Ontario Brain Institute

The Ontario Brain Institute is a provincially‐funded, not‐for‐profit research centre seeking to maximize the impact of neuroscience and establish Ontario as a world leader in brain discovery, commercialization and care. Convergent partnerships are created between researchers, clinicians, industry, patients, and their advocates to foster discovery and deliver innovative products and services that improve the lives of those living with brain disorders.

Our Role

IT’S ALL ABOUT WIRING

The brain is all about wiring. And so, in a fundamental way, is the Ontario Brain Institute. By the time we reach adulthood, our heads each contain up to 176,000 kilometers of wiring, in the form of impossibly fine organic filaments known as “axons.”These tiny wires connect billions of thickets of firing synapses, shuttling an almost unimaginable volume of signal traffic from our senses into the brain, from one part of the brain to another, and from the brain to the rest of our bodies. This connecting network weaves together the diverse and widely distributed activity of our neurons into co-ordinated thought and action, plus the rich resource of memory.

At the Ontario Brain Institute, we aim to do something similar for brain science in the province. Not in complexity, of course, but in function. Ontario has a lot going for it in terms of brain science and healthcare. Many of the province’s universities, hospitals and research institutes boast neuroscientists of global stature, doing work at the cutting edge of their disciplines. And Ontario has a community of clinicians and patient advocacy groups with a track record of first class care and support.The challenge is in the area of innovation. Ontario isn’t the world leader it could be in terms of translating neuroscience research into the kinds of procedures, services and products that produce breakthrough outcomes in brain health.What’s been missing, we think, is a little wiring. Our mandate at the Ontario Brain Institute is to help provide the “axons” that connect all those firing synapses around the province, helping to create a network that results in…well, co-ordinated thought and action, plus the rich resource of memory.

WIRING FOR COLLABORATION: INTEGRATED DISCOVERY

WIRING FOR MEMORY: BRAIN-CODE

The human brain contains, by some estimates, 1,000 trillion wired connections.At the Ontario Brain Institute, we make no claim to that kind of complexity or ubiquity. Instead, we pursue simplicity. Just as axons are relatively simple wires for the transmission of chemical and electrical signals, so we take a lean and very functional approach to what we do.

We don’t boast a complex of labs – just a handful of cubicles and offices, staffed with people who know and are passionate about brain research and medicine.Nor are we a massive funder. Our role is to stimulate creativity and co-ordinate effort, to squeeze world-leading impacts from modest dollars. When we propose a program, we ask questions like: What gaps can we fill to make the programs goals possible? How can we help make existing resources work harder and smarter?And most importantly: how we can help make the connections that lead to results? Connections between inspiration and application. Between curiosity and commercialization. Between brain scientist and brain patient.This is, after all, how the brain itself works – by making connections.And making connections is how we make brain research work for Ontario.

Our Task

TURNING IDEAS INTO INNOVATION

Ontario has more brain scientists than almost any jurisdiction in the world. Our task at the Ontario Brain Institute is to draw those researchers together into seamless, convergent partnerships with clinicians, industry, patients and their advocates. The goal: to facilitate the kind of continual interaction and discovery among these players that delivers innovative services and products for brain-related health care.The Institute is a government-funded, not-for-profit initiative whose scope spans the entire continuum of brain science and treatment. As a virtual research centre, we have no labs and conduct no research of our own. Instead, our projects and programs are focused on bringing actors and elements together and enabling their interaction.

In doing so, we’re turning Ontario’s world caliber brain science into

• successful Ontario companies and good jobs;
• data and knowledge that can be shared with the world, and that will attract investment in Ontario;
• commercialization of new treatments; and
• improved patient care.

Our work is in support of a single vision: Ontario as a world leader in brain discovery, commercialization and care.

Our Approach

THE POWER OF A CATALYST

The elements are all here.

Ontario is already rich in research talent. Our clinical and patient advocacy resources are outstanding. And we have a strong business and manufacturing base.
Our task is to be a catalyst: to bring those elements together, and to support and enable the kind of interaction that releases energy and produces innovation in brain-related care.

