New grants for five research projects awarded by the Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering
Boston/Lausanne (October 21, 2014)—The Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering, a collaborative program between Harvard Medical School and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, has announced a new set of grants worth USD 3.6 million for five research projects. This is a further strengthening of the partnership between Harvard and Swiss scientists begun in 2010.
Three of the five projects will pursue new methods to diagnose and treat hearing loss. A fourth project focuses on the dynamics of brain networks in children with autism, and the fifth on cell transplantation strategies that could reverse certain forms of blindness.
The research projects were all selected for their scientific quality, the novelty of the approach proposed and the potential for genuine clinical impact. Three of the research projects are a continuation of the successful research projects from the Bertarelli Program, focusing on novel approaches to understanding or treating sensory disorders.
To promote collaborations between US and Swiss based scientists as well as between neuroscientists and engineers, the funding conditions stipulate that each project be an equal collaboration between Harvard and at EPFL. This incentivizes researchers to find new collaborators with complementary skills. This in turn led to new interdisciplinary projects that combined technologies and approaches in novel ways.
“We are delighted at the continued generosity of the Bertarelli Foundation,” said Jeffrey S. Flier, Dean of Harvard Medical School. “This type of forward-thinking support is exactly what’s needed to help us continue to unravel the profound complexities of the human brain.”
David Corey, HMS professor of neurobiology and Director of the Bertarelli Program for Harvard Medical School, said, “The past 40 years of basic research in neuroscience have produced an extraordinary understanding of how the brain works, and how it can malfunction in neurological and psychiatric disease. We are now at a point where we can use this understanding to treat these devastating diseases. The Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering combines basic neuroscience with the technology and problem-solving focus of engineering to accelerate the delivery of new treatments to the clinic. The tremendous success of the first round of projects has amply validated the vision of the Bertarelli Foundation in creating this unique collaborative program.”
Commenting on the new research, Ernesto Bertarelli, Co-Chairman of the Bertarelli Foundation, said, “When my family and I had the vision for this program, it was based upon bringing together scientists and medical specialists from different disciplines and countries to really push the boundaries of neuroscience and neuroengineering, creating a melting-pot of different talents, passions and visions united by a commitment to find ground-breaking ways to treat people and to make their lives better. What has been achieved since 2011 is highly encouraging. What might be achieved with these new research projects is just as exciting.” Bertarelli, a graduate of Harvard Business School, is also a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows.
For further information, please contact:
Harvard Medical School David Cameron 617-432-0441 david_cameron@hms.harvard.edu
EPFL Madeleine von Holzen +41 21 693 22 66 / M +41 79 305 86 25 madeleine.vonholzen@epfl.ch
Bertarelli Foundation Marie-Hélène Hancock - Hirzel.Neef.Schmid.Counselors +41 22 340 28 45 / M +41 79 204 21 22 marie-helene.hancock@konsulenten.ch
The Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
EPFL is an internationally top-ranked scientific research and educational institution on the shores of Lake Geneva. As one of two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, its trajectory over the past four decades is unparalleled—taking the lead in emerging fields of research such as bioengineering and energy technology, as well as expanding far beyond the Lausanne campus throughout Switzerland with satellite campus and international accords with other world-class universities.
EPFL at a glance : http://information.epfl.ch/glance
The Bertarelli Foundation
The Bertarelli Foundation was founded in 1998 in memory of Fabio Bertarelli, the father of Ernesto and Dona. Today, the Foundation has focused its activities on two main areas: life sciences and marine conservation. Ernesto and Dona are the Foundation’s co-presidents, while their mother, Maria Iris, and Ernesto’s wife, Kirsty, are also Board members.
http://www.bertarelli-foundation.org
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School (hms.harvard.edu) has more than 9,000 full-time faculty working in 11 academic departments located at the School’s Boston campus or in one of 47 hospital-based clinical departments at 16 Harvard-affiliated teaching hospitals and research institutes. Those affiliates include Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance, Boston Children’s Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Hebrew Senior Life, Joslin Diabetes Center, Judge Baker Children’s Center, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Massachusetts General Hospital, McLean Hospital, Mount Auburn Hospital, Schepens Eye Research Institute, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and VA Boston Healthcare System.
