Clinical Research Center for REstoration of NEural-based Function in the Real World (RENEW)

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PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The RENEW Center at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) will be a unique clinical research facility dedicated to the restoration of neural-based function in the real world – the only such facility of its kind in South Carolina. The center goals are to: 1) Build out two floors of a soon-to-be constructed College of Health Professions (CHP) building in the heart of the MUSC campus. The RENEW Center upfit will be completed concurrently with the new CHP building construction and will meet Green Globes 2 certification. 2) Establish this specialized facility for advancing deep understanding of the neural circuits supporting physical and psychosocial function and their recovery after injury, disease, development, or aging to provide a mechanistic basis for interventions designed to impact functioning in the real world. This aligns directly with the MUSC Research Strategic Plan in three areas: Neural Circuits & Neuromodulation; Aging; Telehealth. 3) Develop an interdisciplinary research program that focuses on developing interventions that change function in the real world (vs. ideal lab settings) by gathering together neurosurgeons, neurologists, psychiatrists, neuropsychologists, PTs, speech therapists, OTs, exercise scientists, engineers, and others with a shared goal of decreasing disability statewide. As an Institution of Emerging Excellence, MUSC has dedicated considerable research and training resources over the past decade to meet the urgent needs of those living with stroke and other conditions, and to reducing health disparities in minority and rural populations. RENEW will build on these foundational investments to conduct neural circuit function research in ecologically valid environments that never before has been possible at MUSC. RENEW is organized into four research clusters: a Neural Function Cluster to understand, record from, and modulate neural circuits; a Physical Function Cluster to develop and study rehabilitation interventions; a Psychosocial Function Cluster to develop and study behavioral health interventions; and an Innovation & Technology Cluster to enable remote intervention, assessments, and monitoring in participants’ lived environments. A novel belief that guided RENEW Center development is that many current interventions lack durability and affect less change in functional status in the home than in the clinic because of a lack of integrated physical and behavioral interventions that account for how people change their behavior in their lived environment. The C06 will enable MUSC stakeholders across the university from three colleges and 16 departments to establish the RENEW Center with the infrastructure, labs, and human capital uniquely positioned to impact the physical and psychosocial functioning and independence of SC residents. RENEW will coalesce a critical mass of multidisciplinary physical rehabilitation and behavioral health investigators within a central, specialized facility and enhance their expertise in real world translational research. Without these unique resources, the positive and lasting functional impacts on SC residents in their lived environments would be dramatically reduced – especially for our sizeable rural and underserved populations.