Graduate Student Fellowship Awards

Congratulations to the 2021 – 2022 Alzheimer Society of Manitoba Fellowship Award Recipient!

Thanks to the support of the the Alzheimer Society of Manitoba’s Graduate Student Fellowship program, Maria Anabel Uehara hopes to determine through her research if electrical stimulation of the brain result in long term improvements in cognition for people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Anabel was on a University of Manitoba team in 2019 that did a pilot study looking at the effect of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) on cognitive function in older adults with dementia. They paired tACS with brain games and found that it had a more lasting effect on cognitive ability than performing brain games without tACS. She is now laying the ground work to launch a full study in this area.

In her research, Anabel intends to focus on four different study groups. Participants will be broken into groups that just receive tACS; just complete brain games; do brain games and receive tACS together; or simultaneously receive tACS with additional electrical random noise signal and perform brain games.

“I want to know which combination will have the most significant difference,” she says.

The previous study, for which Anabel was joined by Lonnie Kehler, Cristina Francisco and Zahra Moussavi, was conducted in a lab at Riverview Health Centre and involved 17 participants. Anabel will return to Riverview to do her follow-up study and hopes to begin her hands-on research next spring.

Click here to learn about similar work being done in Manitoba.

Application Process

*The application process is currently closed.*

The Alzheimer Fellowship Application Form and the Criteria for Adjudication and Application Guidelines have been combined with the Centre on Aging Awards documents. Submit only one application form, project description, set of transcripts, and letters of reference. Check the awards that you are applying for on the front page of the application form.

Purpose:

  • To enhance knowledge about the cause, treatment, cure and effects of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in the biomedical and psychosocial domains.
  • To increase knowledge about the care of people with dementia by formal and informal caregivers
  • To encourage graduate student interest in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
  • To stimulate graduate student research activity in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

Value:

  • Two fellowships of $4,000 each are available. 

Eligibility:

  • The fellowships are available to full-time Master’s, post-graduate medical program (medical residents electing to take a year off from residency to pursue full-time research) and Ph.D. students, attending universities in Manitoba.

Conditions:

  • Applications and references must be received no later than March 2019.
  • Fillable application forms must be used. Handwritten applications will not be accepted.
  • Applications must include a description of the proposed research and a statement of its practical applicability and relevance.
  • Applications must include all University transcripts. A supporting letter must be forwarded by the applicant’s faculty advisor. Two further references from faculty familiar with the applicant’s work are to be forwarded by the referee directly to the Alzheimer Society Manitoba Graduate Fellowship Awards c/o Centre on Aging, on appropriate forms.
  • The scholarship will be payable in installments during the period September 1, 2019 to May 1, 2020.
  • The recipient will be required to submit a progress report by May 1, 2020 and a copy of the thesis/dissertation, when complete, acknowledging financial support.
  • This award may not be held more than once during a specific degree program.

Committee of Selection

  • The selection committee for this fellowship will be appointed by the Advisory Board of the Centre on Aging.

Application forms will be available on the Centre on Aging’s web site:

www.umanitoba.ca/centres/aging
For further information contact the Centre on Aging at 204-474-8731.
Closing date for applications is March 2019. Award recipients to be announced September 2019.