Research Section

• Study Reveals Outcomes and Complications of Decompression Surgery for Chiari Malformation and Syringomyelia. Research teams from the multicenter Park-Reeves Syringomyelia Research Consortium (PRSRC) published new findings on outcomes and complications from posterior fossa decompression with and without duraplasty in cases of Chiari I malformation and syringomyelia.
  
  
• Word and Face Recognition can be Adequately Supported with Half a Brain, Study Finds. An unprecedented study of brain plasticity and visual perception found that people who, as children, had undergone surgery removing half of their brain correctly recognized differences between pairs of words or faces more than 80% of the time. The findings, published by University of Pittsburgh researchers in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is the first-ever attempt to characterize neuroplasticity in humans and understand whether a single brain hemisphere can perform functions typically split between the two sides of the brain.
  
  
• Understanding Success Rates of Revision Surgery for Failed Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy and Third Ventriculostomy (ETV-CPC) to Treat Hydrocephalus – New Study Investigates Outcomes and Comparisons with Ventriculoperitoneal shunting (VPS). What is the success rate of revision endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV) after the failure of an initial ETV with choroid plexus cauterization, and does revision ETV compare favorably or outpace outcomes of ventriculoperitoneal shunt after initial surgical failure?
  
  
• Results From Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network Investigation Demonstrates Reductions in Shunt Infection Rates Attributable to Standardized Infection Prevention Protocol and Use of AICs and Vancomycin Irrigation. Results were published in the June edition of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics and the study was selected as one of the Editor's Choice features for the edition.
  
  
• Specialized Brain Regions Recognize Vocal Cues That Don’t Involve Speech. Specific parts of the brain recognize complex cues in human vocal sounds that do not involve speech, such as crying, coughing, or gasping.
  
  
• Further delineation of GEMIN4 related neurodevelopmental disorder with microcephaly, cataract, and renal abnormalities syndrome. Study led by Deepa Rajan, MD, and Udai Pandey, PhD, further explains GEMIN4 defects in patients presenting with neurodevelopmental delay and congenital cataract.
  
  
• Rajan DS, Kour S, Fortuna TR, Cousin MA, Barnett SS, Niu Z, Babovic-Vuksanovic D, Klee EW, Kirmse B, Innes M, Rydning SL, Selmer KK, Vigeland MD, Erichsen AK, Nemeth AH, Millan F, DeVile C, Fawcett K, Legendre A, Sims D, Schnekenberg RP, Burglen L, Mercier S, Bakhtiari S, Martinez-Salas E, Wigby K, Lenberg J, Friedman JR, Kruer MC, Pandey UB. Autosomal Recessive Cerebellar Atrophy and Spastic Ataxia in Patients With Pathogenic Biallelic Variants in GEMIN5. Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Feb 28; 10:783762.
  
  
• Methionine Restriction May Improve Aggressive Brain Cancer Prognosis in Children. Sameer Agnihotri, PhD, led a study published in Nature Cancer that found DMG tumors are uniquely dependent on methionine – an amino acid that humans must receive from food. Developing drugs that specifically target methionine-processing machinery in cancerous cells in the brain but not in the rest of the body might pave way for new non-invasive treatments.
  
  
• Model Explores Treatment Cost Effectiveness in Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. This study reports findings on the comparative cost effectiveness of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) and corpus callosotomy to treat drug-resistant seizures resulting from Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. The study was led by Taylor J. Abel, MD, chief of Pediatric Epilepsy Surgery and surgical director of the UPMC Children’s Epilepsy Center, and William P. Welch, MD, assistant professor of Child Neurology and director of Epilepsy Neurostimulation at UPMC Children’s.
  
  
• New Case Report Shows Utility of Deep Brain Stimulation to Treat Febrile Infection-Related Epilepsy Syndrome (FIRES). A case report detailing one of the first times deep brain stimulation was used to treat a case of febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome (FIRES) in an 11-year-old female patient. The study was published in December in the journal Epilepsia Open.
  
  
• COVID Virus Linked with Headaches, Altered Mental Status in Hospitalized Kids. Of hospitalized children who tested or were presumed positive for SARS-CoV-2, 44% developed neurological symptoms, and these kids were more likely to require intensive care than their peers who didn’t experience such symptoms.
  
  
• Pitt and CMU Scientists Create Headband that Measures Brain Pressure in Seconds. Pediatric neurosurgeon, Michael McDowell, MD, contributed to this study in which the team found that the noninvasive intracranial pressure device they created may be just as effective as more invasive traditional methods that require placing a transcranial probe to measure pressures within the skull.
  
