UNBC Professors wins scholar award for brain research

PRINCE GEORGE—A UNBC assistant professor is one of 32 in the province to win a scholar award. Dr. Kendra Furber will be given $90,000, every year, for the next five years.

Furber joined UNBC in 2019 and plans to use the money to study the biology of the myelin sheath which is a layer of protection for our nerve systems in our brain.

Furber says she wants to learn more about that layer in hopes of understanding how the brain works on a molecular level, which can help find treatments for brain diseases.

“If you look inside, there’s a bunch of those nerve projections that connect all those areas of the brain. Those are wrapped in the myelin sheath. You can think of this as an insulation around a wire. So that insulation helps those nerve signals transmit more efficiently and faster. Which is really important for memory and cognition and movement and all the things that you do in life,” said Furber.