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"I am very grateful to be the recipient of the Child Neurology Foundation Infantile Spasms Research Award. This grant provides me with the opportunity to develop my career as a physician scientist and better understand the mechanisms of pediatric neurologic disease and their impact on functional neurodevelopment."
Dr. Catherine Chu-Shore, MD
Pediatric Neurology and Neurophysiology
Massachusetts General Hospital
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"Research into orphan disorders like infantile spasms often suffer from a lack of funding. That is why we are pleased to partner with Questcor Pharmaceuticals . They have made a multi-year commitment to fund basic research into the causes and consequences of infantile spasms. Our hope is that better understanding of the underlying pathophysiology will lead to new and even more effective treatments for this very rare, but devastating form of childhood epilepsy."
Lawrence W. Brown, MD
Associate Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
President of the Child Neurology Foundation
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The IS Research Award is an annual part of IS Awareness Week, an effort led by the Child Neurology Foundation (CNF) to further increase understanding and awareness of infantile spasms. At last year's Child Neurology Society (CNS) annual meeting, the CNF once again developed a donation wall where physicians showed support for IS research by signing the wall. Each signature triggered an additional contribution to the research grant from Questcor Pharmaceuticals; $30,000 was eventually raised.
Catherine Chu-Shore, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital, was selected for the second year in a row by CNF as the recipient of the Infantile Spasms Research Grant.
With this grant, Dr. Chu-Shore, whose application was reviewed by 10 of the nation's top child neurologists and then selected by the CNF Board of Directors, will be able to continue her research on the "functional network connectivity" in infantile spasms. The goal of her research is to identify early metrics of altered brain connectivity, which can serve as biomarkers for prognostication and treatment stratification for infants with IS.
"We are using EEG recordings to evaluate functional brain networks in children with infantile spasms," said Dr. Chu-Shore. "In this severe epilepsy syndrome, abnormal brain activity interferes with normal development in infancy and can lead to permanent mental retardation. We are working to identify alterations in functional network patterns that may explain and predict these infants' long-term cognitive and developmental outcome and help guide treatment. We have applied these techniques to a small group of infants with infantile spasms with promising preliminary results."
"Over the last eight months, we have initiated collaboration with multiple institutions and greatly expanded our dataset. We have also further developed our methods for EEG-based network analysis. Finally, we have established a sizable EEG database of normal infants to serve as a control population for our studies. Each of these steps is incredibly labor intensive and we are very appreciative of the support that we have received from the Child Neurology Foundation to continue these efforts. Ultimately, we hope to better understand and explain the important relationship between epilepsy and brain development in these children."
Dr. Chu-Shore completed her child neurology training at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). In 2008, she completed a post-doctoral research year with Dr. Elizabeth Thiele, an international expert in tuberous sclerosis complex and infantile spasms. She then completed a combination epilepsy and neurophysiology fellowship at MGH. In 2010, Dr. Chu-Shore joined the staff at MGH in the Pediatric Neurology and Neurophysiology Programs.
Dr. Chu-Shore will be honored and presented with the award at a special luncheon at the CNS Annual Meeting in Savannah Georgia.
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