Inventing bold new treatments
for brain disorders
The Harquail Centre
for Neuromodulation

Charting new directions in neuromodulation

The Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation will be the first in the world to offer patients the full spectrum of state-of-the art neuromodulation treatments, all under one roof. In addition to the Harquail Family investment, Sunnybrook Foundation will direct $5 million in donor funds to the project, bringing the total gift to $10 million. This joint investment will bring on board a critical mass of world experts in neuromodulation and house this exciting research and care program in a new, 4,000-square-foot home in the soon-to-be-constructed Garry Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre.

In the next five years, the Harquail Centre will host Canadian, North American and world-first clinical trials of focused ultrasound and other neuromodulation technologies for Alzheimer’s disease, major depression, treatment-resistant OCD, brain cancer, Parkinson’s, ALS, PTSD and more.

Thanks to the Harquails’ investment, we will be relentless in our pursuit to find better treatments for brain disorders. Treatments that don’t require surgery. Treatments with the potential to kill tumours, slow the progression of Alzheimer’s, or reset the brain circuitry involved in depression and OCD — all without a scalpel.

What is neuromodulation?

Imagine the brain as a complex web of circuits, like the motherboard of a computer. Now think of brain disorders — depression, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s or OCD — as what happens when these circuits malfunction.

Just as different parts of a computer affect varying functions, like memory or speed, brain disorders can affect specific circuits. Some allow us to remember, and don’t work well in patients with Alzheimer’s. Others allow us to regulate mood, and when they malfunction, can cause debilitating depression or life-limiting OCD. Still others control movement, and influence disorders like Parkinson’s or essential tremor.

Neuromodulation encompasses a range of technologies that give us the ability to interact directly with the brain and influence the activity of faulty circuitry. Using advanced imaging to target different parts of the brain, we can apply various therapies to repair malfunctioning circuits so that the brain can behave more normally. When we reset circuitry, we influence brain function and the symptoms of brain disorders, so that people can enjoy a better quality of life.

Neuromodulation may also allow us to target damaged areas of the brain to destroy disease, like tumours or damaged tissue, in a highly targeted, non-invasive way.

At the new Harquail Centre, Sunnybrook scientists will explore the full range of neuromodulation technologies and their application to the most challenging brain disorders of our time.

Focused Ultrasound

Sunnybrook scientists have developed new technology to harness the power of focused ultrasound in treating brain disorders. Using beams of sound guided by state-of-the-art imaging, we can reach deep into the brain and destroy disease or disrupt malfunctioning circuitry.

In 2012, Sunnybrook became the first Canadian centre to use high-intensity focused ultrasound to treat essential tremor, the most common movement disorder. The study and a subsequent clinical trial led to the government approval of focused ultrasound as a treatment option for the disorder in both Canada and the U.S.

In 2015, Sunnybrook scientists became the first in the world to open the blood-brain barrier and deliver chemotherapy to a targeted area of the brain of a patient with brain cancer. This was done using a pioneering method of combining low-intensity focused ultrasound with microscopic bubbles injected into the bloodstream, developed right here at Sunnybrook by physicist Dr. Kullervo Hynynen and his colleagues.

In 2016, Sunnybrook was designated a Centre of Excellence by the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, the leading organization for research and advocacy in the field. The honour is the first ever awarded to a Canadian hospital and one of only six in the world.

In 2017, Sunnybrook’s experts made history again by using focused ultrasound safely breach the blood-brain barrier in patients with Alzheimer’s disease in another world-first. Sunnybrook scientists have now also launched North America’s first clinical trial of focused ultrasound in OCD and major depression.

Focused ultrasound provides revolutionary new approach for treatment

Sunnybrook is leading the world in the use of focused ultrasound to open the blood-brain barrier as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s. Sunnybrook will soon conduct the world’s first clinical trial to use focused ultrasound to treat Alzheimer’s patients with the aim of understanding if the harmful plaque associated with Alzheimer’s can be somewhat cleared by simply opening the blood-brain barrier barrier.

The blood-brain barrier protects the brain from harmful toxins and researchers hypothesis that temporarily opening the barrier will allow the body’s own natural defenses to help clear amyloid plaque. Researchers at Sunnybrook Research Institute are also investigating a variety of promising therapeutics that could combine with opening the blood-brain barrier including antibodies and gene therapy that can help the brain to restore brain cell functioning and stem cells that improve brain function.

Living in the moment

When Richard Karr was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he and his wife, Marie, were devastated. Always by one another’s side, Rick and Marie weren’t sure what their future would look like, or what Rick’s diagnosis meant for their family.

Rick turned to music to cope with his feelings about the diagnosis by composing songs — a strategy he’s employed for much of his life. Another way he’s coped is by a decision to help others.

Watch Rick’s treatment

In the spring of 2017, Richard Karr became the first Alzheimer’s patient in the world to participate in a study that could forever change treatment of this disease. Led by Sunnybrook scientists, this study investigates the use of focused ultrasound to penetrate the blood-brain-barrier in Alzheimer’s patients.

Rick was the first of six patients to participate in this first phase of the study, which focuses on establishing the feasibility and safety of the procedure. So far this phase has proven successful, so the next stages could introduce drug therapies that have the potential to significantly slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Though this treatment won’t benefit Rick today, the results of the next phases of the trial could lead to breakthroughs that will benefit countless others in the future.

