World-wide attention was drawn to Dr. Melanie Campbell when she presented her new diagnostic tool that can identify Alzheimer’s disease long before the onset of symptoms at the 2016 Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in Toronto on July 26, 2016. Alzheimer’s disease has been previously extremely difficult to diagnose. Dr. Campbell’s research, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Waterloo, UBC, Vivocore Inc, InterVivo Solutions, and the University of Rochester and Massachusetts General Hospital shows polarized light scans are as sensitive as other more established methods and can be done cost-effectively without using irritating dyes, making it potentially useful as an early detection in-office screening test.
The
Canadian
Institutes
of
Health
Research
and
the
Natural
Sciences
and
Engineering
Research
Council
of
Canada
funded
Campbell’s
research.
She
recently
received
more
than
$800,000
in
funding
through
a
Collaborative
Health
Research
Projects
grant
to
build
prototype
instruments
and
start
clinical
testing
soon
on
patients
in
collaboration
with
researchers
at
UBC
Hospital,
the
Lawson
Health
Research
Institute
in
London,
Ontario
and
Institut
Universitaire
de
Gériatrie
de
Montréal.
Dr.
Campbell
is
a
professor
in
the
Department
of
Physics
and
Astronomy
and
a
member
of
the
Centre
for
Bioengineering
and
Biotechnology
(CBB)
at
the
University
of
Waterloo.
Congratulations to Melanie and the research team!
For
more
information
visit:
[UW
Press
Release]
[UW
Science]
[CBC
News]
[CNN
Health]
[Mirror
UK]