Dr. Chris Anderson

Biography

Dr. Chris Anderson is a Professor of the Departmet of Neuroscience Research Programe at the University of Manitoba, Canada.

Research Interest

One-in-three Canadians will be directly affected by a neurological or psychiatric disorder and the yearly costs of acute care represent the highest portion of the overall financial burden of disease in Canada (14%; source: BrainCanada.ca). When long-term functional deficits and disability resulting from disease are considered, the proportional burden of neurological and psychiatric disorders is amplified to staggering levels, accounting for 38% of years of life lost due to early death and years lived with disability. This is 3-fold greater than the next contributor (cancer, 12.7%). Our overall program strategy is designed to maximize impact on therapeutics in neurological disorders by finding novel mechanisms of brain cell death and neurological debilitation common to multiple forms of brain injury and neurodegeneration. Insight into disease mechanisms with multiple disease relevance stimulates therapeutic development with maximal impact on total human mortality and morbidity. There is strong consensus that the ability of the brain to properly regulate its own blood supply is impaired in Vascular Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, and following stroke and brain trauma. There is also convincing evidence that a process known as excitotoxicity leads to death of brain neurons across a large spectrum of disorders, including stroke, brain trauma, Alzheimer’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, epilepsy and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Our program explores both brain blood flow regulation and excitotoxicity from the cellular level to systems and whole animal models with the goal finding novel therapeutic targets commonly applicable to several neurological syndromes produced by brain injury or long-term neurodegeneration.