Crystal Phillips
Branch Out Neurological Foundation, Canada
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Neurol Neurosci
Current academic research practice is often dictated by funding sources and commercial opportunity. This can result in many promising avenues of research being abandoned if there is no clear path towards commercialization. The Branch Out Neurological Foundation strives to change that paradigm through the creation and support of a novel field of neuroscience, neuro CAM (Neuroscientific Basis of Complementary and Alternative Modalities). Non-pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and personalized treatment approaches to brain health (collectively called neuroCAM), are often over looked due to difficult patent and commercialization opportunity. In eight years since it’s founded, Branch Out Neurological Foundation has funded successful research directed towards dementia, parkinson's disease, alzheimer's disease and many others. In addition to complimentary approaches to treating the brain, Branch Out supports the integration of research with other complimentary fields like engineering, business and venture capitalism to explore novel opportunities to make neuroCAM treatments developed in the lab more widely available. Specific examples include the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Clinics for pediatric depression and a music-based biofeed back system (Ambulosono) to improve gait and mobility issues in parkinson's disease. This new system thinking focuses on development of research from idea to innovation with an end goal of pushing more academic research to public availability.