NCAN Milestones
This section will list recent and future items involving the Center and Center personnel, including new achievements, visitors, lectures, courses and workshops, appointments, awards, community opportunities, upcoming events and more.
Dr. Jonathan R. Wolpaw wins the BCI Society 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award.
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Dr. Jonathan Wolpaw is the winner of the BCI Society inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for his extraordinary and tireless efforts to serve the cause of BCI with passion and commitment, and his outstanding and sustained contribution to building and maintaining the BCI community. He pioneered many aspects of BCI research that helped establish the field and he worked to bring together the experts that helped create the multidisciplinary BCI community we enjoy today.
Dr. Tao Xie was awarded with a two-year grant from from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation to investigate the neural dynamics and causal functions of human amygdala-prefrontal circuits during fear extinction learning and retrieval
Thursday, August 17, 2023
Dr. Xie at the Department of Neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is the recipient of a two-year NARSAD Young Investigator grant from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation to investigate the neural dynamics and causal functions of human amygdala-prefrontal circuits during fear extinction learning and retrieval in patients implanted with SEEG electrodes.
NCAN Collaborator Dr. Bob Knight was awarded the NINDS Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship by an NINDS Investigator
Saturday, July 1, 2023
Each year, NINDS selects up to five Landis Awardees from among faculty members who have shown dedication to superior mentorship and training in neuroscience research. We congratulate Dr. Bob Knight for this outstanding award!
Dr. Disha Gupta was awarded a 2-year NYSDOH/SCIRB IDEA grant to investigate operant conditioning of somatosensory evoked potentials to improve motor function after SCI
Saturday, July 1, 2023
Award Number: DOH-C37714GG, NYS Spinal Cord Injury Research Board (SCIRB)
Dr. Jodi Brangaccio was awarded a 2-year VA SPiRE grant to investigate operant conditioning of sensory evoked potentials to reduce phantom limb pain
Saturday, July 1, 2023
Award Number: 1I21RX004410‐01A1
Drs. Leuthardt, Zipfel and Brunner were awarded with a 2-year NIH/NINDS R21 grant to study 'Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation to mitigate subarachnoid hemorrhage induced inflammation.'
Friday, June 16, 2023
Introducing Stereotactic, Functional and Epilepsy Surgery Fellowship at WashU
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
The Neurosurgery Department at Washington University offers a CAST-approved, 12-month functional fellowship, providing training in the diagnosis and management of movement disorders, epilepsy, spasticity and chronic pain. We are currently accepting applications for a July 1, 2024 start date.
Cordance Medical Welcomes Esteemed Experts Eric Leuthardt, MD, and Hong Chen, PhD, to Advance NeuroAccess Technology for Liquid Biopsy and Drug Delivery in Brain Diseases
Thursday, June 1, 2023
Industry Pioneers Dr. Eric Leuthardt and Dr. Hong Chen Join Cordance Medical's Team
Sulzer lab publishes article on feasibility of NCAN's H-reflex operant conditioning protocol for treatment of post-stroke motor disorders
Friday, May 19, 2023
Hyperreflexia is common after neurological injury such as stroke, yet clinical interventions have had mixed success. Dr. Sulzer’s lab has previously shown that hyperreflexia of the rectus femoris (RF) during walking is closely associated with reduced knee flexion in people with post‑stroke Stiff‑Knee gait (SKG). They found that operant conditioning of H‑reflex, one of NCAN’s core rehabilitative technologies, reduced hyperreflexia and improved knee flexion during.
Dr. Leuthardt and his WashU team received NSF Engines Development Award
Thursday, May 11, 2023
NEURO360 – Advancing neuroscience technologies to improve cognitive wellness (MO, IL)
Map redrawn for the human motor cortex
Wednesday, April 19, 2023
The human brain’s motor cortex is often regarded as a linear map with discrete sections, each controlling different parts of the body. The discovery that portions of the motor cortex have other functions points to a different type of map.
