Parkinson's & Movement Disorders Research

The University Hospitals Parkinson's & Movement Disorders Center is dedicated to advancing our understanding and treatment of Parkinson's disease (PD) and related movement disorders through clinical and translational research. Our multidisciplinary research team is committed to advancing the field of movement disorders and improving the lives of individuals affected by these conditions.

Our dynamic research initiatives encompass a wide range of projects, including:

Parkinson’s Disease

• Enhancing genetic insights
• Exploring personalized treatment including gene-targeted therapies.
• Increasing active participation in clinical trials to enhance symptom management and potentially modify the course of the disease
• Investigating optimal exercise paradigms for PD patients.
• Developing the SMART Bike, an exercise bike integrated with AI and wearable tech to personalize exercise experiences.
• Improving PD diagnosis and distinguishing different forms of parkinsonism through skin, colon, and saliva samples.
• Enhancing our understanding of freezing of gait and balance issues in PD, and exploring how Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) can modulate these symptoms.
  • Preparing DBS technology for addressing visual abnormalities in PD, such as double vision, reading difficulties, and depth perception.
  • Pioneering innovative DBS approaches to address executive function and visual attention impairments often associated with PD.

Dystonia

• Investigating integrative brain circuits and peripheral interventions for dystonia treatment.
• Exploring novel treatment options for essential tremor.
• Advancing treatments for dystonia.
• Applying Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning to uncover relationships between tremor and dystonia.

Cerebellum and Brain Stem

• Studying eye movements and balance functions in cerebellum and brainstem disorders.

Epilepsy

The Epilepsy Center at University Hospitals Neurological Institute is an accredited level IV epilepsy center based in Cleveland, OH. The clinical research conducted here is primarily aimed at improving the diagnosis, classification and treatment of epilepsy. The center often works together with the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at Case Western Reserve University on clinical-translational research focusing on basic mechanisms of epilepsy and seizures. Being a level IV epilepsy center, one of our key areas of research interests is surgical outcomes in medically intractable epilepsy patients. We are also active investigating the following:

• Neurophysiology of acute post-anoxic myoclonus after cardiac arrest.
• Role of polygraphic recording with surface-EMG electrodes in motor seizures.
• Neurophysiology of motor seizures.
• Eye movements in epilepsy.
• Classification and outcome in patients with acute symptomatic seizures.
• Long-term outcomes in patients undergoing SEEG guided radiofrequency trans-ablation for dominant hippocampal epilepsy.
• Development of a device agnostic automated seizure detector.