also provides measures of cortical thinness in patients with focal stroke and extreme white matter disease, which could not have been done prior to their work.

ONDRI researchers Edward Ntiri, Dr. Maged Goubran et al set out to devise improved algorithms to accurately and efficiently measure whole brain volume and ventricular volume in people living with neurodegenerative diseases. Their methods have meant dramatic improvements in image processing, with exciting clinical implications.

Despite the unbearable loss of life and the devastating impact on millions of people worldwide, conversations these days are increasingly turning to what a post-COVID world might look like. Observations through living with Parkinson’s disease may shed some light.

When we left my story in part 1, I finally got off the couch. I went upstairs and retrieved my running gear from the back of my closet and went back downstairs into the basement (it was Canada in winter after all!) I booted up my dusty treadmill and started walking. I no longer cared what it sounded like. The important thing was that I was moving forward — literally.

Part 1 – Life on the Couch: Diagnosis to Despair I have always liked Michael J. Fox. On my first trip to the United States, after seeing him in “Back to the Future”, I was determined to find those same red striped, white leather Nike sneakers, as well as a pair Original 501 Levi’s that his character, Marty McFly, wore in the movie. I returned to South Africa successful on that shopping spree.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been felt far and wide. Physical distancing guidelines have affected all aspects of day-to-day life, even healthcare provision. Virtual healthcare, powered by digital technologies and by necessity, is said by some to have progressed by a decade in the year since the pandemic hit.

The Patient & Community Advisory Committee (PCAC) is a collection of motivated volunteers who embody ONDRI’s cross-disease research: people with lived experience, including care partners; representatives from the charity/advocacy groups of the ONDRI community; associated clinicians; along with ONDRI and Ontario Brain Institute delegates.

On Monday evening, March 1, 2021, just shy of 200 people got together on a Zoom call to celebrate the many accomplishments and lives affected, professionally and personally, by Dr. Sandra Black.

It has long been believed that speaking more than one language on a regular basis may help boost brain function and possibly preserve the brain as it ages. An innovative ONDRI study explores this issue.