Advancing research in neuromodulation and mental illness

By identifying and targeting the brain circuitry involved in mood disorders, Sunnybrook scientists are opening new windows into some of the most challenging mental illnesses of our time: depression, OCD, bipolar disorder and PTSD.

Our scientists are already making history: we’ve launched North America’s first trial in focused ultrasound and OCD, with plans underway for trials in major depression, PTSD and more.

We’re also gaining momentum globally as we seek to advance focused ultrasound treatment for mental illness. This fall, Sunnybrook hosted an international workshop in partnership with the Focused Ultrasound Foundation to share knowledge, bring together experts and provide a springboard for new ideas that will advance medicine at Sunnybrook and around the world.

Thanks to the Harquail family’s investment, Dr. Nir Lipsman has recruited psychiatrist Dr. Peter Giacobbe, a world expert in using neuromodulation to treat psychiatric conditions. Dr. Giacobbe’s expertise will be instrumental as Sunnybrook’s focused ultrasound research program expands.

A golden opportunity

The Harquail family understands the importance of supporting innovation. As president and CEO of Franco-Nevada, a company that invests in gold and other precious metals, David Harquail seeks out projects with the greatest value and provides them with the resources they need to flourish. It’s a philosophy that he and his family keep top-of-mind in their approach to philanthropy.

Inspired by Sunnybrook’s role as global leader in neuromodulation research — the ability to intervene in brain circuitry to stop, start, and interrupt the systems at the root of the most common and challenging brain disorders of our time — the Harquails seized a golden opportunity to impact the future of medicine.

With an investment of a $5-million gift, made through their Midas Touch Foundation, the Harquail family has established the Harquail Centre for Neuromodulation at Sunnybrook, the world’s first centre to offer a complete range of neuromodulation treatments under one roof. Sunnybrook Foundation will direct an additional $5 million in donor funds, bringing the total investment to $10 million.

“Sunnybrook is a world leader in neuromodulation research, especially focused ultrasound,” says David Harquail. “Our family’s hope is that this investment will accelerate the pace of research and help bring new and more effective treatments for brain disorders, such as brain cancer and Alzheimer’s, to patients faster. Sunnybrook is uniquely placed to advance this research.”

The Harquail family’s investment will build on the momentum of Sunnybrook’s burgeoning neuromodulation research program. In 2012, Sunnybrook became the first Canadian centre to use high-intensity focused ultrasound to treat essential tremor, the most common movement disorder. In 2015, Sunnybrook scientists became the first in the world to open the blood-brain barrier and deliver chemotherapy to a targeted area of the brain of a patient with brain cancer. In 2017, in another world-first, Sunnybrook’s experts made history again by using focused ultrasound to successfully and safely breach the blood-brain barrier in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Over the next five years, the Harquail Centre will host Canadian, North American and world-first clinical trials of focused ultrasound and other neuromodulation technologies for Alzheimer’s, major depression, treatment-resistant OCD, brain cancer, Parkinson’s, ALS, PTSD and more.

For the Harquails, all the right pieces were in place. “The progress being made in this field is very exciting. The neuromodulation research program is clearly supported by hospital leadership, and since we live so close by, we can remain engaged.”

As long-time family friends of Seymour Schulich, another highly successful figure in the business world involved with Sunnybrook, the Harquail family has seen first-hand how philanthropy can help drive innovation. “Seymour’s passion for philanthropy, including his landmark investment in the Schulich Heart Program at Sunnybrook, has rubbed off on us.”

Thanks to the vision of donors like the Harquail family, new treatments for the most common and challenging brain disorders of our time are on the horizon.

Read the press release.

Together we can accelerate the understanding, treatment and care of brain disorders

By 2020, brain disorders are expected to be the leading cause of death and disability in Canada. We aim to change this.

Sunnybrook’s Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program is taking the lead in solving the biggest threats to brain health: stroke, dementia and mental illness.

We are unique amongst Canadian brain sciences programs. Some programs address mental illness alone, some conduct only research, some provide only clinical care and some focus on one specific age group. We are the only program that brings all of this together into one fully integrated effort.

We are building the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre to be a hub for patient care research and teaching. It will be a centre where collaboration among our brain sciences experts will spark new discoveries and bring new innovative treatments to patients sooner.

Here’s how:

Unprecedented collaboration across disciplines – brain disorders will not be understood by just one medical specialty

Our neurologists work alongside psychiatrists. Our neurosurgeons work alongside brain imaging specialists. Our psychiatrists work alongside pharmacologists.

Why? Because each specialty teaches us lessons about the others, thereby accelerating research that will return patients to their families faster and healthier than before.

Care throughout the lifespan – from adolescence to the senior years

Our experts from the Hurvitz Brain Sciences Program care for people at all stages of life. Most discoveries made in one age group translate to the others, ultimately impacting all ages.

Integrating psychiatry and the other brain sciences

By integrating psychiatry and the other brain sciences, we take psychiatry out of the shadows and shine a light of understanding on it. Mental illness should be treated like any other medical condition.

Embedding research in patient care

Uniting research with patient care means patients receive new treatments sooner. Our ultimate goal is to improve outcomes and restore patients to health as quickly as possible.

Our aim is to provide the clinical care, research, leadership and education needed to confront one of the largest health threats of our time: disorders of the brain. We have the teams in place. We have the expertise. And we have the technology.

Now, we need the community’s help in creating a new centre that will accelerate the understanding, treatment and care of people with brain disorders.

Watch: Learn more about the centre from patients and Sunnybrook brain specialists

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