DysTract - Dystonias
The dystonias comprise a heterogeneous group of incurable movement disorders with variable age of onset, body distribution, and genetic background sharing the core clinical features of twisting, repetitive movements or abnormal postures. There is a pressing clinical need for better therapies in dystonias, which cause lifelong disability, often in children and young adults.
The consortium will combine human clinical and experimental animal research including cutting edge technologies such as iPS cell (induced pluripotent stem cells) characterization from human patients to describe the entire disease path of dystonia from a molecular level to brain network abnormalities. This coherent view is expected to boost our understanding of these model circuitry disorders of the brain and to open up new avenues for better treatment of persons with dystonia. Patients will immediately benefit from this consortium through standardizing the diagnosis and treatment approach to dystonia and establishing a reference database for all groups involved in dystonia care.
Projects- A randomized, sham controlled trial of pallidal neurostimulation versus botulinum toxin treatment for cervical dystonia (StimTox-CD) (Prof. Dr. Jens Volkmann, University Hospital of Würzburg)
- German Dystonia Registry: Natural History, Epidemiology, Genetics, and Clinical Trial Resource (Prof. Dr. Christine Klein, University of Lübeck)
- IT platform for the Dystonia Translational Research and Therapy Consortium (DysTract) (Dr. Gisela Antony, KNP Marburg)
- Modeling dystonia in an endogenous human cellular system: Platform and characterization of iPS derived neurons from patients with monogenic isolated dystonia (Dr. Philip Seibler, University of Lübeck)
- Elucidation of novel genetic causes and modifiers for dystonia (PD Dr. Katja Lohmann, University of Lübeck)
- System physiology of dystonia development in rodent models of DYT1 and DYT12 (PD Dr. Chi-Wang Ip, University Hospital of Würzburg)
- Defining motor system endophenotypes in dystonia using a multimodal neurophysiology and structural imaging approach (Prof. Dr. Alexander Münchau, University of Lübeck)
- Genetic fingerprints of oscillatory network activity in dystonia (Prof. Dr. Andrea A. Kühn, Charité, Berlin)
- Musician’s Dystonia as a model for the nature-nurture debate: Classification of endogenous and exogenous trigger factors in musician’s dystonia (Prof. Dr. Eckart Alternmüller University of Music, Drama, and Media, Hannover)
- Generation of novel DYT1, DYT6 and DYT12 mouse and rat models of dystonia (Prof. Dr. Michael Sendtner, Universitätsklinikum Würzburg)
Department of Neurology
University Hospital of Würzburg
Josef-Schneider-Str.11; D-97080 WÜRZBURG
Tel. +49 (931)20123751; Fax.+49 (931)20123946
Email: volkmann_j@ukw.de
Website: www.dystract.cio-marburg.de/en/
Prof. Dr. med. Christine Klein
University of Lübeck; Institute of Neurogenetics
Ratzeburger Allee 160; 23538 Lübeck
Phone: +49-451-2903351; Fax: +49-451-2903355
Email: christine.klein@neuro.uni-luebeck.de