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The Department of Neurology has established active clinical
and basic science research programs to study major diseases
within the neurosciences. Research efforts are focused
in five main areas: stroke, epilepsy, movement disorders,
headache, and Parkinson's Disease. In addition, the
department has active collaborations with trauma and drug
addiction groups.
The VCU Comprehensive
Epilepsy Center has performed numerous clinical trials to
study novel medical and surgical therapies. The Epilepsy
Center is a key component of the NIH status epilepticus
project which is in its sixteenth year of funding.
In addition, the Division of Child Neurology is conducting
a NIH funded study that will lead to a better understanding
of the relationship between prologned seizures accompanied
by fever in children, and the development of epilepsy.
The Department
of Neurology also has an active stroke program. This
program is focused on both acute and secondary effects of
stroke. In addition to industry and NIH-sponsored
grants, this center has become a major phase II-IV drug
trial center for the FDA.
To compliment the aggressive clinical research program,
the Department of Neurology established the Molecular Neuroscience
Research Facility (MNRF). Investigators within the
MNRF study brain function under control and pathological
states by using electrophysiological, neurochemical, molecular
biology and micro-array techniques.
Department faculty
are also working on an NIH-funded research in a rat model
of kernicterus and bilirubin-induced neurological disorders
(BIND). Behavioral studies, electrophysiological,
anatomical, histological, and biochemical studies are conducted.
Curently, this group is particularly interested in how bilirubin
kills brain cells via programmed cell death (apoptosis),
how neurons regulate bilirubin intracellularly, and the
mechanisms the cell uses to transport excess bilirubin out
of the cell. Propective human studies using new methods
to diagnose, prevent and treat kernicterus and BIND are
in planning stages.
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