News

Neuroscience students and faculty made a big splash at the 2019 School of Medicine & Dentistry Convocation Ceremony. The following were awarded and recognized for their achievements:

• Martha Gdowski, Ph.D., received the Manuel D. Goldman Prize for Excellence in First Year Teaching & the Marvin J. Hoffman Faculty Mentoring Award
• John Olschowka, Ph.D., received a Commendation for First Year Teaching
• Sergiy Nadtochiy, Ph.D., received a Commendation for First Year Teaching
• Sarah McConnell, Ph.D., received the Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Teaching
• Johanna Fritzinger, first year NGP student, received the Irving L. Spar Fellowship Award
• Sarah Yablonski, first year NGP student, received the Merritt & Marjorie Cleveland Fellowship & the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull University Fellowship
• Suzanne Haber, Ph.D., received the Dean's Professorship
• Marc Halterman, M.D., received the Dean's Associate Professorship

Congratulations to all recipients!

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC), Burke Neurological Institute, and Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) have been awarded a $5 million grant from the Empire State Development Corporation to speed the development of ground-breaking neurological treatments for those disabled from stroke.

The project is a part of the NeuroCuresNY (NCNY) initiative, a new non-profit formed by the three institutions to accelerate the discovery of novel treatments for chronic neurological impairment and disability. The new state funding will support a two-year pilot study that will be launched in January 2020. This study design will be unique because it will test the efficacy of state-of-the-art robotic-assisted rehabilitation technology combined with drugs to improve the functional recovery of stroke patients.

Neurological conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury permanently disable more than one million people each year in the U.S., and stroke is the nation's leading cause of disability. Clinical trials for neurological disabilities and impairments are usually passed over because of unclear results, high costs, and challenges in recruiting participants. NCNY will seek to lower the barriers to participation in clinical trials by assisting with travel funding for patients, while providing a supportive and guiding environment for patients and their families.

The new study will conducted at the University of Rochester Neurorestoration Institute, led by Bradford C. Berk, M.D., Ph.D., and the Burke Neurological Institute, led by Rajiv R. Ratan, M.D., Ph.D. The National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies at the Wadsworth Center of the NYSDOH, led by Jonathan Wolpaw, M.D., will configure the technology that collects and analyzes the research data.

Congratulations to Rebecca Lena for receiving the Founders Affiliate Summer Fellowship from the American Heart Association (AHA). The title of her proposal is "Comparative analysis of 9-TB, Doxycycline, and Minocycline in a mouse model of post-cardiac arrest syndrome (PCAS)."

This work is one of several projects underway in the Neurovascular Protection Group, whose goal is to develop new therapies for acute stroke and cardiac arrest.

The American Heart Association supports highly promising, undergraduate students for full-time research fellowships over a minimum of ten weeks during the summer. The goal of this program is to encourage students to pursue careers in cardiovascular and stroke research.