Washington University Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS) and The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital have awarded Stefanie Geisler, MD, and Laura McPherson, PT, DPT, PhD, grants as part of the 17th annual Clinical and Translational Research Funding Program (CTRFP). This program is the largest internal grant funding program in the ICTS, requiring applicants to submit proposals for projects in three categories: clinical/translational, community-engaged research, and biostatistics, epidemiology, and research design.
Stefanie Geisler, MD
Project title: Sphingolipidomics to Identify Small Fiber Neuropathy Endotypes
Washington University School of Medicine: Department of Neurology
Patients with small fiber neuropathy (SFN) suffer from burning pain, tingling, numbness, fatigue, myalgias, and muscle cramps. There currently are no effective treatments for SFN. A major impediment for developing effective SFN therapies are the significant between-patient differences of the disease, which may be due to different mechanisms leading to SFN. We recently identified 3 distinct SFN subtypes. This proposal aims to identify biomarkers for the SFN subgroups, which may lead to the development of personalized, targeted therapies.
Laura McPherson, PT, DPT, PhD
Project title: Subclinical Pathophysiology of Voluntary Motor Processing in People With Multiple Sclerosis
Washington University School of Medicine: Department of Neurology
Multiple sclerosis (MS) damages the central nervous system (CNS), impairing its control of the body’s systems. Disability can develop from both periodic relapses and gradual progression of symptoms over time. MS drugs reduce relapse frequency, but none effectively prevent or slow progression. When patients show progressive symptoms, much CNS damage has already occurred. Our eventual goal is to detect disease progression before symptoms appear. This would be critical for rapid testing of new drugs and for delivering them early to prevent more damage. As a first step, our study will see if our novel measure of CNS motor processing detects changes in MS patients who do not yet have disability.