Salvatore P. Marra Fellowship
Levine Cerebral Localization Laboratory
Tananbaum Stroke Center
Columbia University Medical Center
Emily Lantz, Psy.D. – Inaugural Marra Fellow in Clinical Neuropsychology.
Current Supervisors:
Ronald M. Lazar, Ph.D. Joanne
Festa, Ph.D.
Professor and Director Assistant
Professor
Our Goal: To provide a two-year fellowship for a PhD or MD clinician/scientist who would specialize in the latest techniques in diagnosis and treatment of patients with brain AVMs and who would begin conducting research that would bear directly on patient outcomes.
A brain arteriovenous malformation is a low frequency condition, with about 3000 newly-diagnosed cases in the United States each year. About half the cases come to clinical attention because of a hemorrhage, with others presenting because of seizures or headache. We are sometimes surprised, however, how often cases are actually detected incidentally. As an international-recognized AVM treatment center, Columbia offers state-of-the-art care that includes functional brain mapping during cerebral angiography prior to deliberate embolization of arteries feeding blood to the AVM, followed either by conventional or radiosurgery. But it is not clear whether all non-ruptured AVMs need to be treated, and so we just received the largest NIH grant ever given for an AVM-related clinical trial, in part reflecting the largest number of published papers on AVMs by any single center in the world.
In the United States, funding agencies tend not to underwrite studies of low-frequency conditions because of the perception that too few individuals will reap the benefit. Funded in 2001, our “AVM Islands Study” (Manhattan Island, Staten Island, Long Island) showed for the first time in our country that it was possible to establish a population database of 9 million people to look more precisely at the incidence and prevalence of brain AVMs, and we learned that there may actually be more cases than previously suspected. Moreover, that grant has also allowed us to further the notion that we can learn about other vascular conditions in the brain by studying the physiology and treatment modalities of AVMs. As a result, new insights have been achieved in our understanding of cerebral aneurysms, disorders of blood flow in large cerebral vessels, and even in our appreciation of conventional stroke and cerebral hemorrhage.
But there is so much more yet to be learned about brain AVMs, and there are too few specialists who have the requisite clinical experience and command of the literature. We need to train young and energetic individuals, like Sal, to make a difference in how AVM patients are treated and to conduct innovative research. The Salvatore P. Fellow is either an MD participating in the Vascular Neurology training program or a PhD in the Neurovascular Neuropsychology program. The typical path of a two-year Marra Fellow involves an initial year concentrating on clinical care within the general field of stroke and related conditions, including brain AVMs, and gaining an understanding of what is already known in the field. There is little doubt that the future lies in interdisciplinary collaboration with the varied specialties in treatment and research, and so the Fellow spends time working with renowned clinicians in neurosurgery, vascular neurology, neurovascular neuropsychology, interventional neuroradiology, and neuroanesthesiology. Concurrently, the Fellow can take courses in the Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, learning about research methodology, clinical trial design and biostatistics. In our experience, the end of the first year finds fellows typically bursting with new ideas, and so in the second year, the clinical responsibilities is lightened and time is spent collecting and analyzing data, presenting new findings at major international meetings, and publishing in the most highly-respected medical journals in the field. At the end of the fellowship period, there is a professional who is ready to embark on a career with a specialization in brain vascular malformations at another institution who will, in turn, create a new teaching/research program that will impact on even more patients and attract even more professionals to the field. In the long term, there will be a generational effect by the cadre of Marra Fellows, all of whom will acknowledge in their resumes that each had their early work sponsored by your foundation.
As part of the partnership, we acknowledge the Marra Foundation in every publication and public presentation involving work by the Fellow. There will be an annual report to your Board, describing the accomplishments of the prior year and goals for the future. In addition, the Fellow and a member of our faculty will attend at least one board meeting each year to make a presentation and to answer questions.
The 30th Annual Scholarship & Brian Piccolo Award
Dinner
June 20th, 2006 at the Brownstone House Paterson, NJ
Source: Unico’s Program for this Award Dinner
The Passaic Valley Chapter of Unico National
On this day The Passaic Valley Chapter of Unico National presented the first Salvatore Marra Memorial Scholarship to Michelle Postorino.
The 2006 Scholarship Committee
Deacon Joseph Sisco, Committee Chairman
Jayme Alfano
Kara Arena
Jane Morano
Anthony Orlando
Phyllis Sisco
Each year the Passaic Valley Chapter of UNICO National presents their scholarship awards to some of the finest students in their area. The applicants not only must excel academically but must also display achievement and excellence in extra curricular activities such as clubs, civic and church organizations.
