EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 6 PM ET, April 13, 2011

AAN and AAN Foundation Award $2.4 Million for Brain Research Fellowships

HONOLULU -

(AAN) and the are providing $2,410,000 in 2011 to 16 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 researchers will receive the awards today at the AAN’s 63rd Annual Meeting in Honolulu. 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

• Peter Adamczyk, MD, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA; Title: “Comprehensive Evaluation of Retrieved Thrombi in Acute Cerebral Ischemia,” Mentor: Jeffrey L. Saver, MD, FAAN
• Catherine Chu-Shore, MD, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Title: “Altered Functional Networks and Cognitive Outcome in Infantile Spasms,” Mentor: Sydney Cash, MD
• Jorg Dietrich, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Cambridge, MA; Title: “Circulating Progenitor Cell Populations as Biomarkers in Patients with Malignant Gliomas – Insights Into Tumor Biology and Resistance to Therapy,” Mentor: Tracy T. Batchelor, MD, MPH
• Sheng-Han Kuo, MD, Columbia University, New York, NY; Title: “Glucocerebrosidase and Mitochondrial Autography in Dopaminergic Neurons,” Mentor: David Sulzer, PhD
• Doris Leung, MD, Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc., Baltimore, MD; Title: “Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Imaging as a Biomarker for FSHD,” Mentor: Kathryn Rae Wagner, MD, PhD
• Jee Hoon Roh, MD, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; Title: “New Diagnostic and Therapeutic Target in Alzheimer’s Disease: the Sleep-Wake Cycle,” Mentor: David M. Holtzman, MD, FAAN
• Omar Siddiqi, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA; Title: “A Prospective Study of New Onset Seizure in Zambian HIV+ Patients,” Mentor: Gretchen L. Birbeck, MD, MPH, DTMH, FAAN
• Tomo Tarui, MD, Children’s Hospital Boston, Boston, MA; Title: “Evolution of Cerebral Lesions in Twin-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS) ~ Prospective Fetal-Postnatal Cohort Study,” Mentor: Ellen P. Grant, MD
• Peter Tsai, MD, PhD, Children’s Hospital Boston, Boston, MA; Title: “Neurocognition and Tuberous Sclerosis; Evaluating the Cerebullar Contribution and Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Tuberous Sclerosis,” Mentor: Mustafa Sahin, MD, PhD
• Robert White, MD, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Title: “The Role of Dopamine in Motor and Cognitive Aspects of Working Memory in Parkinson’s Disease,” Mentor: Mark T. D’Esposito, MD

• Jeffrey Marc Gelfand, MD, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Title: “Novel Ways to Diagnose Neurosarcoidosis and Distinguish Sarcoidosis from Multiple Sclerosis,” Mentor: Ari Green, MD

• Douglas M. Sproule, MD, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY; Title: “Body Composition and Energy Utilization in Spinal Muscular Atrophy,” Mentor: Darryl C. De Vivo, MD, FAAN

• Vikram Khurana, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA; Title: “Mechanisms of Cell Type-Specific Vulnerability in Synucleinopathy: A Yeast-Stem Cell Dual Discovery Platform,” Mentor: Susan L. Lindquist, PhD

• Steve Han, MD, PhD, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA; Title: “ALS Disease Modeling Using Motor Neurons Derived from Patient-Specific Stem Cells: Identifying Relevant Phenotypes Useful for Drug Discovery,” Mentor: Kevin Eggan, PhD

• Piero Perucca, MD, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Title: “High Frequency Oscillations During Seizures: Towards an Improved Identification of the Epileptogenic Zone,” Mentor: Jean Gotman, PhD

• Salim Chahin, MD, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; Title: “Retinal Gray Matter in MS: Relation of Ganglion Cell Loss to Vision and Neurologic Impairment,” Mentor: Laura J. Balcer, MD

, an association of more than 22,500 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy. For more information about the ��ɫ����, visit . VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/AANChannel TEXT: http://www.aan.com/press TWEETS: http://www.twitter.com/AANPublic