Every day, millions of people take selfies with their smartphones or webcams to share online. And they almost invariably smile when they do so.

To Ehsan Hoque and his University collaborators, those pictures are worth far more than the proverbial “thousand words.” Computer vision software—based on algorithms that the associate professor of computer science and his lab have developed—can analyze the brief videos, including the short clips created while taking selfies, detecting subtle movements of facial muscles that are invisible to the naked eye.

The software can then predict with remarkable accuracy whether a person who takes a selfie is likely to develop Parkinson’s disease—as reliably as expensive, wearable digital biomarkers that monitor motor symptoms. The researchers’ technology is described in Nature Digital Medicine.

Smiles are not the only behaviors that Hoque and his lab can analyze for early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease or related disorders.

In collaboration with Ray Dorsey—a leading expert in Parkinson’s disease and the David M. Levy Professor of Neurology at Rochester—and the University’s Morris K. Udall Parkinson Disease Research Center, the researchers have developed a five-pronged test that neurologists could administer to patients sitting in front of their computer webcams hundreds of miles away.

This could be transformative for patients who are quarantined, immobile, or living in underdeveloped areas where access to a neurologist is limited, Hoque says. Learn more.

The Medical Center is the lead study site in the U.S. for an experimental treatment being developed by Neurogene for CLN5 Batten disease, a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder.

“CLN5 is a devastating and rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease in children that leads to vision loss, cognitive and motor impairment, seizures and, ultimately, premature death,” says Jonathan W. Mink, the Frederick A. Horner MD Distinguished Professor in Pediatric Neurology and chief of child neurology. “This trial will move research forward in developing a potentially disease-modifying treatment for CLN5 disease, providing hope to individuals and families where currently none exists.”

Batten disease is a group of rare, inherited neurodegenerative diseases also called neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs). The CLN5 subtype is caused by a variant in the CLN5 gene, which leads to disruption of normal protein function.

The clinical trial will evaluate a single intraventricular dose delivered directly into cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. The treatment, called NGN-101, uses an adeno-associated virus to deliver a healthy version of CLN5 gene directly to the central nervous system. Animal studies have shown that the treatment has the potential to halt the key features of disease progression, including vision, motor, cognitive, and behavioral declines. Learn more.

(Photo by Ernest Ojeh/Unsplash)

American homeowners with solar panels can sell the surplus electricity they generate back to their local grids. Should electric vehicle (EV) owners be able to do the same thing?

University researchers show how so-called V2G (vehicle-to-grid) technology can achieve grid stability and renewable energy storage—and save vehicle owners money—in a paper published in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

To help gauge the feasibility of V2G systems, Heta Gandhi, a PhD student in the lab of Andrew White, an associate professor of chemical engineering, has developed a computational model that takes into account factors not previously considered. For example, her model considers the degradation of batteries, as well as a wide range of commuter driving times, distances, and other scenarios.  She and White, her coauthor, used the computational model to develop a cost-benefit analysis for V2G participants in six major US cities. The work helps researchers and engineers understand how the design decisions they make affect people using their own vehicles in V2G, an important consideration to achieve higher levels of renewable energy.

The analysis showed that:

• Potential annual savings for V2G users in Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco ranged from $120 to $150 a year, with much of the variation reflecting differences in local variable electricity rates.
• Letting commuters set their own threshold selling price is crucial to making a V2G scheme profitable for commuters.
• Increasing both charging efficiency and the rate of battery charging are more important than developing lower price lithium-ion batteries in making V2G schemes profitable.

Learn more.

Imagine you are in a meadow picking flowers. You know that some flowers are safe, while others have a bee inside that will sting you. How would you react to this environment and, more importantly, how would your brain react?

This is the scene in a virtual-reality environment used by researchers to understand the impact anxiety has on the brain and how brain regions interact with one another to shape behavior.

“These findings tell us that anxiety disorders might be more than a lack of awareness of the environment or ignorance of safety, but rather that individuals suffering from an anxiety disorder cannot control their feelings and behavior even if they wanted to,” says Benjamin Suarez-Jimenez, assistant professor at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience and first author of a study published in Communications Biology. “The patients with an anxiety disorder could rationally say – I’m in a safe space – but we found their brain was behaving as if it was not.”

Using fMRI, the researchers observed the brain activity of volunteers with general and social anxiety as they navigated a virtual reality game of picking flowers. Half of the meadow had flowers without bees, the other half had flowers with bees that would sting them – as simulated by a mild electrical stimulation to the hand. Researchers found all study participants could distinguish between the safe and dangerous areas. However, brain scans revealed that volunteers with anxiety had increased insula and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex activation – indicating their brain was associating a known safe area to a danger or threat. Learn more.

Duncan Moore, at left, and David Williams

Two newly elected Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors.

Duncan Moore, the Rudolf and Hilda Kingslake Professor of Optical Engineering, is a pioneer in the development of gradient-index lenses. The company he founded, Gradient Lens Corp., continues to manufacture high-quality, low-cost Hawkeye borescopes. More recently, Moore, who serves as vice provost for entrepreneurship and oversees the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship, has been developing a next-generation solar concentrator less than 3 mm thick that concentrates sunlight 500 times–at only a fraction of the cost of current photovoltaic cells.

David Williams, the William G. Allyn Professor of Medical Optics–widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in human vision–pioneered the use of adaptive optics to image individual retinal cells. The methods Williams’s group developed are used in many of the LASIK procedures conducted worldwide today. Williams and his collaborators are now exploring whether ganglion cells can be coaxed by genetically engineered viruses to take on the light detecting function of rods and cones destroyed by disease as way to cure blindness.

The University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR-CTSI) is offering a UNYTE Translational Research Network Pipeline-to-Pilot grant opportunity of up to $10,000.

The main goal of this program is to stimulate early phase research partnerships between University of Rochester faculty and faculty at UNYTE member institutions, facilitating their ability to compete as a collaborative team for future funding for translational biomedical research. Apply by Monday, January 10, 2022. Learn more.

Optics PhD graduates are in strong demand to develop the next generation of optics- and photonics-related commercial, medical, and defense technologies and to meet the growing need for optics teachers and researchers at top universities.

And there is no better place to receive this training than the Institute of Optics, which is expanding its recruitment of PhD candidates thanks to a $900,000 U. S. Department of Education award.

The GAANN (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need) award will pay for six PhD fellowships, at least half of which will be awarded to students from underrepresented groups.

Students interested in applying can contact Kai Davies at kai.davies@rochester.edu. Applications for entrance in the Fall of 2022 are due by January 15, 2022. Instructions and details are available on The Institute of Optics website.

The next issue of Research Connections will be January 7, 2022.