Neurology

Members of the Neurology Division run several active clinical and translational research programs. Research activities undertaken in Neurology include clinical drug trials, investigator-initiated prospective studies and registries, and retrospective chart review studies. In alignment with investigator interests and specialties, research topics primarily fall under four main categories: Epilepsy, Brain Injuries and Neuroinflammation, Developmental Malformation and Neuromuscular Disorders, and Neuro-oncology. The research is run by the Neurology Research Team under the lead of Research Director, Vesna Popovska. The current team, pictured below, is composed of a Neuro-muscular Program Manager, 5 Research Coordinators, and 3 Co-op Students.

(from left to right) Neurology Research Team: Hayoung Cho, Nela Martic, Mihaela Anghelina, Annika Weir (Neurosurgery), Kishor Sivanesan, Vesna Popovska, Kira Burke, Billie Beis-Leech, Dora Xiong, Sharon Park, Stephanie Kwok.

The goal of our research is to improve the neurological health of children and youth in B.C. through compassionate, leading-edge care, education and research, and to implement advances in pediatric neuroscience, particularly those that significantly improve patient outcomes.

Current research interests include:

• Treatments of intractable epilepsy with experimental anticonvulsant medication, the ketogenic diet, and surgical methods
• Natural history and treatment of neuromuscular disorders
• Brain mapping
• Stroke in children
• Management of brain tumors and the neurological complications of malignancy
• Neuro-genetic conditions, genetic epilepsies, and gene therapies
• Neuroinflammatory disorders and associated outcomes and treatments
• Development of quantitative MRI methods for the mapping of tissue damage and repair in the brain
• Early brain connectivity and development, and long-term impacts of neonatal brain injury

The Neurology Research program has grown considerably over the past few years. At present, the program supports approximately 100 active ongoing studies.

Several Neurology Division faculty and staff members also run independent research programs:

Dr. Alexander Rauscher:
Dr. Rauscher is a Physicist and Canada Research Chair in Quantitative MRI. His lab develops new MRI methods and investigates how myelin, iron, and blood oxygenation in the brain influence the MRI signal. Dr. Rauscher translates his work to research in multiple sclerosis, concussion, and newborns.

The Baby BRAIN Lab (Dr. Thiviya Selvanathan & Dr. Steven Miller):
The Baby BRAIN Lab (led by Dr. Thiviya Selvanathan & Dr. Steven Miller) at BC Children’s Hospital is dedicated to understanding early brain development and improving outcomes for newborns with brain injury. Their research focuses on infants at high risk for developmental disabilities, including those born preterm, with congenital heart disease (CHD) or hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). Using advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and bedside brain monitoring, they examine how medical conditions, neonatal intensive care, and social determinants of health influence brain development and long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes.

Their work includes studies on brain connectivity, neonatal pain and analgesia, and the long-term impact of early-life brain injury. Through interdisciplinary collaborations, the Baby BRAIN Lab aims to improve early identification of infants at risk for motor, cognitive, and behavioural challenges, develop neuroprotective strategies, and bridge the gap between research and clinical care to enhance outcomes for high-risk newborns. Learn more about their work at Baby BRAIN Lab.

Dr. Alexander Weber:
The overarching goal of Dr. Weber’s research is to understand: (i) how preterm brain injuries evolve over the first year of life, and (ii) which brain regions are most critical for functional abnormalities. Recent advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) present opportunities to probe the maturation of functional networks and their structural basis in the developing human brain. As a neuroimaging scientist, Dr. Weber develops and applies MRI methods, including function MRI (fMRI), diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM), to improve understanding of brain structure and function, especially in early life.

There is a long-standing and strong commitment to teaching within the Division, which offers an accredited subspecialty training program in pediatric neurology. There is close collaboration between the pediatric and adult neurology training programs at UBC and all pediatric trainees must include six months of training in adult neurology in their overall post-graduate education.Pediatric neurological training provided by members of the Division includes experience in general neurology inpatient consultations, Emergency Department, Intensive Care Unit, Special Care Nursery and Psychiatry, as well as outpatient experience in general and subspecialty pediatric neurology. In addition, there is also training in basic neurosciences (neuropathology, neuroradiology, neuroanatomy) and electrophysiology (EEG and EMG). All trainees are also expected to become actively involved in research projects that will result in presentations at national and international conferences and publications in peer-reviewed journals.

For the last few years, the Division has been fortunate to have funding from the Associate Dean's Office and the Children's Hospital Foundation to have two trainees in pediatric neurology enter the program each year. Other fellows from overseas join the Division for subspecialty training in Pediatric Neurology and complement the Royal College training program. Further subspecialty training and postdoctoral fellowships are offered in Epilepsy, Neuro-oncology and Neonatal Neurology.

Members of the Division are also responsible for lectures and teaching at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Teaching occurs during clinical activities such as ward rounds and outpatient clinics. The neurology trainees and pediatric residents work with the individual neurologists in rotation. In addition, specific small group classroom teaching is carried out by individual neurologists, often in their specific areas of expertise.

