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Cleveland Clinic Awarded $6.4 Million in State Funds to Create Brain Neuromodulation Center Wednesday October 29, 11:20 am ET CLEVELAND, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Ohio Gov. Bob Taft is visiting Northeast Ohio today to award $6.4 million to a Cleveland Clinic-led collaborative to establish a new Brain Neuromodulation Center in Cleveland. The center will seek to improve care for people with Parkinson's disease and other intractable neurological disorders. Also announced today is that Jerrold L. Vitek, one of the world's leading neurologists, will join The Cleveland Clinic and be part of the new center. The Brain Neuromodulation Center will draw upon The Cleveland Clinic's international expertise in the field of deep brain stimulation (DBS). The center will foster advances in DBS technologies and therapies from conception to reality. Joseph F. Hahn, M.D., Ali R. Rezai, M.D., and Jerrold L. Vitek, M.D., Ph.D., of The Cleveland Clinic, will provide leadership for the new center, which will be a collaborative project with Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University and Toledo's Medical College of Ohio. The center will be based at The Cleveland Clinic. "More than 100 nervous system disorders afflict millions of people worldwide," said Dr. Hahn, a noted neurosurgeon and chairman of CCF Innovations, the Clinic's technology commercialization arm. "Deep brain stimulation already has helped thousands of those people to reclaim their lives. Still, we believe this avenue of treatment can be refined and expanded to help millions more. The Brain Neuromodulation Center will allow Cleveland - and Ohio - to be at the forefront of this emerging field." DBS has been described as a "pacemaker for the brain." The treatment involves implanting electrodes in the brain to deliver electrical impulses. These impulses provide patients relief from the tremors, rigidity, slowness of movement and other symptoms associated with their neurological conditions. DBS is used most commonly to treat patients with Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, dystonia, or tremor caused by multiple sclerosis. Dr. Rezai, head of The Cleveland Clinic's Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Program, is considered a world leader in deep brain stimulation. Under his leadership, the Clinic currently performs the largest number of DBS procedures in the nation. In 2002, the Clinic performed more than five times the average number of procedures performed by other U.S. centers. "The new Brain Neuromodulation Center will help to unlock the mysteries of how DBS works and, through its research and educational programs, increase its use and overall effectiveness," Dr. Rezai said. Dr. Vitek added, "I am thrilled to be a part of this powerful team and look forward to dramatic advances in understanding the mechanisms of action and translating them into new tools that will bring this exceptional therapy to many thousands of patients who today can't access it." State monies for the new center are coming from Ohio's Biomedical Research and Technology Transfer Fund, a fund created with partial proceeds from the state's settlement with tobacco companies. The $6.4 million earmarked for the Brain Neuromodulation Center will allow the center to grow its team of leading neurosurgeons, neurologists, neuroradiologists, neuroscientists and biomedical engineers. The center's research efforts will focus on improving the current generation of DBS electrodes and pacemakers as well as refining surgical techniques and uses. Key personnel for the new center and their roles are: Joseph F. Hahn, M.D., The Cleveland Clinic, principal investigator; Ali R. Rezai, M.D., The Cleveland Clinic, co-principal investigator; Jerrold L. Vitek, M.D., Ph.D., The Cleveland Clinic, co-principal investigator; Peter R. Cavanagh, Ph.D., The Cleveland Clinic, co-investigator; Lawrence W. Elmer, M.D., Ph.D., Medical College of Ohio, co-investigator; Warren M. Grill, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University, co-investigator; Jaimie Henderson, M.D., The Cleveland Clinic, co-investigator; Cameron McIntyre, M.D., The Cleveland Clinic, co-investigator; Micheal D. Phillips, M.D., The Cleveland Clinic, co-investigator; and Christopher M. Coburn, The Cleveland Clinic, co-investigator. Together, these investigators have 25 patents, issued and pending, among them. It is estimated that the center will generate 60 new inventions and 35 patent filings within the next three years, as well create or attract six units of companies to Ohio. "The potential for the Brain Neuromodulation Center is immense," said Floyd D. Loop, M.D., chief executive officer of The Cleveland Clinic. "Clearly, the center's goals are ambitious, but we are confident that they will be achieved and that countless people's lives will be made better in the process. The Brain Neuromodulation Center is one more concrete example of our commitment to providing world-class care and adding to the economic renewal of our city." The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, located in Cleveland, Ohio, is a not-for-profit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. The Cleveland Clinic was founded in 1921 by four renown physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. U.S. News & World Report consistently names The Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation's best hospitals in its annual "America's Best Hospitals" survey. In 2003, The Cleveland Clinic is ranked fifth overall. Approximately 1,200 full-time salaried physicians at The Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Florida represent more than 100 medical specialties and subspecialties. In 2002, there were nearly 2.5 million outpatient visits to The Cleveland Clinic and more than 52,000 hospital admissions. Patients came for treatment from every state and from more than 90 countries. The Cleveland Clinic website address is http://www.clevelandclinic.org . Source: The Cleveland Clinic Foundation SOURCE: Yahoo News (press release) http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031029/clw043_1.html * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn