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
- Translational Consultant
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
- Director of Research for Cleveland Clinic Sports Health
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 of two startup companies and serves on the board of directors for several for- and not-for-profits.
Prior to joining Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Fening has served as the Director of Research for Cleveland Clinic Sports Health, the Director of Orthopaedic Research for Summa Health System, and the Director of Orthopaedic Devices at the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron. 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. He has received over $20M in grant funding, published more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and presentations, 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 of New Interventions for Training Human Function After Neurologic Injury Using Virtual Reality and Electrical Stimulation
I am an Associate Research Staff Member 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 (biomarker development) and developing long term treatment solutions (translational clinical research) for heterogeneous neurological disorders, specifically chronic pain. We specifically use a computational model-driven approach to unveil dynamic trends in polyrhythmic brain activity underlying latent behaviors such as fear, expectations and avoidance that inadvertently exacerbate suffering and disability.
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 Improving the Walking Ability of Those With Injuries and Pathologies, Such As Stroke and Parkinson 's Disease
Job Titles:
- Clarkson University Honors Center Founder
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.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Job Titles:
- Biomedical Engineer
- Consultant
- Psychiatrist
- Research Associate
- Research Scientist
- Surgeon
- Bioomedical Engineer
- Research Appointment, Daroff and Dell'Osso Ocular Motility Laboratory
- Research Career Scientist and Biomedical Engineer
Dr. Machado leads several deep brain stimulation and neuromodulation clinical trials as well as laboratory research.
His research in deep brain stimulation for thalamic pain syndrome was awarded the National Institutes of Health Director's New Innovator's Award. In addition, he conducts deep brain stimulation research for treatment refractory depression as well as obsessive compulsive disorder.
His laboratory in the Lerner Research Institute is focused in developing new strategies for utilizing neuroprosthetic devices such as DBS to improve post-stroke rehabilitation. His current NIH funded research is aimed at evaluating the effects of deep cerebellar stimulation on post-stroke perilesional plasticity and recovery of function.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of Case Western Reserve University 's Department of Bioethics
Dr. Aulisio is the Chair of Case Western Reserve University's Department of Bioethics and Co-Director, Center for Biomedical Ethics, MetroHealth, and Co-Director, Center for Clinical Ethics, University Hospitals. He works on issues at the intersection of technology, bioethics, and healthcare and is a member of the FES Center's Bioethics Core.
Zagouras A, Ellick E, Aulisio M. Rethinking individual autonomy in medical decision-making for young adults reliant on caregiver support: A case report and analysis. Clinical Ethics. 2022;17(4):452-457. doi:10.1177/14777509211069896
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
Potter-Baker KA, Bonnett CE, Chabra P, Roelle S, Varnerin N, Cunningham DA, Sankarasubramanian V, Pundik S, Conforto AB, Machado AG, Plow EB. Challenges in Recruitment for the Study of Noninvasive Brain Stimulation in Stroke: Lessons from Deep Brain Stimulation. J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis. 2016 Apr;25(4):927-37. doi: 10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2015.12.044. Epub 2016 Feb 2. PubMed PMID: 26851211; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4799781.
Potter-Baker KA, Varnerin NM, Cunningham DA, Roelle SM, Sankarasubramanian V, Bonnett CE, Machado AG, Conforto AB, Sakaie K, Plow EB. Influence of Corticospinal Tracts from Higher Order Motor Cortices on Recruitment Curve Properties in Stroke. Front Neurosci. 2016 Mar 8;10:79. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2016.00079. eCollection 2016. PubMed PMID: 27013942; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4781847.
Potter-Baker KA, Bonnett CE, Chabra P, Roelle S, Varnerin N, Cunningham DA, Sankarasubramanian V, Pundik S, Conforto AB, Machado A, Plow EB. A game of hide and seek: Is it possible to recruit more patients for NIBS studies in stroke? J Neurol Sci. 2015 Nov 15;358(1-2):472-474. doi: 10.1016/j.jns.2015.08.030 Pubmed PMID: 26320611
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Rossi PJ, Gunduz A, Judy J, Wilson L, Machado A, Giordano JJ, Elias WJ, Rossi MA, Butson CL, Fox MD, McIntyre CC, Pouratian N, Swann NC, de Hemptinne C, Gross RE, Chizeck HJ, Tagliati M, Lozano AM, Goodman W, Langevin JP, Alterman RL, Akbar U, Gerhardt GA, Grill WM, Hallett M, Herrington T, Herron J, van Horne C, Kopell BH, Lang AE, Lungu C, Martinez-Ramirez D, Mogilner AY, Molina R, Opri E, Otto KJ, Oweiss KG, Pathak Y, Shukla A, Shute J, Sheth SA, Shih LC, Steinke GK, Tröster AI, Vanegas N, Zaghloul KA, Cendejas-Zaragoza L, Verhagen L, Foote KD, Okun MS. Proceedings of the Third Annual Deep Brain Stimulation Think Tank: A Review of Emerging Issues and Technologies. Front Neurosci. 2016 Apr 6;10:119. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2016.00119. eCollection 2016. Review. PubMed PMID: 27092042; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4821860.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Executive Committee
Dr. Sulzer is a Cleveland native (Orange High School), with a BS from the Ohio State University, and his MS and PhD from Northwestern University and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now Shirley Ryan AbilityLab), all in Mechanical Engineering. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.
Dr. Sulzer currently resides in Shaker Heights with his wife and three children.
Job Titles:
- Chairman, Department of Bioethics
Job Titles:
- Chairman in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine / UH Cleveland Medical Center