  
• Gordon D, Thakkar K. Serial Neurologic Examination in a Child With Acute Flaccid Weakness. Clin Pediatr. 2022. A recent case report detailing the clinical workup and care of a 5-month-old infant presenting with acute flaccid weakness.
  
  
• Santoro JD, Patel L, Kammeyer R, Filipink RA, Gombolay GY, Cardinale KM, Real de Asua D, Zaman S, Santoro SL, Marzouk SM, Khoshnood M. Assessment and Diagnosis of Down Syndrome Regression Disorder: International Expert Consensus. Frontiers in Neurology. 2022: 1508. UPMC Children’s neurologist Robyn Filiping, MD, contributed to this work that was designed to “develop standardization for nomenclature, diagnostic work up and diagnostic criteria for cases of neurocognitive regression in Down syndrome.
  
  
• Francisco-Velilla R, Embarc-Buh A, Del Caño-Ochoa F, Abellan S, Vilar M, Alvarez S, Fernandez-Jaen A, Kour S, Rajan DS, Pandey UB, Ramón-Maiques S, Martinez-Salas E. Functional and Structural Deficiencies of Gemin5 Variants Associated With Neurological Disorders. Life Sci Alliance. 2022 Apr 7;5(7): e202201403. Further new research from Drs. Rajan and Pandey on Gemin5 driven neurological disorder.
  
  
• Ahmad Z, Behrmann M, Patterson C, Freud E. Unilateral resection of both cortical visual pathways in pediatric patients alters action but not perception. Neuropsyhologia. 2022; 168: 108182.
  
  
• Felker J, Agnihotri S. Hurdling Over the Blood-brain Barrier with Exosome Technology. Neuro Oncol. 2022; 24(11): 1884-1885. Pediatric neurosurgery researcher Sameer Agnihotri, PhD, collaborated with UPMC Children’s pediatric neuro-oncologist James Felker, MD, on this editorial in the journal Neurologic Oncology.
  
  
• Curtis K, Hect JL, Harford E, Welch WP, Abel TJ. Responsive Neurostimulation for Pediatric Patients with Drug-resistant Epilepsy: A Case Series and Review of the Literature. Neurosurg Focus. 2022 53(4): E10. Drs. Welch and Abel continue to collaborate on neurostimulation research and clinical care at UPMC Children’s.
  
  
• Chilukuri AS, Awkwayena E, Abel TJ. Insulo-opercular Stereoelectroencephalography Exploration in Children and Young Adults: Indications, Techniques, and Safety. Epilepsia Open [Online ahead of print], 2022.
  
  
• Emery SP, Greene S, Elsisy M, Chung K, Ye SH, Kim S, Wagner WR, Hazen N, Chun Y. In Vitro and In Vivo Assessment of a Novel Ultra-Flexible Ventriculoamniotic Shunt for Treating Fetal Hydrocephalus. J Biomater Appl [Online ahead of print], 2022.
  
  
• Hect JL, Alattar AA, Harford EE, Reecher H, Fernandes DT, Esplin N, McDowell M, Abel TJ. Stereotactic Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy for the Treatment of Pediatric Drug-Resistant Epilepsy: Indications, Techniques, and Safety. Childs Nerv Syst. 2022; 38(5): 961-970.
  
  
• McDowell MM, Jacobs RC, Valappil B, Abou-Al-Shaar H, Zenonos GA, Wang EW, Snyderman CH, Gardner PA. Dural Sealants do not Reduce Postoperative Cerebrospinal Fluid Leak After Endoscopic Endonasal Skull Base Surgery. J Neurol Surg B Skull Base 83(6):589-593, 2022.

Grants Section

• NIH R01 Grant for Glioblastoma Study and Translational Research. Baoli Hu, PhD, assistant professor of Neurological Surgery at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, was awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute R01 grant1 to further his research into the molecular mechanisms of glioblastoma immunosuppression and test a novel peptide developed and patented by Dr. Hu and colleagues in a combinatory approach with immune checkpoint inhibitors.
  
  
• Christina Patterson, MD, is a coinvestigator of a new NIH-funded R41 grant with colleagues from Carnegie Mellon University. The team has designed and continues to test a new type of electrode and hair clip for improving electroencephalography readings in individuals with different hair types. A detailed article discussing this research is forthcoming in early 2023.
  
