For the past 17 years, neurosurgeons have implanted electrodes into the brains of persons with Parkinson’s disease to deliver a constant barrage of electric impulses. For many patients, the treatment known as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) immediately relieves the motor impairment caused by the disease.

Warren Grill, professor of biomedical engineering and neurobiology at Duke University and member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, is working to understand the mechanisms of DB) and use this understanding to develop innovative improvements to the therapy.. And thanks to a prestigious new $4 million grant called the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, Grill will delve further into the mystery than ever before.
The Javits Award is a four-year grant that can be extended to seven years that is given by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), which is an arm of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award is given to scientists for their “superior competence and outstanding productivity,” and it “provides long-term support to investigators with a history of exceptional talent, imagination, and preeminent scientific achievement.”

“The goal of our research is to do a better job at relieving the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor and to do so with less energy,” said Grill. “This will allow us to improve patient outcomes and to make smaller and longer lasting battery-powered implants.”

Previous research has shown that DBS is effective only at frequencies of more than 100 pulses per second, which quickly depletes the battery of the implanted stimulator. Grill’s work, however, has demonstrated that lower frequencies can be effective if an appropriately designed temporal pattern is used—analogous to a Morse code of electric pulses.