The 2010 Innovations in Neuropsychopharmacology Award was presented to Dr. Samuel Weiss at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology in Ottawa, Ontario. The Innovations Award is designed to recognize innovative research by Canadian scientists in research in the field of neuropsychopharmacology.

Abstract

ADULT NEURAL STEM CELLS: ROLES IN BRAIN REPAIR AND PLASTICITY

Samuel Weiss, PhD, FRSC
Professor and Director
Hotchkiss Brain Institute
University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine
HRIC 1A10, 3330 Hospital Drive NW
Calgary, AB T2N 4N1

The discovery of neural stem cells (NSCs) with self-renewal and multi-lineage potential, in the adult mouse forebrain and subsequently in the adult human CNS, has contributed to new perspectives on brain plasticity and repair. Studies of NSC localization, coupled with lineage analysis, have paved the way for both pre-clinical and clinical studies of NSC mobilization for repair of CNS injury and disease. Unexpectedly, rodent studies of adult NSC-mediated neurogenesis point to new adult neurons playing a key role in the formation of memories that are implicated in social behaviour. The recent identification of adult human brain tumour stem cells, which may be a product of genetic and epigenetic changes to the normal adult NSC lineage, opens a new and important therapeutic avenue for the study of NSC regulation.

Supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.