| Members
agreed that BRIGHT could help accelerate
discovery and speed the translation of
research into effective treatments by
fostering collaboration among investigators.
It became clear that by providing clarity of
vision and purpose, that BRIGHT could help
build momentum for progress. Scientists also
pointed out this is a unique time in
history, as advances in neuroimaging have
shown that the brain is capable of
plastically changing, using healthy areas to
compensate for damage. This is a major
scientific paradigm shift from the belief
held only a few years ago and clearly points
to plasticity as a likely mechanism for
recovery.
Describing
his own reasons for working with BRIGHT,
Michael Johnston, MD, Senior Vice President
and Chief Medical Officer at Kennedy Krieger
Institute, Director of KKI’s Division of
Neurology & Developmental Medicine &
KKI’s Neuroscience Laboratory expressed
the commitment shared by all BRIGHT
advisors, "I’m committed to BRIGHT
because we share a common vision to use
science to impact the lives of
children."
A benefit of
the new organization, said Johnathon Mink,
MD, PhD, Chief of Child Neurology at
University of Rochester is "This
multidisciplinary approach provides an
exciting opportunity for progress that will
have lasting impact on the lives of children
with brain injuries "
During the
discussion, SAB participants discussed the
current state of science for treatment and
the different approaches that BRIGHT could
take to improve substantially the function
and quality of life for the approximately 15
million children who have sustained brain
injuries early in life.
To help
people understand what BRIGHT is about and
attract interest from potential
investigators and collaborators the SAB
crafted a Vision, Mission and Scientific
Prospectus.
Mission and
Population Served: Our
mission is to facilitate the organization
and prioritization of resources around the
goal of development and implementation of
effective treatments for acquired brain
injuries suffered in the fetal, neo-natal
and the early childhood period. (I.e.
primarily the Cerebral Palsy population)
Vision:
Our vision is that our children will move
and communicate successfully, allowing them
their entitlement of a rich and full life.
Objectives:
Our objectives are focused on the
implementation of effective treatment
strategies with-in the next 5-10 years
Theme: Translating
basic knowledge of brain plasticity into
solutions for children with early brain
injury.
Scientific
Prospectus: BRIGHT
strives to develop interventions to improve
substantially the function and quality of
life for children who have sustained brain
injuries early in life. We believe that
solutions for these children can be
developed through systems of intervention
that activate multiple sensory and motor
centers in the brain when tailored to the
child’s stage of development. We seek
systems that can demonstrate tangible
results over the next three to five years.
Individual components of these multi-modal
systems may already have been developed but
have not yet been integrated for the purpose
of helping children with brain injuries
using a systems analysis approach. A major
theme of BRIGHT’s work is to develop
approaches that harness the power of the
developing brain’s intrinsic potential for
adaptive neuronal plasticity and reduce
plasticity that is maladaptive.
Adding to the
dialogue Dr. Edward Taub, PhD, University
Professor, Department of Psychology at
University of Alabama at Birmingham
suggested the area found to be most
effective to date has been carefully managed
motor therapy that combined intensive
repetitive training with "behaviorally
relevant" movement. Dr. Taub’s
pioneering work with Pediatric CI therapy in
this area has shown that this approach does
produce improved function through plastic
brain reorganization."
Lucy Miller,
PhD, OTR and Associate Professor of
Rehabilitation Medicine and Pediatrics at
the University of Colorado and a leading
expert in Sensory Integration Dysfunction,
explained how it will be important to also
address the sensory issues of these children
using a combined systems approach with the
motor therapies.
Terry Sanger,
MD, PhD and Assistant Professor Department
of Child Neology and Neuroscience at
Stanford Medical Center talked about the
scope of the challenge the team faced. He
likened it to running a modern day Thomas
Edison laboratory. "Everyone remembers
Edison’s successes, for every success he
had 1,000 failures." Terry encouraged
the team to never be afraid to safely
explore new ideas and sees the high costs of
big science to be one of the current
impediments to innovation. He hopes that
BRIGHT can help motivate private donors to
understand that progress comes from learning
from one’s past failures and to help fund
1,000 small but potentially history changing
projects in the next 5 years.
Dwight Meglan,
PhD and father of a 5 year old brain injured
girl, enthusiastically agreed to donate his
experience as an engineer trained in
analyzing, modeling, simulating, and
facilitating human biomechanics. "I
would love to lead the technical effort to
begin the construction of a sophisticated
multi-modal system that combine simple and
complex stimulation of touch, temperature,
proprioception, hearing, sight, with methods
that activate simple and complex motor,
behavioral and emotional responses. Examples
of these methods might include virtual
reality environments, flight and other
simulator technologies, robotic technology,
trans-cranial magnetic stimulation,
artificial intelligence, neural electronic
prosthesis technology, and interactive
video-based touch screen technology that
stimulates use of upper-extremities."
Although these technologies sound like
science fiction, Dwight assured the team
that the technology is no longer the
limiting factor and that with the guidance
of the scientists and adequate funding this
tool can be a reality.
Johnston also
reminded the group to keep an open mind
about more aggressive approaches such as
administration of medications, neuronal
growth factors and implantation of stem
cells.
DREAM
DISCOVER
TRANSLATE ENRICH
The team
agreed that these four words would help
define how BRIGHT moves forward
strategically. They agreed that the
potential for BRIGHT to enrich the lives of
millions of affected children, was only
limited by its financial resources.
They agreed
that the first step was to encourage the
freedom to DREAM, for the parents to dream
of the potential of their children to live
full and rich lives, and for the scientists
to dream of innovations. From our dreams
will come scientific DISCOVERY. From
discoveries in the laboratory we will
TRANSLATE them into practical treatments.
From treatment we will ENRICH the lives of
the children.
The meeting
drew to a close on an enthusiastic note,
inspiring plans for future meetings,
projects, and achievements. |
