Patients who went partially blind after suffering a stroke regained large swaths of rudimentary sight after undergoing visual training designed by researchers at the Medical Center’s Flaum Eye Institute.

“We are the only people in the U.S. currently using this type of training to recover vision lost after damage to the primary visual cortex,” says Krystel Huxlin, director of research and James V. Aquavella, M.D. Professor of Ophthalmology. “If you talk to the majority of clinicians, they still believe nothing can be done.”

Huxlin is senior author of a study in Neurology® that provides the first evidence that rigorous visual training recovers basic vision in cortically blind patients with long-standing stroke damage in the primary visual cortex. Damage to this area of the brain prevents visual information from getting to other brain regions that help make sense of it, causing loss of sight in one-quarter to one-half of an individual’s normal field of view. Between 250,000 and 500,000 people suffer vision loss due to damage to the visual cortex each year.

It was long believed that patients’ visual deficits stabilize six months after their stroke. Patients with visual cortex strokes are offered no hope of recovery and are advised to adapt to their vision loss. This is in stark contrast with other types of strokes. For instance, patients with stroke damage in areas of the brain that control movement are sent to physical therapy as soon as possible and usually recover significant mobility.

Huxlin has developed a way of rerouting visual information around the dead areas of the primary visual cortex. Her team created personalized software programs for 17 cortically blind patients that flashed small circles of striped patterns or moving dots in the patient’s blind field – the area of their field of view where they could no longer see. Patients reported the orientation of the stripes or the direction in which the dots were moving as they were flashed on the screen.

One patient said she no longer has mishaps like she did right after her stroke – like the time she missed the “W-o-” on the women’s room sign and wondered why two men’s bathrooms would be side by side. Faces and objects that looked squat and distorted after her stroke have also returned to normal. Several patients have been able to get back in the driver’s seat after undergoing Huxlin’s visual training and completing a driver rehabilitation program.

“Patients go from nothing to a sensation of motion, to vision, albeit not quite normal vision,” said study coauthor Matthew Cavanaugh, a student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program. “The hope is that we can now further refine our training methods to train the recovered vision to be even better, clearer and more useful.”

Huxlin’s study also challenged conventional wisdom that cortically blind patients’ visual deficits stabilize six months after stroke. In the study, the visual deficits of five cortically blind patients who did not do any visual training actually got worse. Huxlin’s team is verifying this finding in a larger group of cortically blind patients by studying how their blind field maps change over time after stroke, without visual training. The results could provide greater justification for prescribing visual training to all patients who are capable as early as possible.

Read more here.

Red shows areas of improvement in visual sensitivity after training.

An op-ed from President Joel Seligman appeared last weekend in the Democrat and Chronicle discussing the critical role that federal-funded research plays in improving people’s lives, driving economic growth, and making the nation a global leader in scientific innovation.

This progress and the transformative research being conducted at the University and elsewhere are threatened by the deep cuts in research proposed under the President’s FY18 budget.

Events are being planned across the country this weekend in support of research.  The March for Science is a non-partisan international movement sounding a call to support and safeguard the scientific community. Among many University people taking part in the D.C. march, Adam Frank, professor of physics, will participate in a teach-in with planetary scientists David Grinspoon and Ellen Stofan titled “Climate Change and the Cosmic Perspective.” Frank has written about the march on the NPR blog 13.7 cosmos & culture. You can read his posts here and here.

Local organizers are planning a Rochester-based march to be held concurrently with the national march tomorrow, on April 22. The Rochester march culminates in a Rochester Science Expo at the Hyatt Regency.  Members of the University community will also take part.

“The March for Science is an excellent opportunity for faculty, staff, and students throughout the University to share their individual views on the tremendous impact that research has on the human condition globally,” says David Williams, dean for research in Arts, Sciences and Engineering at the University.

Stephen Dewhurst, vice dean for research at the School of Medicine and Dentistry, says he’ll be particpating in the local expo and march “as an individual and as a scientist, because I want to communicate the importance of science to our society.  As scientists, I feel that we haven’t done enough to explain the value of what we do – from fundamental discoveries, to new treatments and cures (such as the HPV vaccine), to economic impact and job creation.

“We are 3,000 strong at the Medical Center alone, and we are working to improve life for everyone.  I see the march as an opportunity to celebrate science and scientists, to connect with the public at large, to express our appreciation for the support that scientific research has received in this country over the last half century, and to express the need to continue that support in the future.”

You can find more information about the President’s proposed budget, leadership advocacy in support of science, and the University’s Political Activity Guidelines on the Government and Community Relations website.

Individuals with diabetes have a high incidence of heart problems, including sudden cardiac death. A study led by Medical Center researchers  will determine if a subcutaneous implantable cardiac defibrillator (S-ICD) increases survival in this growing group of patients.

