News

In a news release today, the University at Buffalo announced the unique CASA-MS study, that compares people with multiple sclerosis to others whose disease has not progressed.

The “Comprehensive Assessment of Severely Affected Multiple Sclerosis” study is being performed by researchers at UB’s Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) in partnership with the Jacobs MS Treatment Center, part of the Department of Neurology in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, as well as The Boston Home, a long-term care facility in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in caring for people with advanced-stage MS.

Today in The Buffalo News, reporter Scott Scanlon tells the story of CASA-MS – the Comprehensive Assessment of Severely Affected Multiple Sclerosis study, its inspiration, and its amazing participants.

This first-of-its-kind study is exploring the question that haunts MS patients as soon as they are diagnosed: Am I going to become severely disabled by my disease?

BNAC’s Clinical Trial Research Assistant and Project Manager Devon Oship, contributes the perspective of a neurology student and a Tourettic woman in a recent Boston Globe feature that asks the question, “Are young women catching ‘TikTok tics’ from social media? The answer is complex.”

Devon’s advocacy, stretches back to her elementary school years. At age 11, she was featured in an ABC 20/20 documentary about Tourette. She has been working as a science and civil rights educator ever since, with a special focus on support for women and girls affected by Tourette syndrome. Her passion and contributions mirror BNAC’s longstanding commitment to patient-centered research. The research community must continue to challenge assumptions and funding dynamics that obscure or ignore the experience of all patients and people directly affected by disorders and disease.

BNAC’s Advisory Council, consisting of people with or directly affected by multiple sclerosis, represents the voice of patients across our work with MS.

Here is the Globe story, including Devon’s insights.

At the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting this week, Clinical Research Director Dejan Jakimovski, MD, PhD, presented findings of a recent study, conducted with BNAC colleagues Drs. Niels Bergsland and Michael Dwyer, that explored the correlation between blood flow to the brain and neuronal damage associated with multiple sclerosis. 

Brain atrophy is one of the most destructive consequences of Multiple Sclerosis. In this recent episode of the “The MS Podcast” presented by Sanofi Genzyme, BNAC Center Director Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, takes a closer look at brain atrophy and other brain measures in explaining physical disability with MS.

In an interview by NeurologyLive® from the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting, BNAC Center Director Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, explains the significance of the DeepGRAI registry study. The study applied an Artificial Intelligence algorithm developed by BNAC’s Michael Dwyer, Ph.D., to analyze routine, clinical MRI (T2FLAIR) scans taken in 30-35 different centers of approximately 1,000 people with MS. The use of AI on widely-available MRI scans reliably measured thalamic volume—an established marker for disease progression including disability and declining cognition in people with MS.

In the interview, now available on NeurologyLive®, Zivadinov notes that, “This is important because… it is now possible to have this done on every clinical patient. It clearly gives providers a tool to better measure what's happening from a gray matter point of view.”

The AI tool is named DeepGRAI—Deep Gray Rating via Artificial Intelligence—for its use of imperfect information to generate reliable measurements, is now available to clinicians.

Scores of researchers, educators, technicians, doctors, and all-around interesting people share months or years as members of the team at the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center… and now we are reconnecting! 

A new alumni group, co-chaired by Tereza Gabelić, MD, PhD, Eleonora Tavazzi, MD, and Mihael Varosanec, MD, gathered by Zoom on Jan. 14, welcoming colleagues from around the world and across BNAC’s two decades.

The purpose? Connect. Congratulate one another on remarkable research and careers—all still underway! And, in due course, continue the collaboration we began during our time at the University of Buffalo. 

Since 2000, BNAC faculty have mentored hundreds of MD and PhD candidates, neuroimaging fellows, neurology residents, MSc students, and undergraduates. Each one has a story to tell and a career trajectory that has been supported, advanced, and perhaps inspired by their work with BNAC colleagues. It’s an amazing record that continues today!

BNAC Director Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, is lead author of “Population Health Guide to the Evolution of Endpoints in Multiple Sclerosis.” The AJMC-published whitepaper, sponsored by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, addresses the challenge to formulary and clinical decision makers in comparing the efficacy of disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) for people with Multiple Sclerosis.

Zivadinov, along with Michael J. Fine, MD, Krishna R. Patel, PharmD, RPh, and Neil Minkoff, MD, have provided a framework for providers and payers to better understand the methodologies employed in clinical trials on the increasing number of MS DMTs.

The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a member of the herpes virus family and one of the most common human viruses found all over the world. In this recent episode of the “The MS Podcast” presented by Sanofi Genzyme, BNAC Center Director Robert Zivadinov, MD, PhD, takes a closer look at the role of EBV in MS and its association with brain MRI images.

Thank you for taking an interest in the patient-centered research, the scientists, the core laboratory services, and the mission of the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center. It’s a pleasure to share highlights from 2021 and invite you to stay in touch with our progress on the developments that matter most to you. We hope you find this 2021 Newsletter informative and welcome your comments and suggestions. 

There is no commonly-available way for clinical neurologists to use an “everyday” MRI to provide their multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with meaningful news about their disease progression, including brain tissue changes associated with physical and cognitive impairment. The reason? Conventional MRI methods in the vast majority of clinical settings are inadequate in creating scans that can be used to measure two of the most reliable known “markers” of MS progression. 

In August of this year, though, BNAC researchers published their NeuroSTREAM MSBase study. The study demonstrated that neurologists using a new, open-source software—NeuroSTREAM, recently co-developed by BNAC scientists—along with the widely-available T2-FLAIR MRI protocol, can perform and read scans that confidently assess reliable and clinically meaningful proxies of the two critical markers—salient central brain lesion volume (SCLV) and lateral ventricle volume (LVV)—in regular clinical routine settings and even in the face of complete scanner changes.

Ferdinand Schweser, Ph.D., BNAC’s Director of Sequence Development, will lead an international team exploring the link between deep gray matter iron and multiple sclerosis progression. The four-year, $1.4 million NIH-funded study will analyze thousands of MRI scans taken over 10 years to establish an objective means to assess brain iron status that could serve as part of a biomarker of MS disease progression and remission.

BNAC researchers led by Dejan Jakimovski, M.D. Ph.D., have been awarded a pilot research grant by the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) to determine which brain structures are responsible for specific types of cognitive decline in 100 aging MS patients. The results could open the door for researchers to monitor the most clinically relevant brain regions and potentially predict an individual patient’s risk for cognitive decline as well as appropriate treatment.

As new disease-modifying therapies extend the lives of people with multiple sclerosis by as many as 20 years or more, it becomes increasingly important to understand the causes of cognitive decline experienced by a growing percent of people with MS.

NeurologyLive®, a multimedia platform dedicated to providing health care professionals with direct access to expert-driven, practice-changing news and insights in neurology, welcomes Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center to its Strategic Alliance Partnership (SAP) program.

Brain atrophy and lesion burden are associated with disability progression in a multiple sclerosis real-world dataset using only T2-FLAIR. Using the largest MRI-realworld multiple sclerosis dataset studied to date, the NeuroSTREAM-MSBase study, recently published in Neurogimage/Clinical, is the fruition of a collaboration between Sydney Neuroimaging Analysis Centre, Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC), MSBase and clinicians across the globe.

We are pleased to present our BNAC Newsletter, a periodic publication about the work of our Center. This issue includes updates about our latest research, the academic and educational achievements of our staff, and information about our work as a core laboratory providing analysis services around the world.