黑料视频

December 21, 2024
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Researchers from Watson College, Upstate Medical team up to study brain disease

The two schools' collaborations stem from a memorandum of understanding signed in 2022

Researchers from 黑料视频 and Upstate Medical University are studying the underlying cause of hydrocephalus, a disorder where excess cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain compresses brain tissue. From left are Upstate Medical student Adithi Randeni; Watson College Assistant Professor Fake Researchers from 黑料视频 and Upstate Medical University are studying the underlying cause of hydrocephalus, a disorder where excess cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain compresses brain tissue. From left are Upstate Medical student Adithi Randeni; Watson College Assistant Professor Fake
Researchers from 黑料视频 and Upstate Medical University are studying the underlying cause of hydrocephalus, a disorder where excess cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain compresses brain tissue. From left are Upstate Medical student Adithi Randeni; Watson College Assistant Professor Fake "Frank" Lu; Watson biomedical engineering PhD student Shovit Arpit Gupta; and Dr. Jie Li, research scientist from Upstate Medical's Department of Neurosurgery. Image Credit: Jonathan Cohen.

The best partnerships are the ones where everyone benefits.

That鈥檚 why Upstate Medical University and 黑料视频鈥檚 Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science working together makes so much sense. Upstate Medical has research questions, and Watson can supply eager faculty and students as well as the technical equipment to help provide answers.

Since signing a memorandum of understanding in July 2022, the two schools have found ways to cooperate. Research areas being explored include neuroscience, brain imaging, digital pathology, cancer research and bone-tissue engineering. Under a pilot program that is part of the agreement, seed grants of up to $25,000 are awarded for preliminary research in pursuit of external funding. The two institutions also have submitted joint proposals to the National Science Foundation (NSF) and are exploring proposals to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

One of those seed grants is funding a project led by Assistant Professor Fake 鈥淔rank鈥 Lu from Watson鈥檚 Department of Biomedical Engineering and Dr. Satish Krishnamurthy, a professor of neurosurgery at Upstate Medical University. They are studying the underlying cause of hydrocephalus, a disorder where excess cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain compresses brain tissue and causes a variety of physical and mental issues. It can happen to individuals at any age but is most common among babies and adults ages 60 and up.

Over the summer, Upstate Medical research scientist Dr. Jie Li and Adithi Randeni, a British medical student from the University of Leeds, traveled to the biomedical labs at Binghamton鈥檚 Innovative Technologies Complex to work with Lu and PhD student Shovit Arpit Gupta. They analyzed how cerebrospinal fluid from hydrocephalus samples differs from normal samples using Raman spectroscopy, which uses scattered light to measure the vibrational energy modes of a sample and provide a structural fingerprint by which molecules can be identified.

鈥淥ur long-term plan is to develop an easy-to-use inline clinical setup to measure each patient very quickly, which will help us to understand their prognosis and make real-time decisions about surgical needs,鈥 Lu says.

Because hydrocephalus is generally treated by installing a shunt that drains excess fluid away from the brain to lower in the body where it can be reabsorbed more easily, this research is to help understand the underlying process that causes hydrocephalus and treat it without surgery using medications.

鈥淚f the shunt malfunctions because of an infection or protein molecules blocking the port, the patient has to do a shunt revision or replacement,鈥 Li says. 鈥淐urrently, there鈥檚 no easy way to detect the shunt blockage, so that causes a lot of problems. I heard one kid had to go to the hospital for a shunt revision eight times in one year.鈥