What is a memory? That’s the fundamental question Dr. Mark Cembrowski is trying to answer.
“Memory makes us who we are,” he says. “In a way, it’s the neuroscience holy grail: how do we make memories, how do we store them—and how can we prevent it from going wrong. As anyone who has had a loved one with memory issues knows, loss of memory is more than a neurological problem. Loss of memory is the loss of a person.” Memory—or failure of it—is a crucial component of brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia, but also fundamental to understanding other brain health issues such as PTSD, where memories are intrusive instead of lost.
Dr. Cembrowski didn’t come to his passion for memory and neuroscience in what might be considered a typical way. He has degrees in mathematics, not biology, but that perspective is crucial to his work, which marries the big data capacity of his PhD in applied mathematics with the work he’s now doing.
Working closely with Vancouver’s surgical teams (and one of the few labs in the world that has this beneficial partnership), his lab at UBC obtains living brain tissue from the hippocampus, and analyzes the cells—all the cells, up to a hundred thousand per sample—for their activity and genetic expression. They can then compare tissue from healthy brains and those with memory issues, using big data analysis to find patterns. Knowing how cells change, express their genes, what makes them susceptible or resilient to change: Finding that needle in the proverbial haystack identifies what they need to target to reverse changes—or stop them even before they start.
From his office in UBC’s Life Sciences Building. Dr. Cembrowski feels strongly that we are on the cusp of a great leap forward in brain science. And part of that, he says, is due to funding from donors. Traditional funding sources often require a proof of concept before funding is granted. But funds from donors, he says, allow us to take leaps.
“We can take more risks with this kind of funding,” he says, “And often those leaps are high risk, but high reward. It’s this research that often has the highest pay offs in terms of innovation.”
Indeed his current research has benefitted from donor funding. The donor, who is preserving their anonymity, has always been passionate about solving the mysteries of Alzheimer’s Disease and has been supporting Alzheimer’s Disease research for more than a decade. They not only have given to the lab in the present day, but have established a gift through their estate.
Through their present-day gift, the lab was not only able to buy new technology to better undertake the cell analysis, but has also provided the means for Dr. Cembrowski to obtain matching funding from other sources. In this way, he intends to turn a six-figure donation into seven figures of support for his lab, which has an incredible impact on his work and the work of his colleagues and graduate students.
Those graduate students, he notes with pride, are one of the most rewarding parts of his career. Seeing the next generation learn, build, and go beyond his own work is an achievement he is incredibly proud of, and one what is also ensuring that our wider community will have the clinicians, scientists, and innovators we need to find the treatments we need for some of the most intractable diseases and conditions that affect our families, friends, and neighbours.
It’s a legacy gift that will keep on giving, working towards a future where fewer people are lost to the ravages of memory loss, and more of us can live longer, healthier lives.
