Illinois Medicine

see this unfold." But the work is more about patients than Edwin Cook, MD RESEARCH AMOUNT: $9.6 million YEARS: 5 CO-INVESTIGATORS: Michael Ragozzino, PhD at College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Fedra Najjar, MD, director, Neurodevelopmental Pharmacology Clinic SYNOP SIS: The project is investigating the genetic, neurobiological and cognitive features of individuals with autism spectrum disorders. This project also aims to investigate pharmacological agents useful for treating autism. University of Illinois at Chicago is one of five Autism Centers of Excellence conducting the research. neurons, Cook says. "The research has a single purpose, which is to attempt to improve the quality of life for the patients that we see and their families," he says. "Continuing to see patients helps remind me [and] us how far we have to go and how important the research remains. The ability to translate back and forth from clinic to bench and back again and again is an experience that is both exhilarating and humbling at the same time." For example, Cook recently found that a patient with autism and prominent obsessive- compulsive disorder symptoms has a chromo- somal disorder that had been missed years ago before recent advances in technology. In the course of the research, Cook's team found the rare chromosomal disorder and learned that a previous family with the same finding had two children with autism spectrum disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. "Although this is an example of going from the clinic to the research study and under- standing his problems a little more," Cook adds, "it hasn't yet led to a new treatment for his condition—and that is the goal. So there is much work to be done." FOCUS ON UNUSUAL STROKES Cook, who is in the last year of a five-year NIH grant totaling $9.6 mil- lion. "In the autism field, there is so much sharing of research material," he says. "We may have a question or two arise in our clinic. We'll ask our research partners around the world, and someone else may come up with a solution." The process is slow but much progress is being made in studies along the autism spectrum. Cook is grateful for the chance to interact in the clinic with families affected by autism. "Our families are very supportive of the work of the center," he says. "Our work is still not enough—we want to do more, and progress is never fast enough; that's the nature of science. We used to say it was a marathon, but at this point we're thinking it's an ultra-marathon. We are chipping away at some- thing very complex." The research, he says, "is starting to cluster around a whole set of proteins—think of it as charms on a charm bracelet. It's the chain of communication between neurons. It turns out there are lots of different genes involved, but they're all connected and involve the communica- tion of two nerve cells in key parts of the brain. It's very interesting to Autism is a rapidly growing and evolving field that's gained high-profile attention in recent years. Sometimes, though, clinical researchers delve into areas of study that have been overlooked. Amin-Hanjani, for example, studies strokes in the posterior section of the brain, a region that's received comparatively little attention from researchers. Her work earned $406,025 in NIH grants in fiscal year 2010, part of a five-year, $2.1 million study. Amin-Hanjani's practice involves primarily the surgical management of cerebrovascular disease and includes diseases of the brain blood vessels, such as brain aneurysms, brain vascular malformations, hemorrhagic stroke (intracranial bleeding) in addition to the type of occlusive cerebrovascular disease (blood vessel blockage) that causes ischemic stroke, which is most directly relevant to her NIH- funded research. "There has been relatively greater interest in studying the carotid arteries because they supply blood to the majority of the brain's vol- ume," she says. "It turns out, though, that other blood vessels supply the back of the brain; although much smaller, this part of the brain is some high-priced real estate. There are a lot of functions packed into a small area." That region, adds Amin-Hanjani, "includes the brainstem, which is the primary highway conveying information between the cerebral hemispheres ("thinking" part of the brain) and the rest of the body, so 24 | WINTER 2012 PHOTO: DIANE SMUTNY

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