Where Discovery Creates Hope - July 2021
our work
Where Discovery Creates Hope - July 2021
Drivers of discovery
They’re the doctors you never see. Researchers working behind the scenes to move medicine forward, who rarely, if ever, get to see the world of difference their work means to a patient like Dr. Jerry Vitek’s:
A gifted artist, she was devastated when Parkinson’s made it difficult just to hold a paint brush. But thanks to Deep Brain Stimulation technology, she was once again able to draw a perfect spiral.
Overcome with emotion, she broke down.
Correcting signals in the brain with electrodes requires a powerful MRI that allows researchers to look into the soft tissue and target one-millimeter sized areas. Looking even deeper, researchers like Dr. Prakash Kara use lasers and optics to examine individual neurons.
“Neuro diseases are a major burden on society. More so than even cancer. We need tools to study this problem. Tools to understand the molecules, synapses, neurons and networks at work here,” said Dr. Kamil Ugurbil, director of the Medical Discovery Team and the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research.