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BBI researchers focus in areas that will capitalize on some of the major clinical and research foci of St. Joseph’s Healthcare such as mental health (Psychiatry and its Mood Disorders Program), lung diseases (The Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health), and gastro-intestinal disorders (The Intestinal Disease Research Program).
The central theme for exploration in the Brain-Body Institute is understanding the structural and physiological links between the brain and nervous system and bodily functions in health and disease. One major objective is the study of the effects of environmental factors, including stress, early life experience and microbial exposure on the brain and the nervous system, hypothalamic pituitary axis (HPA), and key somatic organs such as the lung and gut.
A key set of research directions is based on the idea that organisms in the intestine play a central role in the balance between the presence or absence of inflammation, and influence the functioning of the brain and nervous system.
  
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“Through the
BBI, we can study the major burdens of ill-health such
as depression, stress and anxiety disorders and turn
our backs on the separation of mind, brain and body.
It is time to advance
a newer model in
which they are
fully integrated.”
Glenda MacQueen,
M.D., Ph.D.
Program Member and Head of the Mood Disorders Program |
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