A multidisciplinary team of UT Southwestern Medical Center specialists, led by Nader Pouratian, M.D., Ph.D., and Peter Tsai, M.D., Ph.D., has received a grant worth up to $5 million from the Raynor Cerebellum Project to develop neuromodulation therapies for patients with cerebellar disorders of the brain.
Nader Pouratian, M.D., Ph.D., is Chair and Professor of Neurological Surgery at UT Southwestern. He is also an Investigator in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute and holds the Lois C.A. and Darwin E. Smith Distinguished Chair in Neurological Surgery.
“The target population for this research will be adult patients with congenital cerebellar disease,” said Dr. Pouratian, Chair and Professor of Neurological Surgery at UT Southwestern. “These patients either had differences in development or some process that disrupted or injured their cerebellum during early childhood.”
The cerebellum, located at the back of the brain, acts as a “minibrain” and is responsible for motor movement, balance, and muscle control while also playing a role in certain cognitive functions. Dr. Tsai, Associate Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry, said there are currently no therapies that target the causes of cerebellar disorders.
“There are strategies that can be very beneficial to ameliorate the symptoms of these disorders, such as physical or occupational therapies for motor challenges, speech therapies for difficulties with speech and language, and educational assistance for learning differences,” Dr. Tsai said. “However, specific approaches to help the underlying processes leading to these challenges remain sorely needed. The cerebellum is likely to play a key role in numerous extremely common developmental disorders. Many of these may not exclusively impact the cerebellum, but the cerebellum may influence how those disorders present and may be an important target for the development of therapies.”
Joining Drs. Pouratian and Tsai on the team are Anila D’Mello, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry; Elizabeth Davenport, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiology, Biomedical Engineering, and in the Advanced Imaging Research Center; Koorosh Mirpour, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery; and Bhavya R. Shah, M.D., Associate Professor of Radiology, Neurological Surgery, and in the Advanced Imaging Research Center, and a member of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases.
Peter Tsai, M.D., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry. He is also an Investigator in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute.
According to the Raynor Cerebellum Project, the UTSW team has been awarded a $2.5 million grant, with the opportunity to request supplemental funds annually that could put the total award at $5 million over five years.
The researchers’ primary goal during the first phase of the project will be to map cerebellar function and develop brain stimulation therapies, Dr. Pouratian said.
“We will use advanced brain mapping techniques across a variety of patients to better define the best targets for brain stimulation for cerebellar disease,” he said. “The recording techniques include magnetoencephalography (MEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and neural recordings directly from the brain of neurosurgical patients. The stimulation techniques we will explore include deep brain stimulation as well as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). After we create this ‘cerebellar brain map’ in the first two years, our plan is to conduct clinical trials of implantable brain stimulation to stimulate and map the brains of patients with cerebellar disease from childhood.”
The project will build on the experience and expertise of the Cerebellar Neurodevelopmental Disorders Clinic, which Dr. Tsai directs at Children’s Health, as well as the strengths of the Cerebellar Ataxia Clinic at UT Southwestern, overseen by Vikram Shakkottai, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chair for Basic Research in Neurology.
The Raynor Cerebellum Project is supported by the nonprofit Once Upon a Time Foundation, which is based in Fort Worth and has allocated $50 million to the project for initiatives related to researching and treating cerebellar disorders. Researchers at UT Southwestern have received more than $29 million in funding from Once Upon a Time since 2002, including $5.8 million in Raynor Cerebellum Project grants.
According to the Raynor Cerebellum Project, UT Southwestern is one of 10 teams receiving funding through the RCP Virtual Institute specifically focused on neuromodulation.
Drs. Davenport, D’Mello, Pouratian, Shah, Shakkottai, and Tsai are Investigators in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute. Dr. Pouratian holds the Lois C.A. and Darwin E. Smith Distinguished Chair in Neurological Surgery. Dr. D’Mello is a Jon Heighten Scholar in Autism Research. Dr. Shakkottai holds the Dedman Family Distinguished Chair in Neurological Disease.