Site Content

August 2024

The i-Forget research study participants know Carli Kinnear's friendly and knowledgeable voice from their telephone screening interview. As a co-founder of the nonprofit supporting this innovative research, Carli has been instrumental in getting it and the i-Forget study up and running. 

This Q&A explores Carli's background and what motivated her to get involved in research to support brain health.

I am a social scientist with a master's degree in organizational transformation. In my corporate life, I held leadership positions in global business consulting companies, where I implemented programs resulting in large-scale changes. It inspires me to introduce new ways of doing things that result in positive outcomes. 

While new technologies drove most of the transformation programs I worked on, my interest has always been in the human aspect of change. How do we engage people, share information, collaborate with partner organizations, and ensure stakeholders are comfortable and supportive of the new way of doing things? Those are questions that have always mattered to me. 

While I have stepped away from corporate and entrepreneurial roles, I am still at my best when I have a clear sense of the big picture we want to achieve while breaking the work down into smaller, deliberate projects to engage everyone involved for a successful outcome.

The Durable Mind Collective requires a similar process. We have a bold vision to bring to Canada a new way of funding and doing medical research in brain health, leveraging the latest technology and medical science while ensuring that participants and partners in this research are fully engaged. We want to create a new genomic data source that the scientific community can explore and analyze for innovative and practical discoveries. It's a significant undertaking that requires collaboration between multiple partners to succeed.

I am motivated by the possibility of discoveries in medical research through citizen science. When citizens voluntarily help conduct scientific research and learn about their health in the process, it is a win-win situation. The i-Forget study enables volunteers to donate their biomedical content (metagenomic data) to learn about their risk of disease and potentially contribute to discoveries on the role of the gut microbiome in brain health. 

The i-Forget study's prevention focus also appeals to me. At 60, I want to avoid cognitive decline by learning as much as possible about prevention strategies and applying those to my own life.

Lastly, I am fascinated by the emerging research exploring the role of the gut microbiome in disease. It's an underexplored area of study, and I'd love to contribute to it personally. 

Interacting with and learning about study participants has been delightful. The participants we have engaged with to date are keen to learn about their own risk of Alzheimer's, have a prevention mindset, and are intrigued by the role of the gut microbiome in the disease. 

There used to be a mindset that "one's genes are one's destiny." It has been encouraging to hear that many participants have shifted to a more recent understanding that one's environment and actions play a significant role in activating those genes.

I have been pleasantly surprised and inspired by people's enthusiasm for contributing to new scientific information that could ultimately benefit them or their children. It has reinforced the value and viability of citizen science for me.

We would like to see the Durable Mind Collective as a sustainable charitable organization that funds studies specific to people at risk of dementia. Our focus on this community and the discoveries that could prevent cognitive decline as we age makes us unique. 

While the i-Forget study is the first study we are funding to dig deeper into the gut microbiome's role in brain health, we know there will be many other opportunities to explore new science for prevention. We expect what we learn from i-Forget will inform the hypothesis for the next study, uncovering new strategies to maintain cognitive health.

When I was in my forties, I had a right frontal lobe brain injury as a result of a car crash. During the 18 months of rehabilitation, I learned much about neuroplasticity and the basic requirements to restore and maintain brain health. I exercise daily, build a positive and healthy mindset, follow protocols for good sleep, avoid processed foods, sugar and harmful fats, introduce novelty in my life and create time to observe and still my mind.