The Irving Ludmer Family Foundation has announced a $15.3 million gift to McGill and three of its affiliated research hospitals to establish the Ludmer Centre Single-Cell Genomics Brain Initiative (SCGBI). The Douglas, the Lady Davis Institute, and the Neuro will drive this initiative with a mission to increase our understanding of the role that individual brain cells play at the molecular, anatomical and structural levels.
The donation will primarily be used to fund new scientific research positions with the aim of advancing brain research by investigating the brain one cell at a time, a process that will require large-scale cell technologies and data processing. Three positions will be created at each of the Ludmer Centre’s three hospital partners: the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, which will focus on psychiatric disorders; the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital, which will specialize in the development of analytical strategies of single-cell data; and The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital), which will focus on neuroinformatics and neurological disorders.
“The possibilities for progress on brain diseases and disorders using a single-cell approach to research are enormous,” said Dr. Turecki. “We are working to offer new hope to patients and their families by using single-cell genomics, as this approach will help elucidate the changes affecting common brain illness such as depression and schizophrenia. Using the detailed map of the human brain, at a single-cell resolution, as well as the technological analysis of individual brain cells in greater detail than ever before, researchers will be able to better understand normal brain function and treat psychopathologies, neurological disorders and brain cancers.”
This gift builds on the Irving Ludmer Family Foundation’s legacy of generosity, with gifts to McGill in support of health research rising to above $32 million.
Many thanks to the Irving Ludmer Family Foundation for their unwaivering support of research, as well as to McGill’s University Advancement and the Douglas Foundation.