Research in this area is focused on how the brain interprets and organizes sensory information, as well as how the brain facilitates motor behaviours. The Centre is home to researchers who focus on understanding how we are able to process information in the world around us. Many teams focus their research on movement disorders, including core features of Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Huntington’s disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), from both a foundational and clinical perspective.

Research is aimed at better understanding the cellular mechanisms and brain circuit changes underlying these disorders, as well as clinical trials to test novel therapies, in order to improve diagnosis, treatment, and overall quality of life for people living with a movement disorder.

Neuronal network with electrical activity of neuron cells 3D rendering illustration. Neuroscience, neurology, nervous system and impulse, brain activity, microbiology concepts.

Our hope is that our efforts will improve the lives of Canadians, by developing new strategies to improve the diagnosis, treatment and quality of life for people living with neurological conditions and advance brain health for all of us across the human lifespan.

Related Researchers

Learn more about the clinical and foundational scientists who are studying sensory/motor systems and movement disorders.

Name and Contact Info Title Research Interests
Khaled Abdelrahman
Assistant Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Alzheimer’s disease, GPCRs, Glutamate, neurovascular coupling, cerebral blood flow, neuropharmacology, neuroglia
Douglas Allan
Professor, Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
nervous system, neurodegeneration, drosophilia
Douglas Altshuler
Professor, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, UBC
systems neuroscience
Silke Appel-Cresswell
Associate Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Parkinson’s disease, imaging, dementia, cognition
Vanessa Auld
Professor and Head, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, UBC
nervous system, developmental neuroscience, glial cells, gliotactin
Jason Barton
Professor, Medicine (Neurology), Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Psychology, UBC
Lara Boyd
Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
neuroplasticity, stroke, nervous system, rehabilitation, behaviour
Neil Cashman
Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer disease, dementia, neurodegeneration, protein misfolding, prion diseases, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Peter Cripton
Professor and Undergraduate Program Director, School of Biomedical Engineering, UBC
Max Cynader
Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
ophthalmology, neuroplasticity, neurodegeneration, Huntington disease, stroke, glaucoma, nervous system
Ryan D’Arcy
Affiliate Professor, Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
systems neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, functional neuroimaging, neurotechnology, neuroplasticity
Doris Doudet
Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Parkinson’s disease, depression, cognition, dopamine
Lauren Emberson
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, UBC
infant development, neural networks, learning, vision, audition, language, face perception, fNIRS, memory
Jodie Gawryluk
Associate Professor, Psychology (Clinical Neuropsychology), University of Victoria
Neuropsychology, fMRI, DTI, MRI, imaging, multiple sclerosis (MS, Alzheimer disease
Deborah Giaschi
Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
ophthalmology, dyslexia, amblyopia, fMRI, MRI, motion perception, developmental neuroscience
Daniel Goldowitz
Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Michael Gordon
Professor, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, UBC
systems neuroscience
Kurt Haas
Professor, Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
autism, epilepsy, neuroplasticity, developmental neuroscience
Anthony Herdman
Associate Professor, School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, UBC
Brett Hilton
Assistant Professor, Department of Cellular & Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
axon regeneration, central nervous system, circuit, plasticity, spinal cord, spinal cord injury
Tao Huan
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, UBC
bioinformatics, systems biology, Alzheimer disease, neurodegenerative diseases, metabolomics
Judy Illes
Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
neuroethics, neurotechnology, neuroimaging, neurodegeneration, dementia, regenerative medicine
Hee Yeon Im
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, UBC
Shannon Kolind
Associate Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
MRI, multiple sclerosis
Piotr Kozlowski
Professor, Radiology/Urologic Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
MRI, cancer, spinal cord injury
John Kramer
Associate Professor, Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Charles Krieger
Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Medicine (Neurology), Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, electrophysiology, cytoskeleton, Drosophila, neuromuscular junction, muscle
Ujendra Kumar
Professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UBC
Stefan Lang
Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
fMRI, deep brain stimulation, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, normal pressure hydrocephalus, cognition, non-motor symptoms, brain tumors
Cornelia Laule
