Hoglund Brain Imaging Center offers life-changing research

The Hoglund Brain Imaging Center

The brain is the source of all sensation, movement and the ideas and
emotions that make us human. Through the miraculous brain, we experience the wonders of life. But an impaired or damaged brain can be the source of great suffering.

On Wednesday, March 26, the University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) will dedicate its newest research center committed to discovering new ways to prevent and treat disorders that plague the brain, such as traumatic injury, autism and stroke. The Hoglund Brain Imaging Center gathers under one roof a team of the nation's top brain researchers and the most advanced brain imaging technology. Located on the north side of the campus at 39th and Rainbow Blvd. in Kansas City, Kan., the 11,500-square-foot center will facilitate brain research spanning all stages of life-from before birth to old age.

"This research facility is about improving health care in the heartland," Chancellor Robert E. Hemenway said. "People in the state of Kansas, the Kansas City area and around the region won't have to go hundreds of miles for care. Here, they will have access to the latest research and the doctors who make the discoveries."

The $10.5 million center was funded in part by a $4 million gift to the
Kansas University Endowment Association from KU alumni Forrest, e'56, and Sally Roney Hoglund, c'56, of Dallas. Forrest Hoglund is a Kansas City, Mo., native and longtime executive in the oil and gas industry. To date, the center also has received $2 million in state funding and $2.25 million from the federal government.

The Hoglund Center is equipped with $8.8 million in sophisticated brain imaging technology found in only a handful of cities across the country. It includes two extremely sensitive agnetoencephalography (MEG) devices that allow scientists to analyze magnetic signals associated with electrical currents in the brain. MEGs detect which areas of the brain become active when the body performs different activities and can pinpoint exact locations of damage to the brain. One of the center's MEG machines is among only three in the country capable of creating images of a developing fetal brain in the womb. With it, doctors may be able to detect a disorder, such as cerebral palsy, before a baby is born.

The center also boasts a 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device that uses magnets to generate images of the brain's structures in elaborate detail. At twice the strength of most MRIs, the 3T enables scientists to identify where many brain functions take place and detect small abnormalities that could not be visualized using regular MR imaging. Researchers at the Hoglund Center will use the 3T and another MRI to study animals to visualize the brain's process of repair after injury and examine the physical breakdowns in brains suffering from disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, migraine and epilepsy.

Standing, William Brooks, Phd, director, Hoglund Brain Imaging and Jeffrey Lewine, PhD, seated, with the MEG. The MEG is a kind of stethoscope, used to listen and record the electrophysiological activities in the brain. Photo by Shari Hartbauer

"Neuroimaging with MEG and MRI gives us wonderful non-invasive opportunities to explore brain structure and activity," said William Brooks, director of the Hoglund Center. "Understanding the processes and mechanisms of brain disease will lead to new approaches for treatment and therapy."

Brooks, formerly scientific director of the Clinical and Magnetic Resonance Research Center at the University of New Mexico, brings to KU an $800,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study traumatic brain injury using magnetic resonance.

Every year in America, doctors examine more than 2 million people who have suffered a blow to the head. Of those people, between 50,000 and 100,000 sustain prolonged problems that affect their ability to work and their daily lives.

"Traumatic brain injury devastates millions of people," Brooks said. "At this time, there are no good tools for predicting the outcome of injury. Knowing the outcome would enable physicians to make more informed decisions about treatment options and give the patients and their families a better idea of the future."

Brooks will combine his efforts with those of Jeffrey Lewine, head of the center's MEG section. The two will merge the data they gather from the MRI and MEG to create comprehensive forecasts of how brain injuries evolve.

"Together, we hope to develop diagnostic tools that can be translated from our labs to clinics and hospitals," Brooks said. "These tools will enable physicians to predict the outcome of brain injuries and provide better care for their patients."

Lewine also is using the MEG to further his research of autism. He is
investigating the link between autism and epilepsy. Studies suggest that some autistic children experience epileptic activity in the language centers of the brain. Lewine has found that treating the activity can reawaken the children's ability to communicate and curtail other behaviors associated with the disorder.

"It turns out MEG is especially good at finding the exact spot in the brain where epileptic activity arises," he said. "This allows us to determine the likelihood that such activity is contributing to a child's autism. Families around the world are willing to travel great distances to have their children scanned. Now that KU Medical Center has this capability, it will become an international referral site."

In addition to neurology and neurosurgery, the center's advanced technology will be an asset to scientists and clinicians across a broad spectrum of medical disciplines, including psychiatry, psychology, developmental biology, child development, drug development, physiology and aging.

Randolph Nudo, director of the KUMC Center on Aging, will use the
Hoglund Center to help conquer the debilitating effects of stroke. He is studying an innovative treatment that, if successful, would enable
physicians to revive a dying brain damaged by stroke. The procedure, which Nudo helped pioneer along with industry partners, involves implanting a stimulator at the precise spot where the stroke occurred. MRI technology will allow Nudo to locate the exact site and monitor any changes in brain function resulting from implantation.

"The opportunities to advance brain research and make life-changing
discoveries here are endless," Nudo said.

#top#