The UCLA Department of Neurology ranks No. 1 among its peers nationwide in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, with $23.4 million in research grants for 2002, according to newly released NIH figures.
Runners up in the rankings were 2) Washington University at $20.1 million, 3) University of Rochester at $19.3 million, 4) University of Pennsylvania at $16.8 million, and 5) University of California, San Francisco, at $16.5 million. In 2001 UCLA ranked No. 8 in NIH funding among departments of neurology, with $12.3 million.
Dr. John Mazziotta, professor and chair of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, credited the nearly two-fold jump from the previous year with the widely recognized high caliber and success of the department's science.
"The NIH grant review is the toughest test of peer-reviewed scientific funding. It's the most rigorous filter of scientific quality," Mazziotta said. "Our funding level shows that UCLA neurology research has reached new heights in quality and quantity and now sets the standard for neurology research nationwide."
The largest current awards within the department include $7.3 million for the Early Randomized Surgical Epilepsy Trial (ERSET) led by Dr. Jerome Engel, professor and director of the UCLA Seizure Disorder Center, and a total of $2.5 million for the computational anatomy and multidimensional modeling project led by Arthur Toga, professor and director of the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging.
Recent scientific breakthroughs by neurology faculty include:
* The demonstration of the sites in the brain that shrink (atrophy) as Alzheimer's disease progresses.
* The development of a fly model of Alzheimer's disease useful in understanding the process that causes the illness and providing a means to test experimental drugs for its treatment.
* The development of improved methods to image the brain when a stroke occurs, thereby allowing the selection the best possible treatment for each individual patient.
* The development of an atlas of the human brain to allow investigators of brain function to navigate in the brain's complex structure and communicate results accurately among themselves.
At UCLA, the Department of Neurology accounted for 10 percent of all NIH funding in the David Geffen School of Medicine. The departmental total does not include NIH funding obtained by the neurology faculty but administered by the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and UCLA Brain Research Institute.
"The real number is considerably higher and we expect our total to grow for 2003 despite a leveling off of the NIH budget," Mazziotta said. "Our success at attracting NIH funding helps the department at many levels, from faculty recruitment and retention to the highest-quality teaching and clinical programs."
The department encompasses 260 teachers, researchers and clinicians, and 245 staff personnel involved in more than a dozen research, clinical and teaching programs. These programs cover brain mapping and neuroimaging, movement disorders, Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, neurogenetics, nerve and muscle disorders, epilepsy, neuro-oncology, neurotology, neuropsychology, headaches and migraines, neurorehabilitation, and neurovascular disorders.
Online resources:* UCLA Department of Neurology: http://neurology.medsch.ucla.edu/default.htm* David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA: http://www.medsch.ucla.edu/* National Institutes of Health: http://www.nih.gov/
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