Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee, for your work and attention to the cause of science.
I was born in Labrador City and I grew up in Fort McMurray, Alberta. I would never have dreamed of this opportunity to speak in front of all of you today.
I am Jennie Zin-Ney Young. I am the executive director of the Canadian Brain Research Strategy. I have a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Alberta. I worked at MIT in the U.S. for 14 years as the scientific chief of staff for Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa and also for current Picower Institute director Li-Huei Tsai. I came back to Canada to tackle the challenge of understanding the brain in a different way, and I hope you'll see why from what you'll hear today.
Our brains are at the centre of everything that we do and are. They store our memories, create our passions, produce our art and commerce, and shape and build our societies. Brain injuries and impairments can impact everything that makes us, from what we perceive to what we feel to how we think, plan and interact with each other and the world.
The sad reality is that virtually every Canadian family has someone impacted by a neurological disorder, brain injury, mental illness or addiction. You yourself likely know someone. Increasingly, we are seeing people like Lou, from Ottawa. He was one of many people we spoke to in building our national strategy. Lou has Parkinson’s disease. One of his children has autism, and he is taking care of a parent with early dementia.
As our population ages, the burden of brain disorders will only increase. Unfortunately for the vast majority most brain disorders, including mental illness, there are limited treatment options or none at all. For many, there are no cures.
Every Canadian deserves to have a healthy brain to help them realize their full potential throughout their lives. We need a national research strategy for the brain, because here's the challenge: Every human brain is composed of 100 billion cells—as many as there are stars in our galaxy—making 1,000 trillion neuronal connections with each other. Each connection shapes our unique experience and genetics, and each one is constantly changing. Understanding the most complex biological system ever known might seem like an impossible task, but we have to rise to the challenge, because the better we know how a system works, the more likely we are able to fix it when it breaks. The only hope and path to treatments and cures is to gain new knowledge through research.
We are on the threshold of making remarkable advances in understanding the brain, ones that could lead to treatments and cures in our lifetimes for our families. Canadian neuroscientists and mental health researchers—and we rank in the top five in the world—are poised to to make a major leap, a moon shot, in brain science. New technologies like artificial intelligence have the potential to radically change what is even possible in brain research, and new data on the brain is accumulating faster than at any time in history.
Imagine the implications of a breakthrough in a disease like Alzheimer's. Imagine the cost savings and reduced burden on our health care system when we are able to improve on the health outcomes of millions of Canadians with better treatments and by having healthier brains.
Brain disorders cost the Canadian economy $61 billion per year, and this number is growing. For a tiny percentage of that amount, we can implement a national strategy now to leverage the unique strengths we have in our brain research ecosystem and, more importantly, to improve the lifelong well-being of our citizens, families and communities.
The human mind is our most valuable resource in the world. The U.S. has invested in their national BRAIN initiative, and the EU, Korea, Japan and China have taken similar measures. From South America to Africa to Oceania, many other nations have brain research initiatives under development, but we have an incredible and unique opportunity before us for Canada to lead a global paradigm shift in brain research.
The Canadian brain research strategy is a pan-Canadian, community-led effort that unites a broad, diverse coalition across the brain research ecosystem. This committee has heard from some of our scientific leaders, and there are 13 briefs from some of the non-profits and health charities in our coalition. This strategy also comes from indigenous stakeholders, patients and their families. More than 25 organizations funding brain research are also at the table, and we are bringing in industry partners.
We have the network and partnerships and a unified, consolidated vision, and we have a responsibility to make a difference in brain health and disease for all Canadians and for the world.
Thank you.