The 2024 CIHR Institute of Aging Fellowship Prize of Excellence in Research on Aging
Each year, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research - Institute of Aging (CIHR-IA) recognizes the highest ranked postdoctoral trainee in the field of aging from the CIHR open postdoctoral competition as the CIHR-IA Fellowship Prize of Excellence in Research on Aging recipient.
Recipient
Dr. Rajshree Ghosh Biswas, Harvard University
Dr. Rajshree Ghosh Biswas is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, at Massachusetts General Hospital & Harvard Medical School, under the co-supervision of Dr. Bruce Jenkins and Dr. Leo Cheng. Dr. Ghosh Biswas completed her doctoral training at the University of Toronto (Department of Chemistry) under the supervision of Dr. Andre Simpson, where she developed various tools and techniques to optimize ex vivo and in vivo Multiphase Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) detection and process monitoring in complex natural samples. During her postdoctoral training, she will apply the skills she obtained from her PhD to elucidate metabolomic changes within Alzheimer’s Disease using both NMR and MRI. Her overarching research goals include expanding on non-invasive techniques to better understand metabolic mechanisms and characterize biomarkers of age-related pathologies.
Research Summary
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a severe neurodegenerative disease with the risk of development increasing with age. Currently 597,000 Canadians suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, and this number is estimated to increase to 1.7 million Canadians and 135 million people globally by 2050. Though there are numerous factors (genetics, environment) that can influence the development of Alzheimer’s Disease, postoperative delirium, specifically in geriatric patients, has been reported to increase a patient's risk by 12.5-fold. Postoperative delirium is a period of confusion following the use of anesthesia in surgery, which cannot be attributed to inflammation alone. With the rise in elderly patients requiring major surgery (total hip and knee replacements), this avenue of increased risk of Alzheimer’s Disease development must be taken into consideration. My research focuses on using non-invasive techniques such as NMR and MRI to investigate metabolic changes in ex vivo tissue samples alongside real-time, in vivo, monitoring. We will observe these changes in Alzheimer’s Disease mice model, following surgery, across various ages. This approach aims to elucidate the mechanisms- such as mitochondrial dysfunction, disrupted neuronal activity, impaired glucose metabolism and transport- that link aging, anesthesia, postoperative delirium and Alzheimer’s Disease. Using these techniques, we aspire to identify biomarkers that correlate postoperative delirium and Alzheimer’s disease, enhancing early diagnosis and improving disease prognosis.
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