FES CENTER - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Staff Physician in the Epilepsy Center of the Neurological Institute
Andreas Alexopoulos, MD, MPH, is a Staff Physician in the Epilepsy Center of the Neurological Institute, located on the main campus of Cleveland Clinic.
He was appointed in 2005 subsequent to completion of a fellowship in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology. Prior to his appointment, he was Chief Resident in adult neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City. Dr. Alexopoulos is certified in neurology and in clinical neurophysiology by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and he is certified in MRI/CT by the American Society of Neuroimaging. His specialty interests include epilepsy, clinical neurophysiology, epilepsy surgery and translational research in epilepsy.
Dr. Alexopoulos received his medical degree from the University of Athens, graduating with honors. He served in the Hellenic navy as a Physician Petty Officer. He returned to the United States for an internship in medicine and surgery at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Boston, Mass. He is licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts, Indiana, Ohio, as well as Greece and the United Kingdom.
As an Occupational Therapist and Sociologist, Anne is deeply committed to improving the lives of people with spinal cord injury.
With more than twenty years of experience specializing in upper extremity care of people with cervical spinal cord injury, Anne leads the functional assessment program for upper extremity neuroprosthetics and reconstructive surgeries at The Cleveland FES Center. Currently she is responsible for leading the multi-center pivotal clinical trial for the Networked Neuroprosthesis (NNP) System, the latest innovation developed at the Cleveland FES Center. Her research interests include upper extremity assessment, surgical interventions, outcomes measurement, and the social determinants of health and wellness in people with chronic physical disability.
Additionally, Anne is investigating the experiences of health and social resource navigation following spinal cord injury through the lens of human rights by measuring barriers and facilitators to obtaining supports necessary for improved quality of life. She is also conducting research on the human rights knowledge base of health professionals and other stakeholders involved in the care of people with spinal cord injury.
Job Titles:
- My Research Interests Are in the Areas of Post - Stroke, Upper and Lower Limb Motor and Functional Restoration, and Shoulder Pain in Hemiplegia
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University
Christopher Pulliam, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University and holds an appointment as a Biomedical Engineer at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. His main research interest is in the development of new approaches to treating and assessing functional impairments resulting from neurological disease or injury.
Before transitioning to academia, Dr. Pulliam established a track record of guiding high-impact projects from conception to commercialization in the medical device industry - in both small startups (Great Lakes NeuroTechnologies) and large global companies (Medtronic Neuromodulation). He contributed to the inception of Class II and III medical devices and is named inventor on more than 25 patents issued in the United States.
Dr. Pulliam was born in Baton Rouge, LA, and earned his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University.
Job Titles:
- Director, Ocular Motility Laboratory
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Dr. Cunningham's research is focused on improving rehabilitative outcomes for patients with chronic post-stroke hemiplegia by employing methods of non-invasive brain stimulation (repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and transcranial direct current stimulation).
His expertise in these methods in conjunction with neuroimaging techniques (functional MRI, resting state MRI, diffusion tensor imaging) and single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation allows him to study neurophysiologic adaptations as a result of injury as well as recovery. At MetroHealth-CWRU, Dr. Cunningham is currently developing multi-modal approaches for post-stroke motor restoration that combines non-invasive brain stimulation and functional electrical stimulation.
Job Titles:
- Co - Founder and Chief Technology Officer of Apto Orthopaedics Corporation
As the Director of the Case-Coulter Translational Research Partnership (CCTRP) in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Fening drives innovation and translational research to move technologies to the market, where they can improve patient care.
He received undergraduate and masters degrees in mechanical engineering, an interdisciplinary PhD degree in biomedical engineering, and a postdoctoral fellowship in orthopaedic biomechanics. His career goal is to make a broad and substantial improvements to patient care through translational research and commercialization.
Dr. Fening is a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Apto Orthopaedics Corporation, an early stage company focusing on non-invasive methods to adjust orthopaedic implants. He also has served as on the board of directors for several for- and not-for-profits.
Prior to joining Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Fening was the Director of Orthopaedic Devices at the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron and the Director of Orthopaedic Research for Summa Health Systems. Prior to that, he was the Director of Research for Cleveland Clinic Sports Health. His areas of research focus included the biomechanics of sports injuries to the knee, shoulder and head and in innovation more broadly across orthopaedic devices. In the last 10 years, he has received over $8.7M in grant funding, published more than 100 peer reviewed publications and presentation, and has several patents. He was a 2017 recipient of the Crain's Cleveland Business Forty Under 40, and is a member of several national and international professional societies.
Faress, JA, Nethery, D, Kern, E, Eisenberg, R, Jacono, FJ, Allen, C, Kern, JA. Inhibition of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) signaling decreases bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis and improves survival in mice. J Appl Physiol. 103(6):2077-83, 2007.