Dr. Aiko Thompson was awarded a 1-year South Carolina Spinal Cord Injury Research Fund grant to investigate inducing corticospinal plasticity for improving upper extremity motor function recovery in people with chronic cervical spinal cord injury.
Sunday, January 1, 2023
The goal of this project is to explore the mechanisms of plasticity and therapeutic effects produced through operant up-conditioning of the motor evoked potential in the upper extremity of individuals with chronic incomplete cervical SCI. This funding provides Dr. Lewis (Thompson’s postdoc fellow) opportunities to further develop her understanding of corticospinal and spinal plasticity after SCI.
Drs. Leuthardt and Chen were awarded with a 5-year NIH/NCI U01 grant to develop 'Sonobiopsy for Noninvasive Genetic Evaluation of Glioblastoma Patients.'
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Information session for medical students with interests in Adaptive Neurotechnologies who are applying for residency in neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine
Saturday, October 15, 2022
Drs. Brunner, PhD, Leuthardt, MD, and Willie, MD, PhD are hosting an information session for medical students with interests in Adaptive Neurotechnologies who are applying for residency in neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine.
Epilepsy Monitoring Unit expands at St. Louis Children's Hospital
Saturday, October 1, 2022
NCAN TR&D3 co-leaders Dr. Jon Willie, MD, PhD and Peter Brunner, PhD, together with their collaborators at SLCH, Drs. Tom Foutz, MD, PhD, John Zempel, MD, PhD, Jarod Roland, MD, and Sean McEvoy, MD are developing Adaptive Neurotechnologies to improve diagnosis, treatment and therapy in patients affected by intractable epilepsy. The Epilepsy-Monitoring Unit (EMU) at the Pediatric Epilepsy Center at St.
Drs. Brunner, Miller and Worrell were awarded with an NIH/NINDS U01 grant to 4-year NIH/NINDS U01 grant to develop 'An Ecosystem of Technology and Protocols for Adaptive Neuromodulation Research in Humans.'
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Dr. Peter Brunner, PhD at the Department of Neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and his joint-PIs Dr. Kai Miller and Greg Worrell at the Mayo Clinic are the recipients of an 4-year NIH/NINDS U01 grant for developing 'An Ecosystem of Technology and Protocols for Adaptive Neuromodulation Research in Humans.'
Dr. Jon Willie was awarded an AES seed grant to investigate novel biomarkers to improve centromedian nucleus of thalamus stimulation
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Dr. Jon Willie, MD, PhD at the Department of Neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is the recipient of an AES Seed Grant for 'Novel biomarkers to improve centromedian nucleus of thalamus stimulation. His collaborators on this project are Drs. Peter Brunner, Katie Bullinger, Thomas Foutz, Robert Gross and Svjetlana Miocinovic.
Dr. Tao Xie was awarded with a two-year grant from the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience to investigate “Dynamics and Causal Functions of Amygdala-Mediated Fear Extinction Learning and Recall in Humans
Monday, May 23, 2022
Dr. Xie at the Department of Neurosurgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is the recipient of a two-year grant from the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience to investigate “Dynamics and Causal Functions of Amygdala-Mediated Fear Extinction Learning and Recall in Humans” in patients implanted with SEEG electrodes.
NCAN Collaborator Dr. Bob Knight has received continuous funding for his investigation into 'Attention, Orientation and the Human Prefrontal Cortex' since 1985.
Friday, March 25, 2022
Dr. Bob Knight studies the coordination between the different regions of the brain in support of working memory, memory consolidation and attention. He is principal investigator on the long-term project, “Attention, Orientation and the Human Prefrontal Cortex,” which has been continuously funded since 1985.
Dr. Aiko Thompson was awarded a 3-year DoD/CDMRP grant to investigate targeted spinal cord plasticity for alleviating SCI-related neuropathic pain
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Award Number: SC210118, DoD/CDMRP
IpsiHand stroke-recovery device named product of year by science society
Monday, December 13, 2021
Multidisciplinary Washington University research led to device’s development.
