04 Nov UCNS Accredited Clinical Fellowship in Autonomic Disorders at the NIH
Description
This program in the Autonomic Medicine Section offers a clinical fellowship that is accredited by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties (UCNS) and trains Fellows in patient-oriented and translational research about disorders of autonomic and catecholaminergic systems. Because of the myriad roles of these systems in homeostasis, drug effects, and multi-disciplinary acute and chronic disorders of regulation, autonomic medical research requires thinking in terms of integrative physiological concepts. The clinical research consists of developing and testing diagnostic and pathophysiologic biomarkers, natural history studies, and pathophysiologically relevant therapeutic interventions. Major emphasis is on catecholaminergic deficiencies in the brain and periphery in Parkinson disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, pure autonomic failure, and other synucleinopathies evaluated by physiological, neurochemical, neuroimaging, microscopic, and genetic approaches. The translational research focuses on autotoxicity exerted by the dopamine metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetaldehyde (DOPAL) and harmful DOPAL-induced modifications of intracellular proteins such as alpha-synuclein. The program uses a variety of clinical assessment techniques such as physiological autonomic function testing, catecholamine neurochemistry, visualization of catecholaminergic innervation by positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, and immunofluorescence confocal microscopy to examine alpha-synuclein deposition in sympathetic nerves. A recent urgent extension of the research is to autonomic/catecholaminergic functions in post-acute SARS-CoV2.
Details here: http://dir.ninds.nih.gov/Faculty/Profile/david-goldstein.html
Division of Intramural Research, NINDS, NIH
NIH Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD
Dr. David Goldstein
goldsteind@ninds.nih.gov