Three new research awards were made in 2009 by the CPIRF Board. The first award was made to Dr. Ahamed Hossain of the Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger, Inc.

Dr. Ahamed Hossain

He plans to study neuronal pentraxin 1 (NP1), a novel neuronal protein and a member of a newly recognized subfamily of “long pentraxins”. His goal is to determine the role and function of this protein in the molecular cascade of neuronal death in neonatal brain injury triggered by a hypoxia-ischemic (HI) event, an important risk factor for the development of cerebral palsy. His previous work has shown that NP1 is induced in neonatal HI and that anti-sense oligonucleotides directed at NP1 mRNA prevent neuronal loss. The long term goal is to develop a molecular target (NP1) that will prevent hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in infants.

Dr. Greg Wilson

The second award was made to Dr. Greg Wilson of the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, IN. He will be studying the effectiveness of robots developed by Dr. Igo Krebs of MIT for both the shoulder and wrist of children with moderate to severe hemiplegic cerebral palsy in improving upper extremity function. In addition he and his team will determine if the random presentation of targets in the accompanying video portion of the robotic therapy leads to better transfer and retention of motor skills than an ordered presentation of targets in children with cerebral palsy. Motor learning literature suggests that random presentation leads to increased motor learning but this has not yet been studied in children with CP. This project will be conducted in the newly established robotics center at Riley which was made possible by the efforts of CPIRF Board Member Margaret Goldsmith and the Executive Director of UCP Indy, Donna Roberts.

Dr. Simona Bar-Haim

The third award was made to Dr. Simona Bar-Haim of the Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Zerifin, Israel. Dr. Bar-Haim along with her Moroccan, Jordanian and Palestinian colleagues will be studying the effectiveness of shoes that employ the theory of “chaotic perturbation” in improving the walking ability of adolescents with spastic diplegic/tetraplegic cerebral palsy.