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3 |Friday November 3, 2 0 1 7 | O A K V IL L E B E A V E R |www.insidehalton.com Harvard physician returns home to Oakville and TO by David Lea Oakville Beaver Staff An Oakville native and former Oakville Beaver carrier will serve as the director of a new Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) research facility, which will be dedicated to further understanding several mental illnesses so more effective treatments can be found. Dr. Neil Vasdev was named director of the Azrieli Centre for Neuro-Radiochemistry on Wednesday Nov 1, during a ceremony in Toronto. The announcement follows an $11 million gift from the Azrieli Foundation to CAMH to cover the staffing and equipment costs of the new facility The Azrieli Foundation is a Canadian philanthropic organization that funds, operates and partners with a wide range of initiatives and programs in the fields of scientific and medical research, education and more. Vasdev most recendy served as director of Radiochemistry at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor in the Department of Radiology at Harvard Medical School. Prior to that he worked at CAMH' s positron emission tomography (PET) centre, which is fully dedicated to brain research. "I'm very excited to come back and reconnect with my former colleagues and begin new collaborations and connections with the Toronto and Canadian community again," said Vasdev The former Oakville Trafalgar High School student, talked about the work he would be doing at the Azrieli Centre noting psychiatric illnesses affect different brain chemicals making it necessary for researchers to study those chemical reactions in the living human brain. "Often there are no radioactive imaging agents for their detection Dr. Neil Vasdev | Dr. Neil Vasdev photo so what we are going to do here is develop new radioactive imaging agents and apply radiochemistry to understand mental illness," said Vasdev "W e're really looking at a wide range of mental illnesses including Alzheimer' s disease, schizophrenia, depressions, addictions and traumatic brain injuries." This research is intended to provide a more accurate and complete understanding of these mental illnesses, as well as aid in the development of new treatments and help understand why some drugs work better for certain patients. "Mental health is brain health, and in order to truly understand the brain, we need new imaging techniques," said Naomi Azrieli, Chair and CEO of the Azrieli Foundation in a press release. "Scientists will now be able to look in the brain and explore non-traditional approaches for drugs and treatments. We are thrilled to enable this exciting work." Dr. Catherine Zahn, CAMH President and CEO, said the research advanced by the new centre would make it possible to understand the origins of mental illness by visualizing the function of brain cells, their connections and chemicals- and monitoring changes with treatments and supports. Vasdev will not only serve as the director of the new centre, but also as its chief radiochemist. He said the centre would focus on everything from researching the chemical reactions of the brain to first in human studies. Vasdev said he was drawn to radiochemistry, the branch of chemistry concerned with radioactive substances, because it gave him the opportunity to combine his love of pharmaceutical science with his love of chemistry and psychology by developing radioactive drugs to image the brain. The Oakville native said he is glad his path has once again brought him back to the GTA. "I'm really excited to return and also to reconnect with friends and family in Oakville," said Vasdev "I've always considered Oakville to be my home." The Azrieli Centre for Neuro-Radiochemistry, located at 250 College St., will be housed within the CAMH' s Research Imaging Centre. It will employ a research staff of 10. W E ' R E M A K IN G A S P L A S H IN O A K V IL L E ! G o ld fis h S w im S c h o o l is th e p re m ie r le a rn -to -s w im fa c ility fo r kids a g e s 4 m o n th s to 12 y ears. W e use o u r p ro v e n , c o n fid e n c e -b u ild in g c u rric u lu m to p ro m o te a lo v e o f s w im m in g a n d te a c h y o u r c h ild re n to b e s a fe r in a n d a ro u n d th e w a te r. Facility and Program Features: · Small class sizes in our 90-degree indoor pool · Convenient online lesson & make-up scheduling · State-of-the-art facility and amenities · Trained & certified swim instructors · Family Swim events, private parties & more Goldfish Swim School -- Oakville Unit 17,1130 Eighth Line Road |Oakville, ON L6H 2R4 289.815.3806 | goldfishswimschool.com