Brock University\u2019s newest Canada Research Chairs (CRC) will be purchasing state-of-the-art equipment thanks to funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI).<\/p>\n
The CFI has awarded Paula Duarte-Guterman, Matthew Kwan, Danielle Sirianni Molnar and Newman Sze $623,933 for specialized infrastructure through its John R. Evans Leadership Fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cCFI\u2019s investment in Brock University is critical support for the cutting-edge discoveries our researchers are making,\u201d says Brock Vice-President, Research Tim Kenyon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis funding enables a better understanding of mental health in youth, diseases that affect us as we age, and how experiences remodel the brain across the lifespan \u2014 all areas that impact many people in society,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Assistant Professor of Psychology Paula Duarte-Guterman, who is Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Neuroscience, studies how parenthood and aging remodels the hippocampus, the brain region responsible for learning and memory and the regulation of stress and anxiety.<\/p>\n
She will be purchasing a laser scanning confocal microscope, which offers sharp imaging of cellular structures identified by fluorescent labels to investigate how cells are organized and interact with each other and measure the level of particular proteins in fixed tissue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis equipment will be instrumental to my research program to link how structural and physiological changes in the brain are associated with behaviour,\u201d says Duarte-Guterman.<\/p>\n
Assistant Professor of Child and Youth Studies Matthew Kwan, who is Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Youth Mental Health and Performance, studies how \u2018movement behaviours\u2019 \u2014 sleep, sitting and physical activity \u2014 impact youth.<\/p>\n
He will be acquiring wearable activity monitoring devices that\u00a0research participants wear on their chest and wrist that will collect information on autonomic nervous system activation, including heart rate variability and galvanic skin response (sweat gland activity).<\/p>\n
Real-time data from these devices can be set to enable opportunities for Ecological Momentary Assessments \u2014 repeated sampling of subjects’ current behaviours and acute experiences \u2014 to gain further contextual data.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe research being proposed with these devices enables new theoretical and methodological approaches for determining how we can improve movement behaviours and the mental health and well-being of Canadian youth,\u201d says Kwan.<\/p>\n
Associate Professor of Child and Youth Studies Danielle Sirianni Molnar, who is Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Adjustment and Well-Being in Children and Youth, studies perfectionism, stress and well-being in youth.<\/p>\n
She will be setting up a lab that includes wired and wireless technology to measure a wide variety of data collected as participants view videos and listen to audio recordings related to stress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis infrastructure will enable us to objectively assess how perfectionism impacts specific stress and frustration processes in youth and their parents with cutting-edge physiological and behavioural measurements,\u201d says Molnar.<\/p>\n
Professor of Health Sciences Newman Sze, who is Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Mechanisms of Health and Disease, studies how early life adversities, stressful lifestyles and unhealthy diets can increase damage to the blood vessel lining in aging populations.<\/p>\n
He will be purchasing a liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS\/MS) platform, a powerful bioanalytical method used to study biomolecules.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis CFI\/JELF-funded instrument will enable the development of novel approaches to studying tissue degeneration in chronic disorders and the identification of associated treatments,\u201d says Sze.<\/p>\n