Rose N. Gelineau-Morel, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine; Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Kansas School of Medicine
Full BiographyRose Gelineau-Morel, MD, Neurology and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, received a $300,000 Infrastructure/Registry Research Grant from the Pediatric Epilepsy Research Foundation (PERF).
The grant is for Dr. Gelineau-Morel’s project, “Facilitating early and accurate diagnosis of dystonia in cerebral palsy: creation of an imaging registry,” and covers a project period of September 1, 2024-August 31, 2027.
The goal of the project is to develop a neuroimaging registry for cerebral palsy (CP), capitalizing on the existing structure of the cerebral palsy data registry in the Cerebral Palsy Research Network (CPRN), to aid in diagnosis and treatment of dystonia.
Dystonia is a movement disorder that is common in people with cerebral palsy. Unfortunately, there are no clear ways for medical providers to predict who will get dystonia or what treatments will work best for them.
In previous research, Dr. Gelineau-Morel and her research team identified a brain network that is common in children with dystonia. Next, they want to see if this brain network is shared across all children with dystonia and cerebral palsy.
“To do this, we need to build a large bank of brain images of children with cerebral palsy,” explains Dr. Gelineau-Morel. “We can then evaluate brain connectivity across all of the children to identify common brain networks that are involved in dystonia and cerebral palsy.”
The CPRN is a group of researchers from 31 children’s hospitals that work to improve the lives of children with cerebral palsy. The CPRN already has a data registry that stores de-identified medical information about children with cerebral palsy.
In this project, Dr. Gelineau-Morel and her team will create an imaging registry in the CPRN that will store a child’s de-identified brain images. The child’s de-identified medical information will be linked to their brain images so they can study things including brain networks in children with dystonia.
“This will help us predict which children with cerebral palsy might develop dystonia. It could also help us understand which medications or treatments would work best for each child,” explains Dr. Gelineau-Morel. “Creating the imaging registry through the CPRN will also help researchers study other ways to improve current diagnosis and treatments for cerebral palsy."