Research at Mayo Clinic started! 16 stycznia 2019 – Posted in: News – Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Our postdoc, Michal Lech,  and Ph.D. student, Cagdas Topcu, officially started their research training with our strategic partner Mayo Clinic on December 3rd after arriving to Minnesota in a heavy blizzard (Winters start early in this part of the world!). This research is based in the Mayo Systems Electrophysiology Lab led by Prof. Gregory Worrell (www.msel.mayo.edu) and will involve epilepsy patients with electrodes implanted in the brain to treat refractory seizures. For the next one year, Michal and Cagdas will be trained in the state-of-the-art technologies for brain recording and stimulation used in clinical treatment and epilepsy research at Mayo Clinic. Our goal is to use these technological innovations to improve memory and cognitive functions in these patients and then apply them to patients in Poland once they return to Gdansk.

The training placement at Mayo starts with presentation of the projects and preliminary results on two MSEL weekly lab meetings (see photo of Dr. Lech presenting). The goal of Michal’s first project is to find optimal parameters of brain stimulation for improving memory by looking at changes in brain activity. Cagdas’ project is mapping where memory processing is localized by analyzing its slow and fast frequency activity of the brain waves.
We are now also preparing for the first experiments with patients using our eye-tracking technology combined with brain recordings and stimulation in patients performing computer tasks. We expect the first data to be collected early in the new year. This will be an amazing opportunity to record directly in the brain and elucidate mechanisms of the mind, memory, and cognition. We feel very grateful to work with patients and serve in such unique and important research. Stay tuned for more news about what we will discover!