Professorship in Alzheimer Research at UBC

 $1.8-million Professorship awarded at UBC

Dr. Howard Feldman, Head of the Division of Neurology at the University of British Columbia and Director of the UBC Hospital Clinic for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders, has been awarded the $1.8-million Ralph Fisher and Alzheimer Society of B.C. Professorship in Alzheimer's Research at UBC.

Funded by a partnership between the Alzheimer Society of B.C., the Fisher Foundation, and the UBC Faculty of Medicine, this position will significantly enhance the capacity to diagnose, treat and prevent Alzheimer’s disease here in B.C.

Dr. Feldman has accepted the award in name only; the accompanying funds will support the research of young clinician scientists at the UBC Alzheimer Clinic.

In keeping with the original goal for the endowment, the money will help translate research knowledge into clinical practice that directly benefits the community.

 

Research in B.C. - A profile of Dr. Claudia Jacova

Cognitive psychologist Dr. Claudia Jacova is one of three clinical researchers whose work at UBC is funded by the $1.8 million Ralph Fisher and Alzheimer Society of B.C. Professorship.

Working at the UBC Hospital Clinic for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders, Dr. Jacova is researching instrument development and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for early diagnosis.

New scale helps measure quality of life
One initiative Dr. Jacova has developed is the Clinical Meaningfulness in Alzheimer Disease Treatment (CLIMAT) scale.

Through clinical interviews with people with dementia and their caregivers, the CLIMAT assesses cognition, functioning, severity of symptoms, and the social impact of these symptoms.

“Assessing the social impact is a new, subjective approach to treatment that tells us how individuals experience the disease,” said Dr. Jacova.

The interview gives people with dementia the opportunity to say whether changes in their symptoms as a result of treatment truly make a difference in their everyday lives.

“This is an exciting direction for assessment tools and for research that has largely been ignored,” said Dr. Jacova.

A longitudinal study putting the CLIMAT scale to use is being funded through the Alzheimer Drug Therapy Initiative (ADTI), a provincial research project that’s collecting information about the effectiveness of cholinesterase inhibitors (medications that may help treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease).

The CLIMAT could become an important new measurement instrument in clinical trials and care settings to decide whether treatment is working for individuals.

Helping to improve diagnosis
Dr. Jacova is also conducting Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies, looking for a reliable marker – a physical change – that can indicate Alzheimer’s before it is otherwise diagnosable.

Researchers know that the brain actually shrinks and loses volume as Alzheimer’s disease progresses.  Today, it’s impossible to identify exactly when this process accelerates – but evidence suggests that such a stage exists.

One promising approach is the use of serial MRI—comparing MRI scans over a period of time— to determine the rate at which the brain loses volume, and identify areas of the brain where that loss occurs in early stages of the disease.

It is currently impossible to identify the point at which brain volume loss accelerates, but evidence suggests that such a stage exists.

“MRI is becoming an important technology for early diagnosis because it can detect abnormalities in brain volume loss years before symptoms occur,” said Dr. Jacova.

The ability to identify changes in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer’s earlier in the disease is becoming more important as new treatments that can modify these brain abnormalities become available.
 
“The findings tell us we need more sensitive tools that can identify risk and create opportunities for intervention much earlier than is currently possible,” said Dr. Jacova.

 

New Research Tells Us to Get Moving!

Dr. Robin Hsiung and his colleagues at UBC are taking a new approach to measuring the impact of exercise on the brain. Read more...

 

 Dr. Claudia Jacova is one of three researchers funded by the Ralph Fisher and Alzheimer Society of B.C. Professorship at UBC.

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