Dr. Fernanda de Felice awarded funding through the John R. Evans Leaders Fund

Dr. Fernanda de Felice is among five Queen's researchers chosen to receive close to $700,000 to advance innovative research projects that will have an impact on human health, communications technologies, and renewable materials through the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)'s  John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF).

Dr. De Felice’s project "Testing the potential of extracellular vesicles to deliver therapeutics and to develop biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease" will help address an urgent need to develop inexpensive, non-invasive diagnostics and efficient treatments to help Canada’s aging population, who are experiencing an increase in Alzheimer’s disease. Her team will investigate the role of irisin, a novel hormone boosted by physical exercise, in memory processes and if increasing it can reproduce or even boost the beneficial actions of exercise in memory. Dr. De Felice also aims to investigate vesicles, cells that originate in the brain and are carried into the body’s circulation, and to develop a simple approach for identifying if they are carrying disease biomarkers.

Read more about all of the recipients in the Queen's Gazette.