Associate Professor, Department of Radiology and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
MRI, multiple sclerosis, neurodegeneration, neuropathology, spinal cord injury
Blair Leavitt
Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Duncan Leitch
Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, UBC
sensory neuroscience, somatosensation, electroreception, mechanotransduction, comparative neurobiology, evolutionary neuroscience, pain signalling, ion channels
David Li
Professor Emeritus of Radiology and Associate Member Medicine (Neurology), Faculty of Medicine, UBC
multiple sclerosis, MRI, clinical trials
Xiaoxiao Li
Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science, UBC
Neuroimaging, Brain Connectome, Machine Learning
Ian MacKenzie
Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
biobank, neuropathology, dementia, neurodegeneration, clinical trials
Manu Madhav
Assistant Professor, School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science, UBC
cognitive representations, place cells, spatial navigation, path planning
Joanne Matsubara
Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
neurodegeneration, Retina, Eye, Biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease, Neuroinflammation, Glia Activation, Drug Discovery, Gene Treatment
Benjamin Matthews
Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, UBC
Sensory neuroscience, behaviour, neural circuits, mosquitoes, CRISPR/Cas9
Martin McKeown
Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Parkinson’s disease, movement disorders, dementia, clinical trials
Kota Mizumoto
Associate Professor, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, UBC
developmental biology, neuroscience, Caenorhabditis elegans
Majid Mohajerani
Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge
Robert Molday
Professor, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
foundational science, neurodegenerative diseases, drug discovery
Orson Moritz
Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Neurodegeneration, advanced microscopy techniques, in-vivo imaging, signal transduction, membrane proteins, cell death mechanisms
Tim Murphy
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
stroke, depression, neuroplasticity, imaging, foundational science
Ipek Oruc
Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
developmental neuroscience, foundational science, computer science, imaging
Steven Pelech
Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Alzheimer disease, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, Friedreich’s ataxi, cancer, diabetes, cell signalling, protein kinases, SARS-CoV-2
Erik Pioro
Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Mahmoud Pouladi
Associate Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental disorders, Huntington disease, Fragile X syndrome, multiple sclerosis, preclinical translational research, animal models, human pluripotent stem cells, genome engineering
Jacqueline Quandt
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Lynn Raymond
Co-Director, Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
Huntington disease, glutamate receptors, optogenetic imaging, electrophysicology, cortical-striatal synaptic function and plasticity
Vesna Sossi
Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science, UBC
Miriam Spering
Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
ophthalmology, psychology, neuroscience
Jon Stoessl
Professor & Head, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
imaging, Parkinson’s disease, movement disorders, clinical trials, rehabilitation
Paul Summers
Adjunct Professor, Department of Mechatronics, Simon Fraser University
MRI flow quantification, angiography, spine imaging, fMRI
Roger Tam
Associate Professor, Department of Radiology and School of Biomedical Engineering, UBC
machine learning, image analysis, MRI, personalized medicine, neurodegenerative disease
Wolfram Tetzlaff
Professor, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, UBC
Anthony Traboulsee
Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
neuromyelitis optica (NMO), MRI, MS-CCSVI, clinical trials, multiple sclerosis
Helen Tremlett
Professor, Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Irene Vavasour
Research Associate and Senior Imaging Scientist, UBC MRI Research Centre
MRI, myelin water, multiple sclerosis (MS), imaging
Fidel Vila-Rodriguez
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
rTMS, ECT, MST, tDCS, depression, schizophrenia, student health
Carles Vilarino-Guell
Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
Janet Werker
Professor, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, UBC
developmental cognitive neuroscience, infant speech
Christopher West
Associate Professor, Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, UBC Okanagan
spinal cord injury, autonomic nervous system
Alex Wiesman
Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Physiology & Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University
MEG, neurodegenerative disorders, cognition
Douglas Wylie
Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta
systems neuroscience, neuroanatomy, electrophysiology, vision, sensori-motor integration, perception, brain evolution, birds

RELATED CLINICS

The Centre is home to several clinics that focus on sensory/motor systems and movement disorders, including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Huntington’s disease.

ALS and Related Disorders
Centre for Huntington Disease
Movement Disorders Clinic
Multiple Sclerosis/Neuromyelitis Optica Clinic

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