Thank you, Madam Chair.
Esteemed members of the committee, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to meet with you.
As director of the McGill Parkinson program and as a practising neurologist, I am confronted daily with the progressive disability and suffering of patients afflicted with this devastating chronic illness, as people like Mr. Simmonds know much better than I do.
Parkinson's disease affects approximately 1% of the population above 65 years of age. It thus represents an enormous burden not only on patients and their caregivers but also on our society as a whole, and this burden will only increase as our population ages. In the next 25 years, neurodegenerative diseases, of which Parkinson's accounts for a major proportion, are likely to represent the single most important health-related challenge facing our society.
In addition to caring for patients with Parkinson's, I also run a very active research program focused on trying to uncover what goes wrong in the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease. My laboratory uses molecular and cellular approaches to investigate how defects in Parkinson's disease genes lead to degeneration in neurons in patients with PD. Thus, as both a clinician and a scientist, I have a strong conviction that the only way to get to the cure for PD and other neuro-degenerative diseases is basic research.
The primary focus of Parkinson Society Canada's national research program is to continue building on our strong PD research community by supporting basic science. It is basic science that is translated into breakthroughs in therapy, and it is this kind of investigator-driven research that encourages curiosity. It allows scientists the freedom to explore and make groundbreaking discoveries.
Parkinson Society Canada recognizes the importance of basic research. Since 1981 PSC has been the leader in non-government-funded research, contributing more than $20 million to support studies that might not otherwise have been funded through government or private industry. This approach is fundamentally different from other PD foundations, such as those in the U.S., which either don't fund basic research or adopt a very top-down approach.
PSC has also been a major driving force in establishing Neurological Health Charities Canada, which also strives to emphasize the commonalities and shared mechanisms of various brain diseases and fosters cooperation among the different stakeholders. This is something that Canada does very well.
In addition to being chair of the PSC scientific advisory board, I've participated in scientific review committees for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and
for the Fonds de recherche du Québec — Santé,
as well as for international organizations such as the National Parkinson's Foundation in the U.S. and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, so I feel that I am particularly well positioned to evaluate the quality of Parkinson's research being carried out in Canada, and the major contribution of PSC. I can say without any hesitation that the quality of research funded year after year by PSC is second to none and is cutting edge by any standards worldwide.
Indeed, Parkinson's research in Canada builds on a long tradition of breakthroughs that have shaped the field around the world. I am referring to discoveries such as those made by Dr. André Parent and Dr. André Barbeau in Quebec. They were among the first to understand the functioning of the dopaminergic system and to use levodopa, which has now become the most frequently used and most effective therapy to treat Parkinson's disease. In Saskatchewan, Dr. Ali Rajput was among the pioneers who discovered the environmental factors involved in Parkinson's. Others, such as Dr. Lang and Dr. Lozano in Toronto, were pioneers in deep brain stimulation, which we have heard about before.
One reason we've been so successful thus far is that we've taken a highly collaborative approach and share resources and knowledge very openly. Again, this is something Canadian scientists are renowned for. However, our concept of Parkinson's is changing rapidly.
It's now clear that PD is not limited to the loss of dopamine neurons. The disease probably starts decades before the typical motor manifestations. When they become apparent, they may spread insidiously from one neuron to another in the brain. This is being increasingly recognized in the many non-motor manifestations we heard about just a few minutes ago, such as sleep disorders, cognitive disorders, personality changes, which had previously gone unnoticed. This turns out to be a big challenge for investigators and clinicians. Because it's apparent many decades before, it's a great opportunity to identify patients before the typical manifestations and potentially offer them groundbreaking therapies before it's too late.
It is also apparent that there is a shift in our basic understanding of the molecular mechanisms of neuro-degeneration in PD. PD was once thought to be a typical "non-genetic" disorder, but it's turning out to be one of the most complex multi-genetic diseases of the brain. The challenge for researchers now is to try to understand and sort out how the different genes interact with environmental factors in common cellular pathways such as protein misfolding and mitochondrial dysfunction.
Finally, our treatments for PD have also become much more sophisticated than just a decade ago. New strategies like deep-brain stimulation are becoming mainstream and pose serious financial challenges to our health care systems. Innovative approaches, such as virtual reality, as we heard of a little earlier, are also beginning to surface, with several Canadian scientists leading the field.