Our province, our country and our globe are staring down a vast number of complex issues that lay before us, yet, there is also an abundance of opportunity. Certainly, this is the case within the brain health community following the provincial government’s significant investment to support the Ontario Brain Institute’s (OBI) intent to broaden our mandate and build on the core unchanging vision to make Ontario a world leader in brain research, commercialization and care.

The most profound demonstration of this opportunity is seen through the launch of the Centre for Analytics (CfA), an initiative to facilitate and amplify the development of neuroanalytical skills and AI models while maximizing the data collected across our research networks.

"There are many other clear examples of how OBI is working to better define what success looks like, and the standard we are setting for ourselves and our partners. We are not content simply maintaining the status quo of our programs– we’re committed to taking what is working well and amplifying it."

- Dr. Tom Mikkelsen, President and Scientific Director

The potential this era holds brings to mind a cautionary proverb most famously uttered by Uncle Ben of Spiderman lore, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Science must be free to explore all solutions that exist, but increasingly scientists behind the solutions must serve as ambassadors for the greater good of humankind. This is why OBI has built the Centre around three guideposts – training, access, and safety and security.

Our guiding principle at OBI has always been to drive the translation of research into evidence-informed care and tangibly better the lives of those living with brain disorders – “from lab to life”. At the Centre for Analytics, this work will lead to real-life impacts like proactive risk screening for brain disorders in advance of onset – providing crucial insights into your brain health before you’re even aware of potential risks. It also means ongoing monitoring and feedback on treatments, so that care providers can offer flexible and continuous support and guidance.

In essence, it's about leveraging data to accelerate the development of brain health solutions faster and more accurately than ever before.

There are many other clear examples of how OBI is working to better define what success looks like, and the standard we are setting for ourselves and our partners.

We are not content simply maintaining the status quo of our programs– we’re committed to taking what is working well and amplifying it.

This means scaling our NERVE (Neurotech Entrepreneurship to Validate Emerging Innovations) program across Canada, which has received applications from almost every province. These important investments in discovery-based research seeking to improve health outcomes for tomorrow are balanced with innovative initiatives in the community, like GEEK (Growing Expertise in Evaluation and Knowledge Translation) and CORTEX (Community-Based Real-World Neurotech Experience) , that implement immediate solutions to help patients today.

With a new funding agreement, we are heading into 2025 with a clear vision and aggressive goals that include:

  • Further advancing our clinically oriented Integrated Discovery Programs (IDP) to have national and international reach. These large-scale networks focus on depression, neurodevelopmental disorders, cerebral palsy, youth mental health, and concussion, span disciplines, and bring together a diverse group of collaborators including researchers, clinicians, commercialization partners, and patients and their advocates.
  • Showcasing our scientific excellence by building on the over 900 scientific papers created through our research networks and published in some of the most astute journals across diverse disciplines including biomedical research, clinical medicine and psychology.
  • Highlighting our translational impact, proven through our 17 clinical trials in the last year with evidence created by our IDPs and cited in 17 clinical practice guidelines.
  • Continuing to place patients at the centre, working with patient partners to generate 24 knowledge products that address needs and knowledge gaps within the patient community.
  • Playing a leadership role in digitization and modernization efforts, in large part guided by our mandate with the Centre for Analytics with recent neuroanalytics initiatives focused on seizure prediction and creating 3D brain connectivity maps. We also partnered with the Montreal Neurological Institute, Campus Alberta Neuroscience, the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, and the Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation to support the training of 20 Canadian Neuroanalytic Scholars.
  • Promoting and facilitating open science, through data sharing supported by our neuroinfomatics platform, Brain-CODE, which has seen over 600 requests from researchers around the world processed to date.
  • Pioneering even more neurotechnologies aimed at improving the quality of life for individuals affected by brain disorders, doing so by leveraging diverse resources with more than 100 portfolio companies. Hand-in-hand with OBI, these neurotechnology leaders continue to commercialize and validate science-backed brain-related tools and treatments, as well as provide alternate pathways for accessing care.

These goals reflect our position that the brain health community is at the precipice of profound change, and that it’s not enough to see the possibilities, we must make sure they are realized.

Our team at OBI is ready to lead the charge.