The global clinical trial will enroll individuals with diabetes who are 65 years and older, have had a heart attack and have slightly reduced heart function, as measured by the heart’s ability to pump blood throughout the body. Study leader Valentina Kutyifa, research assistant professor of cardiology in the Heart Research Follow-up Program, says all of these factors greatly increase the risk of sudden cardiac death, yet these patients are not considered candidates for defibrillators under existing medical guidelines.

“We think that this is an untouched population of patients who could really benefit from the device,” said Arthur J. Moss, the Bradford C. Berk, MD, PhD Distinguished Professor of Medicine, who is one of the world’s foremost experts on the use of defibrillators.

The S-ICD – the newest type of ICD device – is less invasive than a traditional ICD. It is implanted just under the skin and does not require leads or wires to be connected to the heart. It uses a special sensing technology to detect dangerous heart rhythms without touching the heart and surrounding vessels.

Read more here.

A study published in Development and Psychopathology, conducted by researchers at Mt. Hope Family Center and the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development, concludes that mothers who receive interpersonal psychotherapy after showing signs of major depression fare significantly better than the control group, which was merely given community referrals. But the mothers weren’t the only ones to benefit—their children did, too. Not only did the moms become better at parenting—their children improved across a host of important developmental measures.

Lessening the mothers’ depression, researchers discovered, meant improved attachment security for their toddlers. Overall, the researchers found that post-treatment the moms in the study became better at reading and understanding their toddler’s temperament, essentially making them better parents, while the toddlers became less fussy and angry, making them easier to parent.

“It’s a cascading effect for the family,” says lead researcher Elizabeth Handley, research associate and assistant professor at the Mt. Hope Family Center. Read more here.

Amina Alio, an assistant professor of public health sciences, and Michael Potchen, a professor of imaging sciences, have received Fulbright Scholar awards for projects to improve the delivery of care in sub-Saharan Africa.

Alio – whose research focus includes racial and ethnic disparities and global health – will examine the social, economic, and public health impact of HIV/AIDS in Niger.  Compared to many of its neighbors, Niger has an overall low rate of HIV infection among its population.

While this has spared the country from the public health crisis that touches many other regions of Africa, it also means that little has been done to raise public awareness and prevent the spread of the disease. These conditions, combined with high and rising rates of HIV infection among youth and female sex workers in Niger, could create the conditions for the disease to gain a foothold in the country.

Alio will conduct research that will help understand the social and economic impact of the disease and enable the country and international organizations to develop methods to raise awareness and implement prevention campaigns, particularly among the nation’s youth and sex workers.  Alio will also teach and help develop courses on reproductive health at the Université Abdou Moumouni in Niamey, Niger.

Potchen’s Fulbright project will focus on training health care professionals in Zambia to use advanced imaging technologies such as MRIs.  Potchen has worked extensively in sub-Saharan Africa, including helping establish a new MRI facility in Malawi and has partnered with Gretchen Birbeck, the Edward A. and Alma Vollertson Rykenboer Professor in Neurology,  in efforts to improve care for HIV patients with seizures in Zambia.

Until recently, the only advanced imaging technologies available in Zambia were CT scanners. Patients requiring an MRI, which can produce clearer images in soft tissue such as the brain, had to travel hundreds of miles to South Africa.  The Zambian government has been investing in new imaging technologies, including purchasing MRI units. Potchen will work with the Zambian Ministry of Health to establish training programs for radiologists, physicians, and radiology trainees to optimize the use of these technologies, particularly in the field of neuroimaging.

The Humanities Center has launched a Manuscript Workshop program, which enables faculty members with a manuscript close to completion to obtain guidance for revision from three experts in their field.

The visiting scholars (as well as Rochester faculty members who agree to read the entire manuscript) meet in a seminar for several hours; the Center provides meals, covers the expenses of the visitors, and offers them an honorarium.

Kathryn Mariner,  assistant professor of anthropology, this week discussed her project “Contingent Kinship: The Flows and Futures of Adoption in the United States” with Linda Seligmann of George Mason University, Laurence Ralph of Harvard University, and Eleana Kim of the University of California/Irvine. Elya Zhang, assistant professor of history, will hold a workshop today on “American Money and the Chinese State: A Loan Story, 1853-1949” with Brett Sheehan of the University of Southern California, Sheldon Garon of Princeton University, and Edward McCord of George Washington University.

Faculty members interested in holding a Manuscript Workshop on their work in 2017-18, should contact Joan Shelley Rubin,  the Ani & Mark Gabrellian Director of the Humanities Center, by May 1. “Our goal is to run one workshop in the fall semester and one in the spring,” Rubin says.  “Preference will be given to junior faculty members who are preparing to assemble tenure cases, but senior faculty are eligible as well.”