Annex: the five new research programs
Developing new methods for diagnostics of hearing loss
One of the great challenges in diagnosing hearing problems is that the physician cannot see the tissues and cells of the inner ear. In contrast, simple optical methods allow inspection of the retina of the eye. In this continuation proposal the researchers will collaborate to develop new imaging methods for the human inner ear. While they have previously showed that they can image the inner ear with minimal invasion, they will now extend advanced endoscopic two-photon technology to allow subcellular imaging, they will use the fluorescence of two natural metabolic products to assess the health of the inner ear, and they will extend initial results to enable imaging of the whole hearing organ. These experiments draw on the highly complementary skills of the two investigators to develop new methods for diagnostics for hearing loss.
New generation of auditory brainstem implants
The cochlear implant, a device that bypasses the deaf inner ear to convey electrical signals directly to the auditory nerve, has been the most successful neural prosthesis over the past few decades, with over 200,000 in use worldwide. However, some patients cannot receive an implant due to a damaged inner ear or auditory nerve. In their 2011 Bertarelli project, the researchers optimized design and fabrication of experimental auditory brainstem implants, using high-density, flexible electrodes. Experiments were short-term, and only in mice. In this project, they will extend the research to long-term experiments in mice to test the safety, durability, and effectiveness of the devices. They will also extend the flexible electrodes to human tissue, to optimize the geometry and stimulation parameters that will allow eventual use in human patients.
Gene therapy to treat deafness
For more than a decade hopes have been pinned on gene therapy to correct inherited disorders in humans. There are, for example, over 300 distinct inherited forms of deafness, which cause congenital deafness in about 1 in 1000 newborns, and these might be treated by gene therapy to replace defective genes. A longstanding problem for gene therapy for hearing loss, however, is that very few viral vectors will enter the mechanosensory cells of the inner ear. This continuation of a successful project from 2011 will explore new vectors to carry genes into these sensory cells and will broaden the range of treatable genetic deafness. The researchers will also use modern genome editing technologies to repair specific mutations that cannot be corrected by simple gene replacement. Brain networks in children with autism Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has successfully allowed us to watch brain activity in humans during experimental tasks, revealing which brain regions are specialized for which computational functions. fMRI has also begun to be used to understand disorders of brain connectivity—the information flow between these regions. But movement of the head during imaging can distort the image, and children with autism tend to move more than others, impeding diagnosis.
These researchers will first develop methods to detect and correct for head motion in children and other difficult patients. They will then use fMRI scans of autistic children to test abnormal connectivity between brain regions, which is hypothesized as a cause of autism. Finally they will identify aspects of brain connectivity that correlate with specific types of autism, and ask whether connectivity can be improved with current autism treatments. These experiments will address general problems of fMRI in moving patients, with specific studies of autistic patients and the role of connectivity in this disorder.
Tissue engineering the macula
Retinal degenerative diseases are leading causes of incurable blindness and are often characterized by loss of the light-sensing photoreceptor cells. Because the regenerative capacity of the retina is extremely limited, cell transplantation strategies hold promise to restore lost function. Researchers have had some success in isolating the progenitor cells that can turn into photoreceptors, yet knowledge of the optimal stage of differentiation for transplantation is lacking.
The overall goal of this project is to develop cell lines that could be transplanted into the retina to reverse certain forms of blindness, and to discover drugs that could prevent or reverse retinal degeneration. This will be done in three stages: First, researchers will coax progenitor cells to become cone photoreceptors, the type of photoreceptor responsible for color vision and high-acuity vision. Second, researchers will engineer scaffolds that can support the growth and differentiation of these photoreceptors. The third stage is to use such scaffolds as a platform to test potential compounds that can reverse retinal degenerative disorders.
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