ROMACH-SELLERS FAMILY RESEARCH PRIZE

This is the largest peer-reviewed prize funded through philanthropy at SickKids. The goal of the Romach-Sellers Family Prize in Early Brain Development is to fund projects that define the factors that limit fetal and infant brain development and advance new approaches to predict, prevent and overcome them leading to better health outcomes. Following a competitive process with many outstanding applications, we are pleased to announce Dr. Frankland as the inaugural awardee of this prestigious research prize.

Dr. Paul Frankland’s research program combines behavior, imaging and molecular approaches to understand the neurobiological basis of memory. His team’s empirical and theoretical papers have advanced our understanding of systems consolidation, hippocampal neurogenesis and memory function, engrams, hippocampal memory development and developmental disorders. To help accomplish the goal of understanding how the brain uses information, they combine a variety of tools, including optogenetics, chemogenetics and detailed behavioral analysis.

Dr. Frankland’s research proposal for this prize focuses on the ‘development of an in vitro model to study human neuronal ensemble dynamics in neurodevelopmental disorders’. Dr. Frankland’s proposal opens the possibility for mechanistic studies of neuronal ensemble formation in human cells using understandings of synaptic mechanisms underlying ensemble formation from rodent work. 

• Romach-Sellers Family Neurobiology Innovation Award – awarded to Dr. Michael Salter, Senior Scientist, Neurosciences and Mental Health, SickKids

Seed funding allows researchers, clinicians and educators to seize upon their most innovative ideas— ideas that can have a major impact on child health but are relatively new avenues of inquiry. This support enables investigators to gather ample data to apply to larger funding bodies so they can ultimately turn their ideas into reality.

Dr. Michael Salter’s discoveries on fundamental molecular and cellular mechanisms of normal and pathological neuroplasticity have broad implications for the control of cell-cell communication throughout the nervous system and his work has regularly appeared in elite journals including Nature, Science, Cell, Nature Medicine and Neuron.  Dr. Michael Salter and his team propose to forward our understanding of the molecular and cellular basis of higher brain functions in humans using the newly discovered NMDA receptor isoform subunit, GluN2A-s. This proposal will chase the idea that GluN2A-s controls critical NMDAR-dependent brain functions. Testing this idea will determine the effects of GluN2A-s on NMDA receptor-dependent forms of synaptic plasticity, learning and memory, and pain using a mouse model that has been engineered to express GluN2A-s. 

• Romach-Sellers Family Lecture Prize–awarded to Dr. Beth Stevens, Research Associate in Neurology; Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, F. M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Boston Children’s Hospital

The third component of the Romach-Sellers Family series of prizes is the Romach-Sellers Family Lecture Prize, which aims to foster a greater understanding of early brain development dynamics. Dr. Beth Stevens of Boston Children’s Hospital is the inaugural Romach-Sellers Lecture Prize awardee in honour of her pioneering research which focuses on understanding how neuro-immune interactions in the brain sculpt synapses during healthy development and disease.

Dr. Beth Stevens’ lab discovered that microglia, the resident immune cells in the brain, critically regulate neurodevelopment and whose dysregulation has been linked to the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegeneration. Her findings are providing novel insights into synapse loss and dysfunction in a range of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases.

All three scientists will present their award-winning research at the Romach-Sellers Family Symposium on Early Brain Development this fall in Toronto at the SickKids Peter Gilgan Centre for Research & Learning in addition to receiving their awards. 

Our heartfelt thanks to the Romach-Sellers family for their outstanding commitment to furthering our understanding of early brain development. We’re also deeply grateful to the panel members who adjudicated the project proposals and all those who submitted applications for the awards and a huge congratulations to all three awardees.