Dr. Cheryl Wellington

Dr. Wellington is a basic research scientist whose research interests focus on three common genetic and environmental risk factors for dementia, including apolipoprotein E (apoE) metabolism, history of traumatic brain injury (TBI), and cerebrovascular dysfunction.

Current Research Focus

Dr. Wellington is internationally recognized for her work on lipid and lipoprotein metabolism in the brain, and her group has made key contributions to the understanding of the role of apolipoprotein E (apoE) in Alzheimer’s Disease. ApoE is the major cholesterol carrier in the brain and the best established genetic risk factor for typical late-onset Alzheimer’s Disease. ApoE also plays a critical role in repair of damaged neurons after TBI. Dr. Wellington’s program also is closely linked with initiatives exploring the contributions of the vascular system and metabolic disease to dementia.

Example Project

“Precision Fluid Biomarkers of Traumatic Brain Injury”
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is one of the most challenging brain disorders to study. TBI can happen to anyone at any time, at any level of severity. TBI spans a wide range of severity from mild (including concussions) to life-threatening injuries, and there is much uncertainty about how to accurately diagnose mild TBI and predict recovery. As TBI is an unexpected injury, determining if a patient is getting back to normal is difficult when, for most cases, little is known about how a patient functioned before the injury. Biopsies are almost never available except in the most extreme cases, leaving almost no biological material to develop laboratory tests for diagnosis and prognosis. A breakthrough for the field is that new very sensitive methods now make it possible to measure brain changes using blood tests, and Dr. Wellington is the first in Canada to acquire this technology. Our project aims to use this technology to develop blood tests useful for any TBI patient. We will first determine what "normal" is by measuring 12 different proteins in 1,000 blood samples that are representative of Canadians from birth to age 79 years. We will then use these measures of normal levels to refine which of these 12 proteins is best suited to diagnose TBI at any age and by any cause, and to predict recovery. Finally, we will determine whether a new painless blood collection device can be used instead of traditional blood sampling, an advance that could be especially useful for parents, athletes and coaches.

Research Keywords

Alzheimer Disease, Dementia, Metabolism, Neurodegeneration, Concussion, Traumatic Brain Injury