Faculty profile

Walter Swardfager

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Associate ProfessorDepartment of Pharmacology and ToxicologyUniversity of Toronto

Walter Swardfager

Associate Professor

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Canada Research Chair in Clinical pharmacology of cognitive neurovascular disorders

Scholar ORCID

Supervision signals

Professors usually supervise graduate students in their department's programs.
69 publications in the last five years, latest in 2026.
Senior (last) author on 34 recent papers, a sign of leading a research group.
Principal investigator on 7 research grants (6 CIHR, 1 NSERC), most recently in 2024.
Supervised 9 trainees who won CIHR awards, most recently in 2025.

These signals come from public records, including CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding decisions. Ask the professor or the graduate program whether they are taking new students.

Academic metrics

168

Publications

374

Citations

h-index

Collaborators

Grants

Publications by year

Counts cover the works listed on the university profile; citation counts come from Dimensions.

Education

Ph.D., Pharmacology
Master's degree, Pharmacology
Honours Bachelor's degree (Co-op), Biochemistry

Profiles and links

University Profile Google Scholar iDORCID

Find them onX · LinkedIn · Bluesky · YouTube

Signals and details

Research

Read how they describe their research on their University of Toronto profile.

Diabetes Crc Aging Coronary Artery Disease Inflammation Cognition Cerebral Small Vessels Physical Activity

Latest papers

Effectiveness and safety of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor initiation in sacubitril-valsartan users with heart failure: a population-based cohort study.
European heart journal. Cardiovascular pharmacotherapy · 2026 · senior author
Targeting Brain Cholesterol Homeostasis in Alzheimer's Disease: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Perspectives.
Journal of neurochemistry · 2026 · senior author
Age at menopause, APOE-ε4, and Alzheimer's disease risk.
Research square · 2026

All 168 publications

Latest funding

Early-stage in vivo biomarkers of cerebral amyloid angiopathy and associated inflammation in Alzheimer's disease
CIHR · 2025 · Co-investigator
$810,900
Associations between comorbid type 2 diabetes mellitus and depression, peripheral apoptosis protein concentrations, and indicators of neurodegeneration.
CIHR · 2025 · Supervisor
$120,000
Quantifying serum oxylipins to explore the relationship between glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor against function and cognitive performance in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus
CIHR · 2024 · Supervisor
$6,000

All 26 grants and awards

From the 150 most recent of 168 publications.

Effectiveness and safety of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor initiation in sacubitril-valsartan users with heart failure: a population-based cohort study.

Wu CY, Shah BR, Ezekowitz JA, Sharma A, Wang T, Wu CF, Liu PP, Edwards JD, Swardfager W

European heart journal. Cardiovascular pharmacotherapy2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1093/ehjcvp/pvag031 PMID: 42098937

Targeting Brain Cholesterol Homeostasis in Alzheimer's Disease: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Perspectives.

Ruthirakuhan M, Taha AY, Swardfager W

Journal of neurochemistry2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1111/jnc.70492 PMID: 42283223

Age at menopause, APOE-ε4, and Alzheimer's disease risk.

Wood Alexander M, Nyman AJ, Casaletto KB, Saloner R, Vandeloo KL, Splinter TFL, Swardfager W, Ottoy J, Masellis M, Galea LAM, Black SE, Einstein G, Denkinger MN, Ashton NJ, Caldwell JZK, Johnson SC, Arvanitakis Z, Rabin JS

Research square2026

DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-10121551/v1 PMID: 42539099

Apoptosis protein markers in comorbid type 2 diabetes mellitus and depression; relationships with cognitive performance, incident dementia, and white matter hyperintensities.

Perfetto SE, Ruthirakuhan M, Wong YY, Ryoo SW, Huang CHL, Fan F, Chenoweth MJ, Nestor SM, Andreazza AC, Goubran M, Rabin JS, Jiang G, Black SE, Cogo-Moreira H, MacIntosh BJ, Swardfager W

Journal of affective disorders2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2026.122353 PMID: 42556583

Efficacy and Safety of Cannabinoids for Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Dementia: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis.

Pan TJ, Wang HJ, Siddiqui A, Kurumala D, Ruthirakuhan M, Swardfager W, Marotta G, Lanctôt KL

CNS drugs2026

DOI: 10.1007/s40263-026-01277-w PMID: 41748849

Frontal white matter hyperintensity burden predicts cognitive response to N-acetylcysteine and exercise in vascular mild cognitive impairment.