We pursue this task through four core initiatives with an overarching goal of building partnerships and catalyzing knowledge translation:

• High-impact translational programs such as our Integrated Discovery programs – Orchestrating calls for proposals, hosting province-wide workshops, reviewing research proposals, granting and managing funds, and overseeing the ongoing performance management of research outcomes.
• Centralized patient information systems referred to as Brain-CODE (Centre for Ontario Data Exploration) – Managing the development, implementation, operation, and accessibility of a ground-breaking, cross-disorder databank of brain research across Ontario.
• Mechanisms to engage and support industry including Commercialization – Managing projects that focus on the final stages of bringing lab discovery to the marketplace.
• Training and Entrepreneurship – Initiatives involving the mentoring of young entrepreneurs and training opportunities to develop managerial skills

We also catalyze discovery through the following means…

• Governance and Partnerships – Managing our corporate governance components, such as our Board of Directors, Industry Advisory Council, and Science Advisory Council; and developing and managing partnerships with Canadian and international organizations that both enhance and further the mission of OBI.
• Outreach – Generating awareness of the OBI’s activities in conventional media, social media, and among key stakeholders (e.g., universities, hospitals, public, patient advocacy groups, etc.).
• Fundraising – The OBI works with institutions to fund platforms for discovery. These partner contributions strengthen partnerships and provide increased resources to enhance the scope of the research programs.
• Accountability – Meeting the requirements of the agreement between the OBI, the Ministry and other stakeholders on all facets of our activity – including monitoring and reporting on outcomes outlined in the agreement. See  policies and procedures here. 
• Leverage – Utilizing the people and infrastructure resources already existing in Ontario as a result of previous provincial and federal investments in Ontario research and development.

Research

MOBILIZING ONTARIO’S EXCELLENCE IN BRAIN RESEARCH

The National Academy of Sciences in the United States recognizes the crucial importance of collaboration in the field of neuroscience. Their 2008 Workshop Report – From Molecules to Minds – describes the importance of collaboration.

“Recognizing that neuroscience is not, of course, really a single field is important. Rather it is a multidisciplinary enterprise including diverse fields of biology, psychology, neurology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, engineering, computer science and more. If scientists within neuroscience and related disciplines could unite around a small set of goals, the opportunity for advancing our understanding of brain and mental function would be huge.”

The Ontario Brain Institute is cultivating this multidisciplinary collaboration. Its goal is to improve brain health. To do this we created research programs called “Integrated Discovery Programs” that bring together scientists, clinicians, industry representatives and patient advocacy groups from across Ontario.  We believe this approach will help to foster the kind of fresh thinking that takes breakthroughs in the lab and turns them into ground-breaking outcomes for patients and families.

OUR INTEGRATED DISCOVERY PROGRAMS

We call it “Integrated Discovery” because:

• it gathers together all the researchers and clinical sites dealing with a specific disease, for example, intractable epilepsy.
• it addresses disorders that represent a significant burden to Ontarians, their families and Ontario’s society and economy, by engaging clinicians and basic scientists.
• it mobilizes researchers skilled in all the relevant tools and platforms required to understand the causes and treatments of a disease, to enable the fullest understanding of the disease mechanisms.
• Integrated Discovery enables researchers in one disorder area to apply their discoveries and findings to other disorders, because imaging and clinical data are gathered and kept in a common format. This lets researchers pursue questions and hypotheses across disorders to discover common mechanisms that may have unexpected explanatory power

Our Programs

Our research programs, called “Integrated Discovery Programs”, have five underlying principles. The research must:

• rank as excellent on an international stage
• focus on the patient
• integrate across Ontario and across disciplines
• involve standardized assessments
• have a translational thrust

Entrepreneurship & Management Training

OUR ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND MANAGEMENT TRAINING PROGRAM

To quote a famous slogan, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”. Here in Ontario, there is a growing pool of brilliant, highly qualified neuroscientists whose potential would be largely untapped without the right catalyst.There is a genuine need for training programs that can harness the talents of these highly qualified personnel. That’s why we’ve created the entrepreneurship and management program focused on helping neuroscientists bridge the gap between academia and industries operating beyond the bench. The aim of this initiative is to:

• Build capacity for a knowledge-based economy in Ontario.
• Create expertise in a determined area of need in Ontario: the management of neuroscience research, knowledge translation, and commercialization of neuroscience.
• Increase employment options for neuroscientists – qualifying them for high-quality jobs, that contribute to a knowledge-based economy.

By building the translational skill set of scientific human capital, we can build the entrepreneurship capacity and management talent in Ontario.