Cleveland Clinic receives $2.5M grant to research deep brain stimulation in stroke patients

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have received a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to explore deep brain stimulation in post-stroke motor rehabilitation.

Andre Machado, MD, PhD, and Ken Baker, PhD, are primary investigators exploring how such treatments can benefit patients depending on the type of stroke suffered.

“If this research succeeds, it offers new hope for patients who have suffered a stroke and have remained paralyzed," said Machado, chair of the Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute, in a release from Cleveland Clinic. "It is an opportunity to allow our patients to rehabilitate and gain function and therefore gain independence."

The team is examining biomarkers that may indicate which stroke patients may benefit the most from deep brain stimulation.

"This award will help us further refine our work in using cerebellar stimulation — DBS — to enhance motor rehabilitation," Baker, of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, said in a prepared statement. "There currently are no effective therapeutic treatments for the hundreds of thousands of individuals who live with chronic motor disabilities following stroke. We are hopeful this will reduce the burden of stroke on patients, their families and society."