Penn Comprehensive Neuroscience Center

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A major goal of the Penn Comprehensive Neuroscience Center (CNC) is to promote integrated basic, translational and clinical research efforts – with the ultimate goal of improving patient care.

In 2006 and 2007 the Penn CNC invited proposals from full-time faculty for the support of pilot collaborative projects involving co-investigators from two or more departments in the School of Medicine (SOM), or from one SOM department and one in another school at Penn.

Pilot Collaborative Research Projects

The purpose of this program is to assist Penn neuroscience faculty in generating preliminary data that may serve as the basis for seeking longer-term funding from federal, foundation or corporate sources.

The Penn CNC is currently funding 12 collaborative research projects in the total amount of $800,000 for FY07 and FY08. The currently funded collaborative research project titles are below:

1. Optical monitoring of acute stroke patients
2. MONaKA: A modulator of normal and pathogenic neurotransmission
3. Informed consent in clinical trials of acute neurological emergencies
4. The structure of neurogenic amyloid
5. Valosin-containing protein and the pathogenesis of frontotemporal dementia associated with inclusion body myopathy
6. Detailed analysis of hippocampal recruitment for implicit and explicit learning in aging and dementia
7. Severe sleepiness and the unidentified 3rd population of wake-active neurons in the lateral hypothalamus
8. Stress pathways in autism: examination of a genetic mouse model of stress sensitivity
9. Stress reactivity and pathogenesis in depression
10. Visual cortex structure and function in retinal blindness and after gene therapy
11. Development of a high-fidelity recording system and a quantitative visual activity map for online, semi-automated, objective, functional localization of target brain structures during deep-brain stimulation surgery for movement disorders
12. Light-activated oligonucleotides for spatiotemporal gene regulation in neurons

Pilot Collaborative Clinical Projects

One of the major goals of the Penn CNC is to increase Penn’s market position in the Neurosciences by coordinating existing clinical services and developing new programs with the aim of improving delivery of and patient access to the institution’s Neuroscience programs.

The Penn CNC is currently funding four collaborative clinical projects in the total amount of $330,000 for FY08 and FY09. The currently funded clinical project titles are below:

1. Continuous EEG Monitoring in the Neuro-ICU: Bringing Technology to the Bedside
2. Penn Alliance for Therapeutic Hypothermia
3. Multidisciplinary Early Psychosis Intervention
4. Family-Based ADHD Treatment Program

 

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