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Once upon a time, Katie Vandeloo dreamed of going to medical school. That was until, as she puts it, she got bit by the research bug.
Vandeloo, a first year master’s student at the University of Ottawa, is one of the recipients of this year’s IMHR Graduate Student Research Award. The annual award honours top students at the Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR) whose work has a special focus on depression.
Vandeloo was recognized for her research into the biological underpinnings of depression and suicide.
“I’ve been asked about the difficulty of working on such sensitive topics. While it’s hard seeing people experience mental illness, it’s incredibly rewarding when you see those same individuals come through and describe life as beautiful again,” said Vandeloo at a special event held at The Royal in November.
It was a love of science that brought Vandeloo to Carleton University from the small town of Lindsay, Ontario. (Actually, she’s from a small town outside of a small town, which is outside of Peterborough.) She studied neuroscience and mental health at Carleton and earned an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Neuroscience and Mental Health and Psychology. Vandeloo credits one of her professors, Dr. Kim Hellemans, for kindling her passion for research.
“She was just so amazing and she made me realize how incredible science was, and neuroscience in particular,” describes Vandeloo. “After having her class I just felt like something was different.”
During this time Vandeloo did an internship at McGill, where she studied white matter abnormalities in the brains of individuals who died by suicide.
She’s excited by research in the field of neuroscience and neuroimaging, and the discoveries that are yet to be made in mental health.
“I feel like, it’s just so new. I can discover things that aren’t currently existing. That just blows my mind… I feel like what I do during the day contributes to knowledge that is changing medicine, which is great.”
Vandeloo is studying individuals who have treatment-resistant depression, people who have failed to respond to two different medications for depression and, as Vandeloo describes, have varying suicidal histories.
How – and why – the brains of people who have treatment-resistant depression are different from others is a question we haven’t been able to fully answer yet.
“We’re very behind in terms of understanding mental health on a biological level. But keeping that in mind, our technologies now are so much more advanced,” says Vandeloo.
Sophisticated neuroimaging is one way to examine the function and structure of the brains of individuals with depression to see how they differ. Vandeloo has also been looking at brain scans of healthy individuals in order to characterize a spectrum, and see what’s unique about people who experience depression, suicidal ideation and behaviours.
Researchers like Vandeloo are trying to uncover underlying biological differences so that we can get a clearer understanding depression and other mental illnesses. The hope is that this research will lead to better treatments, ones that are specific to each patient.
“We don’t really have personalized medicine in mental health right now,” says Vandeloo. “People who have depression – and I’ve seen family members and friends who have gone through this exact process – see a doctor and start a medication, but that medication is just a ‘one size fits all’ kind of treatment.”
Vandeloo points out that medication to treat depression can have worrisome side effects, such as worsening suicidal thoughts. And if the medication doesn’t work, the patient has to go through a “wash out period” and try a different one. It’s a cycle that typically takes four to six weeks, and according to Vandeloo, it could take someone six to nine months before being matched with a medication that “kind of” fits. It’s a long time to be depressed and deal with side effects, but she’s hopeful that new technology – and the skills to use it – will help shed new light.
Vandeloo plans to use the funds received from the award to go to Harvard University in 2020 and learn how to analyze Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) data. (DTI is an MRI-based neuroimaging technique that makes it possible to look at the white matter in the brain.) Her goal is to bring this knowledge back to The Royal and share it with her colleagues.
“This award allows me to continue to study things that are so important to me, which is incredibly valuable, especially for the Ottawa community as well,” says Vandeloo.
Dr. Jennifer Phillips, associate scientist in the Mood Disorders Research Unit at The Royal’s Institute of Mental Health Research (IMHR), has overseen Katie Vandeloo’s work since the beginning of Vandeloo’s fourth year of undergraduate studies. Vandeloo is also supervised by Dr. Pierre Blier, director of the Mood Disorders Research Unit at the IMHR.