accolades Andrew Lee, MD, chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and David Baskin, MD, director of the Department of Neurosurgery Residency Training Program and director of the Kenneth R. Peak Center for Brain and Pituitary Tumor Treatment and Research, were invited by NASA to review scientific proposals for possible application in future space flights. The group studied the phenomenon of elevated intracranial pressure in space and possible countermeasures to treat it. This will become an important problem with longer space missions that include extended periods on the international space station and a flight to Mars, which would be a 30-month mission. Both were selected for expertise in their respective fields and experience with some of the unique neuro-ophthalmologic problems seen in NASA astronauts after long-duration space flight. The Cullen Foundation and Mission Connect, a project of the TIRR Foundation, awarded nearly $700,000 to a brain-machine interface project that University of Houston (UH) and Houston Methodist Hospital Research Institute scientists hope will someday help paraplegics walk. The funds will be used to purchase Rehab Rex, the latest version of a robotic exoskeleton that helps legs move. UH Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal, PhD, and Houston Methodist Neurological Institute neurosurgeon, Robert G. Grossman, MD, are working on perfecting a non-invasive brain-machine interface technology that patients can use to operate an advanced robotics system such as the exoskeleton. The Eddy Scurlock Stroke Center, led by David Chiu, MD, was awarded the Get With the Guidelines – Stroke Gold Plus Achievement Award by the American Heart Association.
Abraham Thomas, MD,
Olga Waln, MD, joined the Movement
vascular neurologist, joined the Eddy Scurlock Stroke Center after completing his neurovascular clinical fellowship at University of California San Francisco. Dr. Thomas’ clinical interests include the evaluation of both critically and acutely hospitalized patients with cerebrovascular disease and outpatients with cerebrovascular disease, including the clinical sequelae of ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. His primary research interests include: pathophysiological mechanisms of stroke, epidemiological analysis of risk factors of stroke, preventive measures of stroke and the acute treatment of stroke.
Disorders & Neuro-rehabilitation Center. Dr. Waln is a fellowship-trained movement disorders neurologist. Her primary clinical and research interests are the evaluation and management of patients with Parkinson’s disease, tremors, dystonia, chorea, tics and gait disorders, including botulinim toxin treatment, deep brain stimulation and intrathecal baclofen pump treatment.
Richard Klucznik, MD, was the recipient of the Joe Niekro Foundation’s Joe Niekro Medical Humanitarian of the Year. The award was in recognition of his research advancements and treatments of cerebral aneurysms.
Robert G. Grossman, MD, professor of neurosurgery at the Houston Methodist Hospital, received the 2013 Distinguished Service Award of The Society of University Neurosurgeons for his decades of service as a clinician, teacher and researcher.
Houston Methodist Neuro Intensive Care Unit was recognized by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) with a Gold Beacon Award for Excellence. Recipients of AACN’s Gold Beacon Award demonstrate excellence in sustained unit performance and patient outcomes. The Houston Methodist Neuro ICU was the only unit in Texas and one of only four in the nation to achieve this standard. The United States Department of Defense awarded a two-year $2 million peer-reviewed grant to support the research programs of the North American Clinical Trials Network (NACTN) for Treatment of Spinal Cord Injury. NACTN is a consortium of university hospital neurosurgery departments, sponsored by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, with the goal of bringing promising therapies for spinal cord injury into clinical trials. Robert G. Grossman, MD, professor of neurosurgery, is the principal investigator.
Christof Karmonik, PhD, was awarded a grant from Siemens for his research project, Evaluation of Computational Fluid Dynamics Research Platform for Analyzing Blood Flow in Aneurysms. Gavin W. Britz, MBBCh, MPH, FAANS, was the recipient of the Joe Niekro Foundation’s research grant. Jenny Henkel, PhD and Dave Beers, PhD, were awarded the 2013 Moran Foundation
8
Leading Neurosciences
Publication Award by the Research Institute for their outstanding translational research paper, Regulatory T-lymphocytes mediate amyotrophic lateral sclerosis progression and survival, which was published in EMBO Molecular Medicine.