Project summary
The Lived Brain: Whole body effects on women’s brain health–mechanism and diversity
The Wilfred and Joyce Posluns Chair in Women’s Brain Health and Aging was awarded in 2016 to Dr. Gillian Einstein to enhance women’s brain health through the study of cognitive aging and associated disorders across the lifespan.
In Phase I (2016-2021) the focus was on how estrogens and estrogens loss effects cognition in younger women, focusing on understanding the whole body ramifications of early life ovarian removal in women with the BReast Cancer mutations 1 and 2 (BRCA1/2).
In the successful renewal (2022-2027) the focus encompasses aging in diverse populations of women measuring the early biomarkers of aging in younger women with ovarian removal and the aging experiences as well as cognitive and brain changes in women from the Horn of Africa as well as Transfeminine persons.
Current Scientific Advisory Committee
- Emily G. Jacobs, Associate Professor, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University Of California, Santa Barbara
- Crista Johnson-Abakwu, Executive Director of the Collaborative in Health Equity, University of Massachusetts Medical School
- David M. Holtzman, Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor, and Chair of the Department of Neurology, Washington University
- Michelle Mielke, Professor of Epidemiology and Prevention, Wake Forest University Medical School
- Susan M. Resnick, Senior Investigator, Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health
- Dr. Gillian Einstein, Professor, Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Gender, and Health, Psychology Department, University of Toronto
Collaborators
- Dr. Cheryl Grady, Professor, Rotman Research Institute
- Sandra Black, Professor of Neurology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
- M. Natasha Rajah, Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University
- Annie Duchesne, Associate Professor, University of Northern British Columbia
- Caroline Pukall, Professor, Department of Psychology, Queens University
- Debbie Rotenberg, Person with Lived Experience
- Hawa Abdi, Person with Lived Experience
Sponsors
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation, Baycrest Hospital
- Ontario Brain Institute
- Posluns Family Foundation
- Alzheimer Society of Canada