Mah E, Gallagher D, Gao F, Ramirez J, Rabin JS, Survilla K, Vieira D, Chen JJ, Kang Y, Andreazza A, Herrmann N, Kiss A, Marzolini S, Oh P, Swardfager W, Black SE, Lanctôt KL

Neurobiology of aging2026

DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2026.01.005 PMID: 41579736

Efficacy and safety of N-acetylcysteine in patients with mild cognitive impairment undergoing exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program: a randomized controlled trial.

Gallagher D, Kang Y, Herrmann N, Kiss A, Black SE, Oh P, Marzolini S, Rabin JS, Andreazza A, Ramirez J, Gao F, Rapoport M, Chen JJ, Survilla K, Vieira D, Mah E, Swardfager W, Lanctôt KL

Alzheimer's research & therapy2026

DOI: 10.1186/s13195-026-02062-z PMID: 42045982

Cognitive and Neuroanatomical Effects of Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase Polymorphism rs324420 in Aging and Alzheimer Disease.

Mori-Fegan DK, Wong YY, Noor S, Wu CY, Ryoo S, Mielnik C, Ross RA, Swardfager W

Alzheimer disease and associated disorders2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1097/wad.0000000000000723 PMID: 42127232

The Canadian multi-ethnic research on aging (CAMERA) study: Design, participant characteristics, and preliminary findings.

Marawi T, Rai H, Kumar R, Vandeloo KL, Yep R, Alexander MW, Boshmaf SZ, Chen SM, Gopinath G, Malhotra S, Zhang A, Nyman AJ, Perri LX, Sit V, Splinter TFL, Munoz DP, Swardfager W, Ryan JD, Black SE, Goubran M, Rabin JS

Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association2026

DOI: 10.1002/alz.71344 PMID: 41981367

Sodium-glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitor Initiation and Incident Dementia in Heart Failure With Diabetes: A Population-based Cohort Study.

Wu CY, Sharma A, Edwards JD, Liu PP, Wu CF, Podolsky S, Kapral MK, Lanctôt KL, Macintosh BJ, Cogo-Moreira H, Shah BR, Swardfager W

Journal of cardiac failure2026Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.cardfail.2025.05.022 PMID: 40750522

Profile data last refreshed on September 25, 2026 from the university directory, publication records and CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding.

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Walter Swardfager

Research

Latest papers

Latest funding

Effectiveness and safety of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitor initiation in sacubitril-valsartan users with heart failure: a population-based cohort study.

Targeting Brain Cholesterol Homeostasis in Alzheimer's Disease: Mechanisms and Therapeutic Perspectives.

Age at menopause, APOE-&#x3b5;4, and Alzheimer's disease risk.

Apoptosis protein markers in comorbid type 2 diabetes mellitus and depression; relationships with cognitive performance, incident dementia, and white matter hyperintensities.

Efficacy and Safety of Cannabinoids for Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Dementia: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis.

Frontal white matter hyperintensity burden predicts cognitive response to N-acetylcysteine and exercise in vascular mild cognitive impairment.

Efficacy and safety of N-acetylcysteine in patients with mild cognitive impairment undergoing exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation program: a randomized controlled trial.

Cognitive and Neuroanatomical Effects of Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase Polymorphism rs324420 in Aging and Alzheimer Disease.

The Canadian&#xa0;multi-ethnic&#xa0;research on&#xa0;aging (CAMERA) study: Design, participant characteristics, and preliminary findings.

Sodium-glucose Cotransporter-2 Inhibitor Initiation and Incident Dementia in Heart Failure With Diabetes: A Population-based Cohort Study.

Frequent collaborators

Nathan Herrmann

Mario Masellis

Maged Goubran

Demetrios Sahlas

Susan Marzolini

Myuri Ruthirakuhan

Damien Gallagher

Julie Ottoy

Paul Oh

Abhinav Sharma

Nir Lipsman

Gustavo Saposnik

Robert Bartha

Jane Mitchell

Dar Dowlatshahi

Gillian Einstein

Gillian Einstein

Marcus Law

Ekaterina Rogaeva

Andrew Frank

Jeremy Gilbert

Benjamin Davidson

Sean Nestor

Sanjeev Kumar

Peter Giacobbe

Katherine Zukotynski

Katherine Zukotynski

Jean-Paul Soucy

Bojana Stefanovic

Elizabeth Finger

Stephen Strother

Michael Borrie

Mark Rapoport

Alexander Thiel

Michael Noseworthy

Peter ST GEORGE-HYSLOP

Richard Frayne

Vesna Sossi

Gideon Koren

Pedro Rosa-Neto

Age at menopause, APOE-ε4, and Alzheimer's disease risk.

The Canadian multi-ethnic research on aging (CAMERA) study: Design, participant characteristics, and preliminary findings.