Warren symposium follows legacy of geneticist giant

If we want to understand how the brain creates memories, and how genetic disorders distort the brain’s machinery, then the fragile X gene is an ideal place to start. That’s why the Stephen T. Warren Memorial Symposium, taking place November 28-29 at Emory, will be a significant event for those interested in neuroscience and genetics. Stephen T. Warren, 1953-2021 Warren, the founding chair of Emory’s Department of Human Genetics, led an international team that discovered Read more

Mutations in V-ATPase proton pump implicated in epilepsy syndrome

Why and how disrupting V-ATPase function leads to epilepsy, researchers are just starting to figure Read more

Tracing the start of COVID-19 in GA

At a time when COVID-19 appears to be receding in much of Georgia, it’s worth revisiting the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Emory virologist Anne Piantadosi and colleagues have a paper in Viral Evolution on the earliest SARS-CoV-2 genetic sequences detected in Georgia. Analyzing relationships between those virus sequences and samples from other states and countries can give us an idea about where the first COVID-19 infections in Georgia came from. We can draw Read more

Candace Fleischer

Revealing brain temperature via MR imaging and biophysical modeling

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging technology and biophysical modeling being developed at Emory and Georgia Tech could provide more accurate predictions of brain temperature, which is difficult for doctors to directly assess. The temperature of the brain is critical information after someone has experienced a stroke or cardiac arrest, and even more important during treatment. 

The results of a pilot study were published today in the journal Communications Physics.

The project grew out of a collaboration between Candace Fleischer, PhD, an assistant professor of radiology and imaging sciences at Emory, and Andrei Fedorov, PhD, a world expert on thermodynamics and biophysical modeling and a professor of mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech. The first author of the paper is Georgia Tech/Emory biomedical engineering graduate student Dongsuk Sung.

The researchers developed a biophysical model based on heat transfer, using data acquired by imaging individuals’ brain tissue and blood vessel structure. As predicted and in agreement with MR whole brain measurements, brain temperature is slightly higher than core body temperature – about 1 degree C; there are “hot” spots in the brain domains with high rate of metabolism; and the regions of the brain that are closer to the scalp are also slightly cooler than the midbrain.

“We find that every subject’s brain temperature and spatial temperature patterns are different, setting the stage for a personalized approach to managing brain temperature,” says Fleischer, who is also a faculty member in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and Georgia Tech at Emory.

Metabolic heat, cerebral blood flow, and model-predicted brain temperature maps for three healthy volunteers. From Sung et al (2021), via Creative Commons 4.0

Researchers then compared the predictions of their model with measurements based on the magnetic resonance properties of water, which change with temperature, and the temperature-insensitive brain metabolite N-acetylaspartate. The Communications Physics paper shows temperature modeling and MR-based measurements for three healthy volunteers.

Fleischer recently received a three-year, $400,000 Trailblazer grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to monitor brain temperature while patients are undergoing therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest. More information about that here.

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Posted on by Quinn Eastman in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Trailblazer award for MR monitoring brain temperature

In the emergency department, the temperature of the brain is critical information after someone has a stroke or cardiac arrest, and even more important during treatment. Yet it is difficult for doctors to accurately or directly measure brain temperature.

Magnetic resonance imaging technology being developed at Emory University School of Medicine could provide more accurate measurements. A team of researchers has received a three-year, $400,000 grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) to monitor brain temperature while patients are undergoing therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest. Therapeutic hypothermia, or controlled cooling, is a treatment used to protect the brain after loss of blood flow. While cooling is used in many hospitals, it is not widely implemented nor has it been optimized in terms of dosage or timing.

Candace Fleischer, in front of a MRI scanner

The project is led by Candace Fleischer, PhD, an assistant professor of radiology and imaging sciences at Emory. The grant is part of NIBIB’s Trailblazer program, which is designed for early stage investigators to pursue research in new directions.

“Our goals are to develop a new method for non-invasive brain temperature monitoring, and to demonstrate the ability to measure brain-body temperature differences in cardiac arrest patients during therapeutic cooling,” says Fleischer, who is also a member of the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory.

“Currently, therapeutic hypothermia is monitored using core body temperature due to a lack of non-invasive tools,” she adds. “Yet, we know brain temperature tends to be higher than body temperature, and brain and body temperatures are decoupled after injury. Accurate measurements of brain temperature are needed to optimize clinical implementation.”

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Posted on by Quinn Eastman in Neuro Leave a comment