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Doctor from Vernon awarded $100K for brain research

UBC researcher Dr. Tamara Vanderwal one of 20 recipients of Brain Canada’s Future Leaders
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BC Children’s Hospital investigator, Dr. Tamara Vanderwal, who hails from Vernon, was awarded a $100,000 grant from Brain Canada’s Future Leaders in Canadian Brain Research Program. (BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute - Facebook)

A BC Children’s Hospital investigator and assistant professor at the University of British Columbia with ties to Vernon has been awarded a $100,000 grant and named a Future Leader in Canadian Brain Research.

Dr. Tamara Vanderwal, who is originally from Vernon, was one of the 20 selected from 180 candidates across Canada.

The funds will support her project, Functional Hyperalignment in Pediatric fMRI, which focuses on improving one of the standard preprocessing steps in pediatric brain scans.

“Dr. Vanderwal’s project will address this limitation by using movies in the scanner to help children stay still and also drive brain function in useful ways,” a statement from UBC’s Department of Psychiatry reads.

“In using the data to test hyperalignment in children, Dr. Vanderwal’s research aims to improve on a method that could significantly improve pediatric fMRI research overall.”

The grant, which is in its second year, supports early-career researchers across Canada in need of seed funding to pursue innovative ideas.

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