Job Titles:
- My Research Centers on Development and Clinical Trials of New Interventions for Training and Restoring Human Function After Neurologic Injury
I am a Staff Scientist at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Neurological Restoration. My overall expertise is in understanding brain rhythms using neurophysiological techniques (Electroencephalography, Magnetoencephalography, Local field potentials), with the aim of improving diagnosis and developing long term neuromodulation based treatment solutions for heterogeneous neurological disorders.
Job Titles:
- My Research Focuses on the Development and Clinical Assessment of Neural Interfaces and Stimulation Approaches to Restore and Enhance Somatosensory Function
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- My Research Interests Lie in Studying Human Walking Performance and Stability, and in the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Criteria That Influence Them
Dr. Jacono's research interests are focused on the neural control of breathing in acute lung injury (ALI), acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and mechanical ventilation.
The overall goal of his laboratory is to develop and test a cohesive set of computational approaches to quantify biologically determined breathing pattern variability to provide predicative insight into prognosis and reversible pathophysiology leading to recovery, survival and rehabilitation; ultimately, targeting measures of pattern variability as an "additional vital sign" providing diagnostic and predictive information to clinicians.
Dr. Jacono received an Advanced Career Development Award from the VA Research Service, and his research activities have also been supported by the American Heart Association and the NIH.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- My Research Centers on Development and Clinical Trials of New Interventions for Training and Restoring Human Function After Neurologic Injury
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Since I joined the FES Center in 1993, my primary research area has been the restoration of arm function in individuals with paralysis resulting from cervical spinal cord injury, primarily through the use of FNS.
Knothe Tate ML, Detamore M, Capadona JR, Woolley A, Knothe U. Engineering and commercialization of human-device interfaces, from bone to brain. Biomaterials. 2016 Jul;95:35-46. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2016.03.038. Epub 2016 Apr 13. Review. PubMed PMID: 27108404.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Biomedical Engineer
- Medical Director
- Psychiatrist
- Research Associate
- Research Scientist
- Surgeon
- Co - Chair of the CPR Committee
- Medical Director, Spinal Cord Injury Outpatient Clinic
- Research Appointment, Daroff and Dell'Osso Ocular Motility Laboratory
- Research Career Scientist and Biomedical Engineer
- Research Health Scientist
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
I have a broad background in functional neurosurgery, with specific training and expertise in stereotaxy, epilepsy surgery, physiology, and neuromodulation.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Paul J. Ford, PhD is the Director of the NeuroEthics Program, which conducts cutting-edge scholarly and empirical neuroethics research and develops and promulgates best ethical practices in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological diseases. He is also a member of the Center for Bioethics and has secondary appointments in Neurology and the Center for Neurological Restoration.
Dr. Ford joined the professional staff in the Department of Bioethics at Cleveland Clinic in the spring of 2001. He received a B.A. in Computer Science and Humanities and a B.S. in Mathematics from Walla Walla University in 1995. Subsequently, he received a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University while participating in a two year transplantation ethics fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Ford currently holds an appointment of Associate Professor at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case. He actively teaches medical students, residents, and fellows, and was awarded a year long Educational Fellowship from the Cleveland Clinic Division of Education in 2009. He has been active in ethics consultation since arriving at Cleveland Clinic and has performed approximately 1,600 ethics consultation cases primarily using an individual consultant model.
Dr. Ford's primary research interests focus on ethical issues raised by neurosurgical interventions. He works closely with the Deep Brain Stimulator Team and the Epilepsy Surgery Team. He has co-edited two books and is the author of more than seventy publications. These include authorship in journal articles that have appeared in Science, The Hastings Center Report, Neurology, Neuromodulation, and Journal of Medical Ethics as well as book chapters, and invited editorials (see CV for full list here). In terms of professional service, he has presented to the Board on Health Sciences Policy at the Institute of Medicine, served on editorial boards as a peer-reviewer, and has been an organizer of international conferences. He lectures nationally and internationally on a range of issues that include neuro-ethics, clinical ethics consultation, transplantation ethics, and engineering-computer ethics.
Penko AL, Streicher MC, Koop MM, Dey T, Rosenfeldt AB, Bazyk AS, Alberts JL. Dual-task Interference Disrupts Parkinson's Gait Across Multiple Cognitive Domains. Neuroscience. 2018 May 21;379:375-382. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2018.03.021 Pubmed PMID: 29577998
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Dr. Sulzer is a Cleveland native (Orange High School), with a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Ohio State University, and his MS and PhD from Northwestern University and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now Shirley Ryan AbilityLab).
He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, and was faculty in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.
Job Titles:
- Chairman, Department of Bioethics