The Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) opened the doors to its new Centre for Analytics in early 2024 with the launch of two transformative, data-driven projects and a new cohort of scholars that will lead the future of neuroinformatics and analytic research.
Buoyed by a five-million-dollar investment from the Government of Ontario, the Centre for Analytics (CfA) represents an important step in the province’s commitment to translate the innovations that take place in the labs to directly benefit the lives of those living with brain disorders.
Dr. Francis Jeanson, Head of the CfA, said that a multi-dimensional approach in neuroanalytics – training, innovation, and translation – will accelerate research discoveries, support the development of new treatments and technologies, and improve care for neurological conditions, concussion and brain injuries, as well as mental health.
In support of this future, this past year, the CfA team focused on three key elements of neuroanalytics leadership.
First, the CfA is upskilling the next generation of neuro data scientists by funding placements, creating training materials, and facilitating collaboration within the research community. In 2023-24, this work included promoting and recruiting for the Canadian Neuroanalytics Scholars (CNS) Program, funded by the Hilary & Galen Weston Foundation and rolling out the program in partnership with Campus Alberta Neuroscience, the Tanenbaum Open Science Institute, and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute.
The CNS program addresses the need to better utilize existing open neuroscience data in Canada and the increasing demand for professionals in the artificial intelligence and machine learning space by training scholars with advanced analytical skills and hands-on experience, and leveraging and linking the infrastructure, resources, and expertise of research and industry partners across the country.
Second, the CfA is accelerating access to high quality data and cloud computing at scale and creating a community of ethical analytics and artificial intelligence practice. In the CfA’s inaugural year, this meant supporting two new analytics initiatives leveraging OBI resources and expertise, including data on Brain-CODE, OBI's state-of-the-art neuroinformatics platform, and a new cloud platform that provides advanced computing capabilities and analytical tooling.
A first project with Dr. Nardin Samuel of Cove Neurosciences maps and models multi-modal brain imaging data to better understand neurodevelopment disorders, such as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. A second initiative headed by Western University’s Dr. Lyle Muller looks at how the brain functions during an epilepsy seizure and predicts when a non-invasive stimulation treatment may be administered to control it. “My lab's analytics initiative with the CfA centres on developing new, large-scale neural network simulations that can provide insight into what occurs in the brain in epilepsy. These models will help us generate predictions that will, in turn, be further tested,” said Dr. Muller. “Support from the computational infrastructure of CfA has allowed us to reach new levels with our modeling work. Working in close collaboration with OBI provides a new model for developing cutting-edge research, which we hope will continue to grow in the future.”
And finally, the CfA is translating neuroscience data for the development and validation of new treatments and technologies while ensuring regulatory privacy compliance.
In the not-too-distant-future, this means creating innovative tools for screening risk for brain disorders, even before people know they are at risk, as well as continuous monitoring and feedback to enable Canadians to get and monitor the treatment that they need for their brain health.
Learn more about the Centre for Analytics.
