My primary responsibilities,
as an Associate in Surgery (Neurosurgery) [Harvard
Appointment], are in the management of a research laboratory
at MGH where I direct the Neurosurgery Surgical Research Laboratory.
I work for Dr Robert L. Martuza, Chief, MGH Neurosurgical Service
(see Research@Neurosurgery)
where I am also the Director, MGH Neurosurgery Information Systems.
In this capacity, I am an
active member of several of standing MGH committees:
MGH Executive Committee
on Research (ECOR), Subcommittee on Research Facilities (SRF)
MGH Subcommittee on Research
Animal Care (SRAC)
Institutional Animal
Care and Use Committee (IACUC) - Protocol Review Group (PRG)
MGH Unit Safety Officer
Advisory Committee & Laboratory Managers Committee
MGH Web Strategy Committee
- Internet, and Intranet Web Subcommittees, and Health Care Forums
Subcommittee
I have a number of research
and clinical support responsibilities.
Summary
- Clinical Activities
Neuro
Operating Rooms - Neuro Control Room
Clinical support systems
that I have setup and manage in the Neurosurgery ORs
and the Neuro Control Room. The systems are used as the staging
area for medical neuroradiology images in planning neurosurgical
cases. The micro PACS DICOM Server - NSOR1 - is utilized by
MGH PACs to routinely push patient data sets to the Neuro OR
for surgical case planning. The systems are used for planning
stereotaxic surgery, framless stereotaxic surgery, and for OTS
(optical tracking system) neurosurgical cases as well as for
other routine neurosurgical cases involving CNS tumors, and
functional neurosurgery.
Intranet @
Neurosurgery and Internet @ Neurosurgery Clinical Systems
NeuroCare
Main
Neurosurgery clinical intranet web sites - NeuroCare
and Cajal - with
info to support the Neurosurgical Service @ MGH
Used
on Win 95-2K desktop clients as a medical image workstation
image viewer. It has a variety of image manipulation tools.
Also runs as a DICOM server system on Win 95/NT/2K.
Summary
- Research Activities - Director, Neurosurgery Surgical Research
Laboratories
In the Neurosurgery
Surgical Research Laboratories, there are multiple ongoing
basic and preclinical research projects involving studies
of functional neurosurgery, neuroregeneration & degeneration,
cerebral vasospasm, stroke, neuroimaging, neurotransplantation
and gene therapy. These studies range from basic bench-top
assays of components involved in metabolic and/or pathophysiological
pathways, to surgical models of disease pathways and treatments,
to innovative use of new technologies, to imaging studies
(PET, fCT, fMRI, 3d Doppler
Ultrasound, Optical Scanning) of physiological changes involved
in these disease
processes.
Dr
Bruce Jenkins, Director, Neurochemical Imaging - MGH
Radiology - MR
Center at MGH - fMRI, MR Spectroscopy and high resolution
anatomical studies.
A functional collaborative scientific
group centered at McLean Hospital and Harvard NERPRC funded
by the NIH/NINDS that investigates neuroprotective, neuromodulatory
and neural transplantation approaches for PD. This work is
synergistically linked in four projects:
Project 1. A prevention of dopaminergic
degeneration induced by MPTP. Two paradigms are tested; a)
neuroprotection to reduce the loss of dopamine terminals and
b) a regeneration paradigm with post MPTP treatment to regenerate
remaining DA terminals.
Project 2. We will test neuronal
replacement by fetal dopamine cells into the striatum, the
subthalamic nucleus and the substantia nigra in an animal
model of PD. We hypothesize that a full reinnervation with
novel dopaminergic fibers in these regions will fully restore
the dysfunctional circuitry responsible for PD.
Project 3. By generating dopaminergic
neurons from blastula stage stem cells, we can obtain renewable
cells to be transplanted for functional tests into animal
models of parkinsonism. These stem cell derived dopaminergic
neurons will be compared in function to those derived from
phenotypically normal embryonic fetal cells.
Imaging Studies: These projects
also include a fourth core project of Imaging Studies involving
functional MRI and PET scans and analysis.
Images courtesy of Anna-Liisa
Brownell, PhD in collaboration on a study of CNS tissue
metabolism (rGMR, rCMRO2, rOEF, rCBF, rCBV) during cerebral
vasospasm. (For
more info.)
Images courtesy of CIPR
(Center for Imaging and Pharmaceutical Research) as part
of a collaboration with the CNS
project group. The images are the work of George
Hunter, MD and Leena
Hamberg, PhD as part of a study on peripheral tissue perfusion
(CBV, TTT, CBFi) during cerebral vasospasm. (For
more info.)
Neurophysiology Research Lab
- "Focal Cerebral Ischemia and Neuroprotective
Agents."
DR C.S. Ogilvy and DR K. Maynard
- Images courtesy of CIPR
(Center for Imaging and Pharmaceutical Research)
as part of a collaboration with the CNS
project group.
The Neurosurgery Surgical Research
Laboratory also provides surgical support facilities for Investigators
conducting studies of interest to the Neurosurgical Service.