  
• UPMC Children’s Child Neurology Division Researcher Eric Anderson, PhD, Awarded NIH MOSAIC Program K99/R00 Grant. Dr. Anderson's research project titled "Investigating the Role of Traumatic Brain Injury in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Dementia (ALS/FTD)" builds upon and extends the research he has been conducting since joining UPMC Children's in December 2016 as a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Udai Pandey, PhD.
  
  
• Sameer Agnihotri, PhD, Receives New NIH R01 Grant for Translational Studies of Metabolic Regulation in Glioblastoma. Dr. Agnihotri is the Director of the Brain Tumor Biology and Therapy Laboratory, which has a research emphasis on high-grade gliomas in children and adults. With his new grant, Dr. Agnihotri and colleagues will build upon previous research that has shown possible metabolic targets to control the function of glioblastoma stem cells, a population of tumor cells that have been shown to be highly resistant to chemotherapeutic agents and radiotherapy, helping to make these brain tumors almost universally fatal.
  
  
• Dana Cummings, MD, PhD, is the site investigator for the NIH-funded “Seizures and Children’s Outcomes After Stroke (SCOUTS)” study. This multicenter national study is designed to understand how inflammation is related to both early seizures and epilepsy, and the networks in the brain that are most vulnerable to epilepsy after a child has a stroke. Data from the study will help clinicians more accurately develop prognoses early after a stroke and to select promising anti-inflammatory treatments to study for prevention of poststroke epilepsy.
  
  
• Children’s Neuroscience Grants: 2021-2022; 2022-2023
  • Stephen P. Emery, MD, and Stephanie Greene, MD: “Ventriculoamniotic Shunting for Fetal Aqueductal Stenosis (VASFAS).”
  • Antony Michealraj, PhD, and Ian F. Pollack, MD, FACS, FAAP: “Elucidating Genetic and Therapeutic Vulnerabilities of Lethal Pediatric Ependymomas.
  • Udai Pandey, PhD, and Deepa Rajan, MD: “Identification of modifiers in GEMIN5 related neurodevelopmental disorders."
  • Bing Wang, MD, PhD and Hoda Abdel-Hamid, MD, FAAN, "From Bench to Bed –Test One-step Gene Therapy Technology in Human DMD Cells."
  • Ian F. Pollack, MD, FACS, FAAP, and Sameer Agnihotri, PhD. "The role of QPRT and NAD metabolism in glioma treatment resistance."
    
    
• 2022 Pittsburgh Foundation Walter L. Copeland Fund Grants
  • Sameer Agnihotri, PhD: Studying Microglial-Brain Tumor Interactions.
  • Stephanie Greene, MD: The Role of Pulsatility in the Management of Hydrocephalus: A Pilot Study.
  • Gary Kohanbash, PhD: A Novel Mechanism of Glioma Progression Mediated by Macrophage-derived Oncostatin-M.

• Child Neurology Division Welcomes New Epilepsy Specialist, Ruba Al-Ramadhani, MD.
  
  
• Division of Child Neurology Welcomes Cimy S. Jacob, MD.
  
  
• UPMC Children’s Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery Elected Chair of the American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery.
  
  
• Modern Management of Pediatric Movement Disorders. CME-accredited presentation from Robert Kellogg, MD, associate professor of Neurologic Surgery.
  
  
• Thompson Recognized as 2022 APP of the Year.
  
  
• News feature: Pediatric neurosurgeon Michael McDowell, MD, treats case of atlantooccipital dislocation in 10-year-old girl involved in skiing accident.
  
  
• Pediatric Neurosurgery fellow and clinical instructor in Neurosurgery, H. Westley Phillips, MD, won the Best Fellow Presentation Award at the AANS/CNS 51st Annual Meeting of the Joint Section on Pediatric Neurological Surgery in December. Dr. Phillips presentation topic was “Identifying Somatic Mutations across Epileptic Networks.”

• UPMC Children’s Muscular Dystrophy Clinic Awarded CDCC Certification from Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy. UPMC Children’s is the first center in Pennsylvania to receive the certification from PPMD. The multidisciplinary clinic is co-directed by pediatric neurologist Hoda Abdel-Hamid, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and director of the EMG Laboratory and Pediatric Neuromuscular Program. Joining Dr. Abdel-Hamid as co-director Jane Taylor, MD, from the Division of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine.

• Taylor Abel, MD, to speak as part of Pitt Neurological Surgery “Frontiers in Neurosurgery and Neuromodulation Symposium to be held February 2023.
  
  
• Michael McDowell, MD, won the Hydrocephalus Association Award for his abstract presented at the 2022 AANS Conference in March.