Credit: University of Ottawa Led by principal investigator Dr. Peter Liu from the uOttawa School of Medicine and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI), a multidisciplinary team of researchers are the recipients of a highly competitive $2.9 million Heart-Brain Connection IMPACT award. The medical profession has traditionally imposed an artificial separation between heart and brain, treating them as separate specialties and individual priorities. But emerging research shows that these all-important vascular organs are deeply interconnected: What affects a person’s heart can set in motion a cascade of devastating effects in the brain, and vice versa. Now, innovative researchers from the Ottawa School of Medicine and partner institutes are joining forces to forge a paradigm shift in neurocardiac care, effectively bridging the heart-brain divide in modern medicine. It has the potential to revolutionize patient care for millions of people here in Canada and many more around the world. Led by principal investigator Dr. Peter Liu, a team of interdisciplinary researchers are proud recipients of the inaugural Heart-Brain Connection IMPACT Award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada in partnership with Brain Canada. After a rigorous evaluation, the uOttawa-led team receives a $2.9 million grant to study critical questions linking heart and brain health, one of only two teams across the country to receive this important new award. The four-year project will work on issues linking heart and brain health with the aim of improving patient outcomes. Among other things, the team aims to develop new diagnostic blood tests and new ways to obtain cutting-edge imaging of the heart and brain. With patient partners, Dr. Liu says they will also test new treatments that can be used to protect both organs. Receiving this highly competitive grant is the latest external validation and financial support for Dr. Liu and Dr. Ruth Slack, professors at the Ottawa School of Medicine, who are leaders in uncovering the two-way dialogue between heart and brain. They have set out to reveal how our heart and brain systems interact, coordinate and co-regulate each other, clearing a historical disconnect and potentially transforming care for a dizzying number of disorders in the process. Dr. Slack describes this latest grant success as a “critical stepping stone toward global leadership” in understanding the complex heart-brain connection and bringing together top talent from across Canada and the world. “The brain and heart have been completely separated over the years, so there is limited knowledge of how they interact. We’re going to bring them together with the goal of really understanding how they connect as a functional unit,” says Dr. Slack. “We believe this is the key to treating chronic diseases linked to the brain and the heart.” Both professors in the uOttawa School of Medicine’s Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Drs. Liu is the Chief Scientific Officer and Vice-President of Research at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) and Dr. Slack is Director of the University of Ottawa Brain and Mind Research Institute (uOBMRI). The impact of brain and heart disorders on patients and health systems could not be more profound. From cognitive impairment to heart failure, they are one of the biggest challenges in healthcare, accounting for 32% of all deaths worldwide and 50% of all disease-related disabilities. In Canada alone, one person dies every five minutes from heart disease, stroke or vascular cognitive impairment. Dr. Liu says the latest support from two prominent Canadian organizations couldn’t come at a better time. “It lays the foundation for more opportunities to bring together top research leaders and helps us advance the network we’re building brick by brick,” he says. “It’s really very exciting.” Indeed, when it comes to investigating the heart-brain connection, momentum is building at uOttawa and its affiliated institutes. In recent years, Dr. Liu and Dr. Slack spearheaded the creation of the pioneering Hub of Excellence for Cardio-Neuro-Mind Research (HCNMR), which in 2021 was awarded $5.8 million by the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI). This was then matched with another $5.8 million from the Ontario Research Fund. Hosted at uOttawa, it is Canada’s first multidisciplinary, multidisciplinary research group investigating the common mechanisms underlying heart and brain health challenges. It includes leading experts at UOHI, uOBMRI, the Royal Institute of Mental Health Research, the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and other prominent research institutions across Canada. Certainly, there is a palpable hold here in the nation’s capital with the unraveling of the intricacies of the heart-brain connection. “In the city of Ottawa, we basically have every hospital institute, university and many faculties involved, excited and working on this program,” says Dr. Slack. Collaboration to improve health is the team’s vision, according to Dr. Liu. And at the end of the day, solving the mysteries of the brain-heart connection is always about enhancing patient outcomes. “Our patients are the key to telling us what’s important so we can be equal partners with them as we work to solve these problems,” says Dr. Liu. “That’s really why we do what we do.”
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