Events Calendar

10 Feb
Bioengineering Graduate Seminar: Dr. Elvira Pirondini
Event Type

Lectures, Symposia, Etc.

Topic

Research

Target Audience

Undergraduate Students, Faculty, Graduate Students, Postdocs

University Unit
Department of Bioengineering
Subscribe
Google Calendar iCal Outlook

Bioengineering Graduate Seminar: Dr. Elvira Pirondini

This is a past event.

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Post-Stroke Motor Recovery

Elvira Pirondini, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Abstract:  Stroke is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Despite the improvements of acute therapy, there is still a large number of patients suffering from long-lasting deficits after stroke, impacting seriously the patients’ quality of life and independence, and causing huge economic burden to the society. Across stroke patients, there is large interindividual variability regarding the lesion topography, deficits, and treatment outcome. To move towards precision medicine and personalized treatment, we need a better understanding of the neural mechanism of stroke recovery. Previous studies show that stroke topography is predominantly subcortical stroke, and little is known about the mechanisms that can mediate partial recovery after such injuries. Here I will present some of our recent works that aim to fill this knowledge gap. For this, we engineered a novel non-human primate subcortical stroke model with a unilateral thermocoagulation lesion in the internal capsule. We recorded kinematics and muscle activities while the animals performed a large battery of reaching and grasping tasks before and after lesion and we demonstrated that our internal capsule stroke model well captured the clinical symptoms often reported in stroke patients. In parallel, we recorded brain activities over the entire sensorimotor network. Interestingly, the neural reorganization changed differently depending on the amount of destroyed cortico-spinal tracts. The discrepancy between animal groups could be traced back to as early as one day post lesion when the brain was still in a plasticity state with hyperactivity and hyperconnectivity. Moreover, the individual regional changes in the chronic stage were found to significantly correlate with the remaining corticospinal fibers quantified by both histology and post-mortem MRI analysis. We are now building on these results to develop novel techniques to treat post-stroke motor symptoms. I will conclude my talk by presenting preliminary results we recently obtained using thalamic stimulation to reduce loss of voluntary control after cortico-spinal tract lesions.

Bio:  Elvira Pirondini, is a Research Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She obtained her M.Sc. degree in Bioengineering from EPFL, Lausanne, in 2012, and was a recipient of the Distinguished Master Thesis Award. During this time, she was awarded a fellowship from the Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering to carry out her M.Sc. thesis at Harvard Medical School. She earned her PhD in 2017 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, where she was honored with the 2017 Outstanding PhD thesis Distinction in Electrical Engineering. Her thesis focused on robotic rehabilitation and brain imaging. She then conducted her post-doctoral training between the University of Geneva and the CHUV hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her primary research interests include the understanding of neural and structural changes after stroke and their correlation with motor and proprioceptive impairments.

Thursday, February 10 at 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Benedum Hall, Room 157
3700 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261

Bioengineering Graduate Seminar: Dr. Elvira Pirondini

Neural Mechanisms Underlying Post-Stroke Motor Recovery

Elvira Pirondini, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Abstract:  Stroke is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Despite the improvements of acute therapy, there is still a large number of patients suffering from long-lasting deficits after stroke, impacting seriously the patients’ quality of life and independence, and causing huge economic burden to the society. Across stroke patients, there is large interindividual variability regarding the lesion topography, deficits, and treatment outcome. To move towards precision medicine and personalized treatment, we need a better understanding of the neural mechanism of stroke recovery. Previous studies show that stroke topography is predominantly subcortical stroke, and little is known about the mechanisms that can mediate partial recovery after such injuries. Here I will present some of our recent works that aim to fill this knowledge gap. For this, we engineered a novel non-human primate subcortical stroke model with a unilateral thermocoagulation lesion in the internal capsule. We recorded kinematics and muscle activities while the animals performed a large battery of reaching and grasping tasks before and after lesion and we demonstrated that our internal capsule stroke model well captured the clinical symptoms often reported in stroke patients. In parallel, we recorded brain activities over the entire sensorimotor network. Interestingly, the neural reorganization changed differently depending on the amount of destroyed cortico-spinal tracts. The discrepancy between animal groups could be traced back to as early as one day post lesion when the brain was still in a plasticity state with hyperactivity and hyperconnectivity. Moreover, the individual regional changes in the chronic stage were found to significantly correlate with the remaining corticospinal fibers quantified by both histology and post-mortem MRI analysis. We are now building on these results to develop novel techniques to treat post-stroke motor symptoms. I will conclude my talk by presenting preliminary results we recently obtained using thalamic stimulation to reduce loss of voluntary control after cortico-spinal tract lesions.

Bio:  Elvira Pirondini, is a Research Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh. She obtained her M.Sc. degree in Bioengineering from EPFL, Lausanne, in 2012, and was a recipient of the Distinguished Master Thesis Award. During this time, she was awarded a fellowship from the Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering to carry out her M.Sc. thesis at Harvard Medical School. She earned her PhD in 2017 at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne, where she was honored with the 2017 Outstanding PhD thesis Distinction in Electrical Engineering. Her thesis focused on robotic rehabilitation and brain imaging. She then conducted her post-doctoral training between the University of Geneva and the CHUV hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland. Her primary research interests include the understanding of neural and structural changes after stroke and their correlation with motor and proprioceptive impairments.

Thursday, February 10 at 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Benedum Hall, Room 157
3700 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261

Topic

Research

Powered by the Localist Community Events Calendar ©