The IpsiHand, an innovative stroke-recovery device that helps stroke patients recover significant arm and hand function by retraining their brains, has received the 2021 Pantheon Product of the Year Award from California Life Sciences.
NCAN Scientists Publish Commentary on Article on Side-Specific Neurohormonal Effects on Spinal Function
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
NCAN scientists Jonathan R. Wolpaw, MD, and Jonathan Carp, PhD, wrote a commentary (Wolpaw and Carp. eLife 2021;10:e72048. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.72048) on the article by Lukoyanov et al.
Drs. Peter Brunner and Eric Leuthardt were awarded with a two-year grant from the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience.
Friday, July 23, 2021
Drs. Peter Brunner and Eric Leuthardt were awarded with a two-year grant from the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience to investigate “Neural mechanisms underlying transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation."
Collaborator named as the 2021 recipient of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation Allied Health Professional research Award of ASIA
Monday, July 19, 2021
Blair Dellenbach, an occupational therapist in Dr. Aiko Thompson's EPOC lab at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has been named as the 2021 recipient of the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation Allied Health Professional research Award of ASIA. Dellenbach will receive $25,000 to fund her study, "Can increasing MEP size improve upper extremity motor function in individuals with SCI?"
Seminar Announcement--Dr. Monica Perez
Tuesday, June 29, 2021
NCAN will be virtually hosting a seminar on Tuesday, June 29 with speaker Monica Perez, PT, PhD
Seminar Announcement--Dr. Gerald E. Loeb
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Gerald E. Loeb, M.D. "Animals and Machines that Learn" Seminar
BioCircuit Technologies Receives $4.6 Million NIH Award
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
BioCircuit Technologies, a development-stage medical device company, received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) a $1.7 million grant with the intent to fund $4.6 million over five years.
Stroke-recovery device using brain-computer interface receives FDA market authorization
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
Innovative multidisciplinary research at Washington University led to development of 'breakthrough' device
A first-of-its kind device that helps people disabled by stroke regain significant control over their arm and hand function by using their minds has received market authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The IpsiHand Upper Extremity Rehabilitation System, developed by Neurolutions Inc. – a Washington University in St.
Seminar Announcement--Dr. David Reinkensmeyer
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
David Reinkensmeyer, Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine.
Robot-aided recovery after stroke: Role of synergies and sensation
Tuesday, April 27
11AM EDT / 10AM CDT/ 8AM PDT
Aiko Thompson, Ph.D. awarded with $1.62 million NIH/NINDS grant
Friday, January 24, 2020
Dr. Aiko Thompson was recently awarded a $1.62 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to be distributed through 2025. Thompson works with patients with incomplete spinal cord injuries – that is, patients who still have some feeling or movement below the site of their injury.
NCAN Scientist Wins Prize at ACRM LaunchPad Competition
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Spinal Reflex Conditioning Wins the “Most Innovative” Award at the ACRM LaunchPad Competition
NCAN Staff Honored in BCI Research Award Book
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
The recently published BCI Award Book honors two projects with NCAN staff.
Knee Jerk Reaction
Sunday, December 1, 2013
A training regimen designed to suppress abnormal reflexes appears to modify the nervous system in people with incomplete SCI, significantly improving their ability to walk.
NCAN Technology on the Colbert Report
Thursday, April 4, 2013
NIH Director Francis Collins appears on The Colbert Report (episode 1,173), with Stephen Colbert wearing an EEG cap provided by NCAN (Stephen, we're still waiting to get the cap back).
Reflex control could improve walking after incomplete spinal injuries
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
A training regimen to adjust the body’s motor reflexes may help improve mobility for some people with incomplete spinal cord injuries, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health. During training, the participants were instructed to suppress a knee jerk-like reflex elicited by a small shock to the leg. Those who were able to calm hyperactive reflexes – a common effect of spinal cord injuries – saw improvements in their walking.