Recent examples of studies conducted in the Neurosurgery Surgical
Research Laboratory are:
Pediatric Surgery - Transgenic
Models - sensitivity to pulmonary infections
Radiology - Dr T. Davis -
Optical registration in the Neuro ORs
Cardiac Surgery - Drs J. Schultz
and M. Yu - Burns and Cardiac Studies
Albert Lee, M.D.
- Brain cooling. Hypothermia
is the most consistent, robust and broadly applicable
experimental neuroprotective strategy for ischemic brain
injury. A decrease in stroke injury in animal models
occurs with only a 2-3 degree reduction in brain temperature.
Initial clinical reports from Germany indicate that
cerebral hypothermia can be attained by total body cooling,
and is feasible and safe in stroke patients. We wish
to test the ability of hypothermia to block the progression
of ischemic injury as measured by diffusion-weighted
MRI (DWI).
Gilberto Gonzalez, MD,
Ph.D. - Selective laser thrombolysis. The
use of thrombolytic drugs such as urokinase, tissue
plasminogen activator introduces an inherent risk of
brain hemorrhage. There is a known (0.5%) risk in cardiac
thrombolysis, it reached 6% in the American t-PA trial.
In addition, bleeding risk excludes a number of devastated
stroke patients from thrombolytic therapy, especially
post-surgical cases. Laser assisted thrombolysis offers
to improve the access of thrombolytic drug to the clot
by causing microcavitation in the clot. This should
allow recanalization of blocked vessels with lower doses
of thrombolytic drug and lower risk of hemorrhage. Selective
laser assisted thrombolysis has been developed for the
treatment of acute myocardial infarction by applying
pulses of low enough energy and pulse rate to selectively
deposit energy in the clot. Laser energy pulses of short
duration, nanoseconds-microseconds, deposit energy into
the thrombus and begin the ablation process before sufficient
heat diffuses to adjacent tissues, thereby limiting
thermal damage.
Steven Zeitels, MD.,
Rox Anderson and Walter Koroshetz, MD - Massachusetts
Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI), the MGH
Laser Center and the Neurology
Acute Stroke Service - Endoscopic Reversible Laryngeal
Closure to Prevent Chronic Aspiration . The use of lasers
to "weld" or create a laryngeal closure that would
prevent possible aspiration of gastric contents that commonly
leads to pneumonia in patients following cerebral strokes.
Robert H. Brown, MD, Ph.D.
and Merit E. Cudkowicz, MD - Day
Neuromuscular Research Laboratory - Preclinical Studies
of Intrathecal Recombination Human Superoxide Dismutase
in Sheep. Surgical model for placement of intraventricular
and spinal catheters for chronic infusion of superoxide
dismutase (SOD). Studies in preparation for human clinical
trials involving ALS patients.
Summary
- Technology Activities - Director, Neurosurgery Information
Systems
Neurosurgical Service (Systems
Administrator / Editor / Webmaster) - I
am responsible for the development of web systems, html and
graphics, that are used in support of the MGH Neurosurgical
Service (some of which are listed below). This includes responsibility
for both software and hardware issues, maintenance of a series
of servers (web & database systems), as well as informational
content development.
This includes a variety of Neurosurgery
Internet and Intranet systems, and Patient-to-Patient hosted
web systems.
In addition to the variety of
research support requirements, I also provide some departmental
wide low level support on PC and MAC computer issues. This
also includes some technical support on high end UNIX workstations
used for medical image analysis in support of OR surgical
case planning.
I have current experience
with a variety of operating systems: PC (DOS, Windows 3.x,
Win95/98/ME, NT3.51 NT4, NT5, Win2k Professional and Server),
some working knowledge of MAC Os's, and some UNIX (HPUX).
and some Linux.
I have experience
with a variety of software packages including: MS Office (95-2000),
Adobe Photoshop, Paradox & FileMaker Databases, a mix
of spreadsheet & word processors, scanning & slide
making packages, specialty networking packages, and CDR &
PC hardware systems.
I have demonstrated
experience providing services for the Neurosurgery systems
and for Hosted systems that includes:
Development of Web Sites (Sites
& Servers)
Site Design, Graphics and
Utilization Analysis
Web Page Development (Standard,
Frames, FrontPage)
Domain Name Registration &
Hosting
Neurosurgical Service Web
Systems (Ours - see above)
Patient-to-Patient
Support Services (Hosting Others - see above)
Web Servers (EMWAC, Purveyor
Encryption, IIS4/IIS5, FrontPage Servers)
Index Servers (MS Search,
Excite Search Engines)
FTP Systems (MS IIS Servers,
WarFTPd)
DataBase Systems (Access,
Paradox, FileMaker, Web, MS SQL)
E-mail Servers (EMWAC &
MS IIS, MS Exchange)
ListServers (EMWAC & Lsoft)
Web Calendaring Systems (iCal,
CalSet, Now-Up-to-Date)
Medical Imaging Systems (DICOM
- ConQuest, eFilm, Osirus, MEDx)
IS Functions (pick a title - to
name a few):
Systems Administrator
Server Manager
Network Manager
BackOffice Manager
WebMaster
Systems Developer
Applications Developer
HelpDesk Services (Dept
systems & workstations)
HelpDesk Services (Cyber
HelpDesk for hosted services)
Hardware & Software Support
Services
?? Others
Technology
Activities -Some
Site Awards
Personal
-SomeGraphics
(Most all of the graphics on our servers)
Personal
- Philosophy ????
