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Two undergraduate students working in labs in the Duke Neurology Department were joint recipients of Duke’s 2020 “Outstanding Senior Thesis in Neuroscience” award. Kunal Shroff worked for three years in the lab of Nicole Calakos, MD, PhD, where he studied the molecular mechanisms underlying DYT1 dystonia. Vivian Chen worked in the lab of Ornit Chiba-Falek, MD, PhD, where she helped examine the genetic processes underpinning Alzheimer’s and other age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

Julia Gamache, PhD, was one of four new scholars welcomed into the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Award’s (CTSA TL1) programs this April. Gamache, a postdoctoral associate in the Chiba-Falek lab, will use the two-year award to study the origins of Alzheimer’s disease and investigate novel therapeutic strategies for the condition. The Duke CTSA TL1 postdoctoral program is a 2-year training program aiming to provide 2 years of funded time to support the research training of outstanding junior scientists.

Members of the Duke Neurology Department continued to advance the fields of clinical and translational neuroscience this April. Our faculty contributed to the first major systematic review of self-management programs for epilepsy, helping to answer questions about what makes these programs more or less effective. Another article discussed the benefits of CN-105, a therapeutic agent that may help reduce the harmful neuro-inflammatory response associated with stroke, traumatic brain injury, and other conditions.

As a graduate student, Matthew Scaglione, PhD, became interested in how the body made and destroyed proteins--and how these processes could go wrong in neurodegenerative disease. Now, as an assistant professor at Duke, his research straddles the intersections between neurology, molecular genetics, and microbiology to better understand how we might be able to develop treatments for these conditions.

What do a genetic analysis of the intersecting pathways between Alzheimer’s disease and depression, a national prize-winning essay examining the ethics of unionization for physicians, and a systematic review of the literature surrounding a new potential form of therapy for stroke recovery have in common? They’re all subjects of peer-reviewed journal articles written or co-written by members of the Neurology Department published this March.

Mariam Hovhannisyan found her mind turning to cognitive neuroscience as a high school student, when a crime show she was watching prompted her to consider how differences in brain chemistry might lead one person a healthy member of society and another person a serial killer. Now, within the laboratory of Simon Davis, PhD, she analyzes brain data, applies transcranial magnetic stimulation to older adults to improve their working memory, and helps recruit patients into studies.

The Duke Neurology Department’s clinical, translational, and basic science wings came together last Thursday to discuss their work and collaborate at the Division of Translational Brain Sciences and Neurology Residents first joint poster session. 

Research faculty, postdoctoral associates, clinical neurology residents, and other members of the Department presented more than 30 ongoing research projects from a variety of disciplines and perspectives. 

This February, members of the Duke Department of Neurology contributed to 10 new research articles in peer-reviewed journals. At the microscopic level, new studies examined how ion channels in endothelial cells may contribute to hypertension associated with obesity, and reviewed how DNA damage contributes to neuronal death in Parkinson’s disease. And at the system-wide level, our Stroke team discussed the massive IMPROVE Stroke Care project, which includes a network of nearly 100 hospitals, and hundreds of other agencies and communities.

Iain Bruce, PhD, wants to get a better look at your brain. Not just at the gray, squishy lobes we’ve all seen in photographs, but at the structural changes smaller than a human hair that can lead to seizures or that eventually develop into Alzheimer’s disease. In this week’s “spotlight” interview, the new member of the Neurology Department and Brain Imaging and Analysis Center talks to us about his work advancing the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to help patients with epilepsy and other conditions.

Faculty from the Duke Department of Neurology contributed to seven new peer-reviewed journal articles in January 2020. A team including Simon Davis, PhD, helped to answer questions about how the brain forms and stores memory. Christa Swisher, MD, Christian Hernandez, MD, and colleagues evaluated a promising new tool that offers improved in-patient seizure detection.