Neonatal Neurology Fellowship

One- or two-year Neonatal Neurology Fellowships are offered through the Divisions of Neurology and Neonatology at BC Children’s and Women’s Hospitals. This fellowship provides comprehensive training in neonatal neurology including clinical evaluation of critically ill infants, neuroimaging and bedside monitoring tools such as EEG. There are also opportunities to see fetal neurology consultations. Research training can be combined with clinical training during this fellowship, which can be tailored to the career needs of the applicant and will determine the duration of the training.

Individuals completing pediatric neurology or neonatology training prior to fellowship start date are eligible to apply for this position. All applicants must be eligible for an educational training license in British Columbia through CPSBC before the start of fellowship.

Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Dr. Thiviya Selvanathan at thiviya.selvanathan@cw.bc.ca to further discuss fellowship opportunities.

The Division oversees an active, heavily utilised inpatient consultation service and is part of a 14 bed neurosciences inpatient unit that includes facilities for the monitoring of epilepsy patients who are being considered for surgical treatment of their epilepsy. In addition, the Division tends to an active outpatient facility with over 3,000 clinic visits per year. We offer an active consultation service with a strong focus in Critical Care areas: Emergency, Pediatric Intensive Care, and Neonatal Intensive Care. We work closely with other service in a multi-disciplinary team, caring for patients with Neurosurgery, Biochemical Disease, and in the Intensive Care unit. We are developing a Neurovascular team with stroke expertise from Neurology, Neuroradiology and Hematology. Our Neuro-oncology program is tightly integrated with the Oncology Division at our centre. As a result of the critical care and high demands for service, the Division relies on an infrastructure of mentored junior doctors (residents and fellows who are trainees in pediatric neurology) to deliver timely, quality patient care.

Subspecialty clinical interests and programs within the Division include:

Neonatal neurology: newborns with neurological problems are cared for in the Special Care Nursery with advanced diagnostic and therapeutic modalities.

Epilepsy: the Division manages essentially all of B.C.'s most complicated pediatric epilepsy patients.

Epilepsy surgery: the Division has developed vast and significant experience in selecting patients appropriate for this surgery.

Ketogenic diet: patients with epilepsy which is uncontrollable by the use of anticonvulsant medications are treated with a complicated diet supervised by a physician, nurse and dietician. This program has been commended for its high degree of patient satisfaction.

Neurophysiology: a highly regarded tertiary service at Children's Hospital. Although this Department is operationally independent of the Division, all of the medical staff in the Department are neurologists. This year, the service expanded to new areas, developing more exact determination of brain resection in epilepsy surgery patients and more robust and reliable techniques for intraoperative monitoring.

Neuromuscular diseases: members of the Division assess and manage children with muscle diseases and other diseases of the neuromuscular system in a specialized multi-disciplinary clinic.

Behavioural and higher cognitive function: assesses children with specific learning disabilities and autism. This includes the Brain Mapping Program which uses advanced MR imaging techniques for diagnosis and localization

Neuro-oncology: infants, children and adolescents with brain tumors and other oncological diseases of the neurological system are cared for with special expertise in collaboration with Oncology, Neurosurgery, Radiation Oncology and Neuroradiology.

Faculty:
Dr. Michelle Demos, Interim Head and Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Alan Hill, Professor Emeritus
Dr. Alexander Rauscher, Professor
Dr. Alexander Weber, Assistant Professor
Dr. Anita Datta, Clinical Associate Professor
Dr. Aspasia (Sia) Michoulas, Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Bruce Bjornson, Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Cyrus Boelman, Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Dewi Schrader, Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Djurdja Djordjevic, Clinical Instructor
Dr. Elke Roland, Associate Professor
Dr. James Lee, Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Jonathan Smith, Clinical Instructor
Dr. Juliette Hukin, Clinical Associate Professor
Dr. Kathryn Selby, Clinical Assistant Professor
Dr. Linda Huh, Clinical Associate Professor and Program Director
Dr. Mary Connolly, Clinical Associate Professor
Dr. Paul Webb, Clinical Instructor
Dr. Peter Wong, Professor Emeritus
Dr. Thiviya Selvanathan, Assistant Professor

Clinical Fellows:
Daniela Lanzlinger
Noora Al Menhali

Nurses:
Kelly Anderson, Epilepsy Surgery Program Nurse
Cindy Balayewich, Neuromuscular Clinic Nurse
Lynne Beszant, Clinic Nurse
Sharon Peinhof, Clinic Nurse
Francesca Zanotto, Clinic Nurse
Brigitte McRae, Dietician for Neurology Inpatients
Cristina Cahill, ER; BB; JL; ZA
Ashlynn Kishore, Keto Nurse; AM; AD
Meena Singhal, Spinal Cord Nurse
Theresa Erb, Keto Nurse

Research Staff:
Dr. Vesna Popovska
Mihaela Anghelina
Nela Martic
Sanja Hadzi-Nikolova
Daniel Kim
Stephanie Kwok
Inderpal Gill
Isabella Watson
Sophie Bockhold
Adam Turrin
Malavika Hebbar

Administration:
Valerie Kwong, Administrative Secretary
Patrice Pringle, Program Assistant