Dr. Ioannou is an Architect of the Future of Brain Health

If you walk the halls of the 7th floor of the Medical Sciences Building, you’ll no doubt have a chance to see one of the Department’s rising stars, Dr. Maria Ioannou. She has just been named the 2026 recipient of the New Investigator Award from the Canadian Association for Neuroscience, the latest in a long list of accolades she has received. As she moves into her new role as Associate Professor, we take a look back at her significant successes and a future roadmap that will lead her to the forefront of brain health research. 

As a Canada Research Chair in Brain Lipid Biology, Dr. Ioannou has built her career around lipids in the brain and what we can learn about how those lipids are involved in health and disease. Her research has helped fill that gap in ways that have reshaped how the field thinks about neurodegeneration. The awards she has received point to the importance of her work. 

Her innovative approach garnered international attention early on, earning her a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2021. It was the first ever awarded to the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta. She followed that up with the 2024 Martha Cook Piper Research Prize, recognizing her original research and outstanding promise in the Sciences and Health Sciences category.

Last year, Dr. Ioannou was awarded the Seed Grant from the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute (NMHI). "Dr. Ioannou's work exemplifies the spirit of this award," says Director Liz Wilcox. "She bridges cutting-edge discovery with meaningful impact. By uncovering the biological roots of neurodegeneration, her research drives the kind of innovation that can improve prevention, diagnosis, and treatment for people living with neurological disease."

The recent NMHI Seed Grant focuses specifically on Dr. Ioannou's groundbreaking investigation into ectosomes — vesicles that bud directly from the plasma membrane of neurons. Her lab's research indicates that these vesicles may act as a mechanism for the spread of toxic proteins between brain cells, a discovery that could redefine therapeutic targets for Parkinson's. You can learn more about her work in this area from her recent publication in Nature Cell Biology. 

While ectosomes may define her future, Dr. Ioannou continues to build on work that began during her trainee days at McMaster and McGill, as well as her fellowship at the Janelia Research Campus (HHMI). Her focus on the brain's "waste management" systems includes developing potential links to Alzheimer's Disease. Her recent study on apolipoproteins has led to a publication in Neuron and opened the door to novel treatment pipelines. 

Beyond her technical contributions, she is an active science communicator, recently appearing on the Brain Ponderings podcast to discuss her work and how the findings may impact everyday lifestyle choices — from exercise to intermittent fasting. As she notes in the interview, her work is discovery-based, but the goal is to find ways to help neurons help themselves, potentially by enhancing the natural systems that clear out damaged lipids and proteins. 

That message reflects both her research and her ethic. Over the years, she has found paths to success the natural way — through hard work and excellent science. As she moves into the next stage of her career, she is moving closer to real solutions for patients and families. As Liz Wilcox puts it: "This work represents more than scientific progress — it is hope. Every discovery brings us closer to delaying, preventing, or even halting diseases."

Thanks to Dr. Ioannou, we may find ourselves closer than ever to that goal.