If you see a Snake,
kill the Snake. Don't form Snake review
committees. Don't form Snake discussion groups. Kill
the Snake.
Don't kill dead
Snakes. Leave them alone, they are dead. Learn from
them but move on. Don't get stuck killing dead Snakes.
Observe & Beware.
Many good opportunities start as Snakes. Coordinate
the discussion to identify which items are Snakes and
which are real opportunities.
Mapping of brain function after
MPTP-induced neurotoxicity in a primate Parkinson's disease
model.
Neuroimage. 2003 Oct;20(2):1064-75.
PMID: 14568476 [PubMed - in process]
Functional CT perfusion imaging
in predicting the extent of cerebral infarction from a 3-hour
middle cerebral arterial occlusion in a primate stroke model.
AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2002 Jun-Jul;23(6):1013-21.
PMID: 12063235 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Application of the 1-microsecond
pulsed-dye laser to the treatment of experimental cerebral
vasospasm.
J Neurosurg. 1991 Aug;75(2):271-6.
PMID: 2072166 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Evidence of the role of hemolysis
in experimental cerebral vasospasm.
J Neurosurg. 1990 May;72(5):775-81.
PMID: 2324801 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Abstracts
F.Cicchetti, J.Bulte, M.Owen,
I.Chen, N.Lapointe, M.Yu 4; X.Wang, C.Owen, K.Jokivarsi,
R.E.Gross, A.Brownell. Monitoring the migration of transplanted
progenitor cells with PET and MRI. Society for Neuroscience
33st Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, November 2003.
(abstract
and poster presentation)
M. Yu, R. Powers,
K. Canales, C. Owen, A.-L. Brownell. Amphetamine may accelerate
metabolism of C-11 raclopride in primate. 49th Annual Meeting
of SNM, Los Angeles, CA, June 2002.
B.G. Jenkins*, Y.I. Chen, R.
Sanchez Pernaute, C. Owen, A.W. Flaherty; O. Isacson, AL Brownell.
Mapping Dopaminergic Function in Normal and MPTP Treated Monkeys
with Pharmacologic MRI and PET. Society for Neuroscience 31st
Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, November 2001. (abstract
and poster presentation)
Que A, Owen MH, Owen CJ, Holmes,
LB. Relationship between axial defects and abnormal
limb in Dh animals. [Abstract]
Northeast Regional Meeting of the Society for Developmental
Biology Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
March 24-26, 2000
Hunter GJ, Hamberg
LH, Morris PP, Maynard KI, Lo EH, Owen C, DeBros FM, Choi
IS, Tatter SB, Gonzales RG, Wolf GL, Ogilvy CS. Demonstrati
on of the cerebrovascular physiology of acute stroke using
high resolution first pass slip-ring CT. [Abstract]
American Society of Neuroradiology, 33rd Annual Meeting, 1995:38.
Steardo, L., Owen,
C.J., Hunnicutt, E.J., and Nathanson, J.A. Atriopeptin Receptors
in Blood-CSF Barriers. [Abstract] Soc. for Neurosci.
Abstr. vol 12, p1259, 1986.
Nathanson, JA, Hunnicutt,
E. and Owen, C. Atriopeptins in the Eye: Receptors,
Second Messengers and Effects on Intraocular Pressure. [Abstract]
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
(ARVO Abstracts) No 49, p273, 1986
Poster Presentation:
A-L Brownell et. al., High Resolution
and Ultra High Resolution PET/MRI/MRS Studies of Parkinson's
Disease and Huntington's Disease Models. Udall Centers of
Excellence; Boston Site Visit August, 2002
M. Yu, R. Powers, K. Canales,
C. Owen, A.-L. Brownell. Amphetamine may accelerate metabolism
of C-11 raclopride in primate. 49th Annual Meeting of SNM,
Los Angeles, CA, June 2002.
B.G. Jenkins et. al., Mapping
Dopaminergic Function in Normal and MPTP Treated Monkeys with
Pharmacologic MRI and PET. Society for Neuroscience 31st Annual
Meeting, San Diego, CA, November 2001.
High Resolution PET, fMRI, and
sMRI in Neuroimaging of the Primate CNS. MIT, Cambridge, MA,
September, 2001.
Complementary PET Studies of
Striatal Dopaminergic System and Cerebral Metabolism. Society
for Neuroscience 30th Annual Meeting, November, 2000.
Relationship between axial defects
and abnormal limb in DH animals. Northeast Regional Meeting
of the Society for Developmental Biology Marine Biological
Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts March 24-26, 2000
Cellular and Molecular Treatments
of Neurological Diseases. 3rd Conference on the prospects
for neural transplantation, gene therapy and progenitor cell
biology. March 15-16, 2002 at the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences, Cambridge, MA.