The Department of Health and Human Services has released a final rule revising the federal regulations for the ethical conduct of research with human subjects, commonly called the Common Rule. The updates, which will take effect in January 2018, reduce the regulatory burden on researchers while continuing to protect research subjects – especially those participating in high-risk studies.

These updates mark the first significant changes to the Common Rule since it was issued in 1991.

The new provisions include:

1. Moving the most pertinent information to the front of the informed consent document and making it clearer and more concise. Researchers will be required to begin informed consent documents with a brief, focused summary of the most important information about participating in the study, such as the greatest risks to the subject. This provision aims to provide information up front that will help prospective subjects decide whether or not to participate in a study.
2. Focusing administrative resources for the oversight of clinical trials to the studies that pose the greatest risk to subjects. This provision will expand the type of studies that are deemed low risk to be exempt from the regulations and only require administrative review, rather than full board review.  It will also eliminate the requirement for continuing review for many such expedited studies.
3. Requiring that multi-site research studies to use a single Institutional Review Board (IRB) for review and approval, which will reduce redundancy of IRB review and potentially save time. However, exceptions may be made if federal agencies determine that using multiple IRBs is better for a specific clinical trial or context.  The implementation for the single IRB requirement is January of 2020.

Read more here. Click here for a summary of the Common Rule updates.

Acclaimed scholar and school reform expert Pedro Noguera will talk at a June 1 public event promoting excellence through equity in area schools, hosted at East High School by the Warner School’s Center for Urban Education Success.

Noguera, a distinguished professor of education at UCLA, is a leading advocate for equitable education whose scholarship and research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions, as well as by demographic trends in local, regional, and global contexts. His presentation, Excellence Through Equity: Creating Schools that Serve All Children Well, will be followed by a panel discussion.

The event, which will begin at 6 p.m. at the Edward J. Cavalier Auditorium at East High School, is free and open to the public. Read more here.

Today: “Exploring Rhodopsin’s Activation Mechanism Using Computer Simulations at Multiple Resolutions,” presented by Alan Grossfield, associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics. Center for Integrated Research Computing (CIRC) symposium. 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Whipple Auditorium (URMC 2-6424).

April 24: One-day conference examining racial and ethnic disparities in health care and research, hosted by the Medical Center’s Office for Inclusion and Culture Development and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute. 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Flaum Atrium. Click here for the agenda and registration.

April 25: “Understanding Your Microbiota: Approaches and Selected Vignettes,” presented by Steven Gill, associate professor of microbiology and immunology. Noon to 1 p.m., Lower Adolph Auditorium (1-7619). Lunch provided. Center for Biomedical Informatics seminar.

April 26: “Precision Medicine: Notre Dame’s Bold Initiative to Lead the 21st Century Revolution in Personalized Care.” Hesburgh Lecture, presented by Paul Bohn, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, University of Notre Dame. Sponsored by Notre Dame Club of Rochester and Department of Pharmacology and Physiology. 7 p.m., Adolph Auditorium, Medical Center.

May 1: Deadline to apply for Clinical and Translational Science Institute Population Health Research Postdoctoral Fellowship.

May 12: Technology & Rare Neurological Diseases Symposium, 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. Helen Wood Hall Auditorium. Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics. Patients, patient advocates, clinical research policy and regulatory experts, and researchers from academia, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries will brainstorm ways to apply novel mobile health technologies to rare neurological diseases. Register here; learn more on the TRNDS website.

May 15: Deadline for submitting applications for population health pilot projects supported by the Department of Public Health Science. Learn more…

May 22: Deadline to apply for pilots awards from the Center for AIDS Research, including awards of up to $50,000 each focusing on: HIV-associated cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease; stress, trauma, and vulnerable populations; and HIV cure (click here for RFA) and awards of up to $25,000 focusing the National Institutes of Health HIV/AIDS High Priority Research Topics (click here for RFA).

May 22: Deadline to apply for research awards from the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences to collaborate with New York state companies on projects in ophthalmic and vision science, fiber optic communications, biomedical imaging, geospatial imaging, precision optics, consumer imaging and displays. Click here to learn more.

May 30: Deadline to apply for awards of up to $10,000 from the Center for AIDS Research for collaborative clinical and translational pharmacology proposals involving UR and University at Buffalo faculty. Click here for RFA.

June 1: “Excellence Through Equity: Creating Schools that Serve All Children Well,” presented by Pedro Noguera, professor of education at UCLA. Followed by panel discussion. Hosted by Warner School’s Center for Urban Education Success. 6 p.m., Edward J. Cavalier Auditorium at East High School. Free and open to the public. Read more here.