Q: 聽Are altered brain chemistry and metabolism key underlying features of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Depression, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia?聽聽
Q: 聽Can we detect these neurochemical and neurometabolic alterations non-invasively?聽聽
Q: 聽By studying and understanding these alterations, can we devise more effective treatments against neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders?
These are a few of the overarching questions that guide and motivate the research in Jamie Near's Lab. 聽Yes, altered brain chemistry and metabolism are in fact key features of many neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. 聽And yes, we can quantify these changes non-invasively using in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), a technique closely related to MRI.聽 聽 聽
Jamie鈥檚 research is focused on 1) developing new MRS techniques for characterizing brain chemistry and metabolism, and 2) applying these tools towards the study of mental health and brain disorders in both humans and聽rodent聽models of disease. 聽The goal of Jamie's research is to develop a better understanding of the underlying neurochemistry of brain health and disease, leading to improved therapy and prevention of brain disorders.聽聽
But why study the rodent brain with MRS? 聽Despite being anatomically dissimilar, rodent and human brains have a high degree of neurochemical similarity. 聽As seen in Figure 1 below, MRS scans in human and rodent brains reveal many of the same prominent neurochemical signals, with neurotransmitters (Glutamate and GABA), as well as other important metabolites showing similar concentrations in tissue. 聽What's more, the neurochemical changes observed in animal disease models often parallel the pathological changes seen in their human counterparts. 聽The vast majority of techniques used to study the animal brain cannot be used safely in humans. 聽So, the ability of MRS to detect neurochemical changes non-invasively in both animals and humans makes it a powerful tool for translating animal research findings to humans. 聽
One exciting ongoing development in Jamie Near's lab is the use of carbon-13 (13C) as a type of contrast agent in MRS experiments. 聽By infusing a 13C labelled substrate such as glucose, MRS can be used to dynamically track the transfer of 13C label into downstream metabolic products, thus offering a unique window into brain metabolism (See Figure 2 below). 聽Jamie's lab is developing 13C MRS as a tool for metabolic imaging in both humans and animal models. 聽In particular, one of Jamie's MSc Students in the IPN department, Steven Zhang, is using 13C MRS to study altered glucose metabolism in a rat model of Alzheimer's disease.
Jamie is always accepting applicantions聽from outstanding IPN students聽of all academic backgrounds. 聽Some of the projects in Jamie's lab require a background in physics and engineering; examples of such projects include radiofrequency coil development, MRS pulse sequence development, and development of novel data processing and analysis tools. 聽Other projects require a neuroscientific expertise for application of non-invasive MRS methods in animal models or human subjects. 聽If Jamie's research is of interest to you, please don't hesitate to get in touch!! 聽
A bit of background about Jamie: 聽He holds an undergraduate degree in Engineering Physics from Queen鈥檚 University and a PhD in Biophysics from Western University鈥檚 Robarts Research Institute. 聽Following his PhD, Jamie did his postdoctoral studies at the University of Oxford, UK. 聽In 2012, Jamie came to McGill an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, with associate memberships in the Department of Biomedical Engineering (BBME) and the Integrated Program in Neuroscience (IPN). 聽Jamie's lab is based at the Douglas Hospital, in the newly constructed Centre d'Imagerie C茅r茅brale, which houses both a 3T human MRI scanner and a 7T small animal MRI scanner.聽聽