Dr. Cayabyab receives SHRF Collaborative Innovation and Developement Grant
Congratulations to Dr. Cayabyab for receiving a SHRF Collaborative Innovation and Development Grant. The Grant is entitled "Therapeutic Potential of Novel Dimer Drugs in a New Rat Model of Parkinson's Disease". The Co-Applicants were Dr. Ivar Mendez (Department of Surgery) and Dr. Jeremy Lee (Department of Biochemistry). Dr. Ed Krol (Pharmacy and Nutrition) will be collaborating with the group in developing novel therapeutic compounds for Parkinson's disease. Earlier this year, PhD candidate Elisabet Jakova and supervisor Dr. Cayabyab were awarded the COMGRAD PhD Scholarship for her project entitled "Persistent Adenosine Signaling Promotes a-Synuclein Expression in a Novel Rat Model of Parkinson's Disease". Their goal is to tackle Parkinson's disease by developing new animal models that more closely mimic the early phases of this aging-related disease. These models are based on their previous discovery that the brain molecule adenosine, which is known to increase during aging and in stroke, may be contributing significantly to neuronal damage than previously recognized.