FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ON April 13, 2010
AAN and AAN Foundation Award Nearly $2 Million for Brain Research Fellowships
TORONTO -
The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the AAN Foundation are providing $1,985,000 in 2010 to 14 recipients of clinical research training fellowships to support brain research. The fellowships are designed to support clinical research for a variety of neurologic disorders. The fellowships will be awarded at the AAN’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto, Wednesday, April 14, 2010. The AAN Annual Meeting is the world’s largest gathering of neurologists with more than 10,000 attendees and over 2,000 presentations on the latest advances in neurologic research. Clinical research is the fundamental transition stage between discovery and treatment. Clinical research provides the scientific basis for all forms of care, addresses patient and caregiver needs, and is the backbone for drug development and cost-effectiveness studies needed to improve lives. Fellowships provide recipients with up to three years of “protected time” with salary which allows them to continue important research projects in their chosen interests. This year’s recipients and their research titles include: AAN Foundation Clinical Research Training Fellowships Suzanne Goh, MD Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY Title: “Neuroanatomical Bases for the Phenotypic Heterogeneity of Autism Spectrum Disorders” Khalid A. Hanafy, MD, PhD Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY Title: “Using Human Brain Interstitial Fluid to Determine the Role of Microglia in Poor Grade Subarachnoid Hemorrhage” Eugenia Ho, MD Children’s Hospital Boston, Boston, MA Title: “Study of Cerebral Blood Flow in Pediatric Stroke Using Perfusion and Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging” Vikram Khurana, MD, PhD Massachusetts General Hospital, Cambridge, MA Title: “Establishing and Validating a Stem Cell-Based Model of Synucleinopathy” William C. Kreisl, MD National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD Title: “Imaging Brain Inflammation in Alzheimer’s Disease and Minor Cognitive Impairment” Michael Kruer, MD Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR Title: “Disease Gene Discovery in Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation (NBIA)” Nicte Mejia, MD Massachusetts General Hospital, Cambridge, MA Title: “Improving Access to Neurologic Care” Kevin Sheth, MD University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD Title: “Physiological Predictors of Outcome in Traumatic Brain Injury” AAN Foundation Clinical Research Training Fellowship in Stroke Sharon Poisson, MD University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Title: “Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Nursing Protocol to Avoid Foley Catheter Placement in Stroke Patients” AAN Foundation Practice Research Training Fellowship Farrah Mateen, MD John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD Title: “Development of a Guillain-Barre Syndrome Surveillance System in Low Income Countries: A Multi-National Feasibility Study” AAN Foundation Robert Katzman, MD, Clinical Research Training Fellowship in Alzheimer’s Research Winston Chiong, MD, PhD University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA Title: “Cognitive Components of Vulnerability to Fraud in Aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment” AAN Foundation/Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America Clinician-Scientist Development Award Jeffrey Guptill, MD Duke University Medical Center, Raleigh, NC Title: “Analysis of Costs, Resource Utilization, Practice Patterns, and Outcomes in Myasthenia Gravis” AAN Foundation/Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers John F. Kurtzke, MD, FAAN Clinician-Scientist Development Three-Year Award Gabriele De Luca, MD, PhD Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN Title: “Genetic-Pathologic Correlations in Multiple Sclerosis” AAN Foundation/National Multiple Sclerosis Society Clinician-Scientist Development Award Zongqi Xia, MD, PhD Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA Title: “Exploring the Function of the TNFRSF1A Allele Associated with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)” The 62nd Annual Meeting of the AAN takes place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
