Brain research in Georgia\r
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Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the American Hospital Tbilisi are conducting epilepsy-focused research on the pathological changes in the hippocampus and possible changes in the cortex (access tissue). They are also analysing the neuronal network activity and its cellular basis at the cortex by measuring cortical access tissue (e.g. from tumour operations).\r
The goal is to establish research on surgically resected brain tissue in Georgia and clarify the underlying mechanisms. In addition to the American Hospital, the Institute of Neurology and Neuropsychology (INN) in Tbilisi is involved in the project.\r
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Background information\r
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To participate in top-class neuroscientific research, Georgia is dependent on international support. To this end, it requires the relevant competence, trained personnel and the necessary equipment. In addition, the running costs must be reasonable to permit continuing research in the long term.\r
In the clinically oriented neurosciences, research on resected human tissue is increasingly becoming a future-oriented research subdiscipline. For this purpose, excess tissue is used that is resected during necessary surgery. \r
As part of previous hospital partnership projects, procedures for diagnosing epilepsy have been improved in Georgia and epilepsy surgical procedures have become established as an option for treating pharmacoresistant types of epilepsy. During the collaboration, the partners decided to cooperate more closely in the area of research as well and to conduct joint research projects.\r
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Activities\r
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•\tTransferring knowledge and skills through workshops and online meetings on clinical case discussion, data assessment and experimental design\r
•\tProcuring and installing used laboratory instruments and software to establish a new measurement station \r
•\tInvolving researchers from Georgia in Charité's research through two research stays\r
•\tAnalysing data from patients, measurements of human biopsy specimens and histological and morphological analysis\r
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Results \r
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Methods such as the establishment of new routines in accordance with German standards help improve the quality and analytics of EEG diagnostics, with skills transfer and long-term availability of the new measurement station also contributing to the improvement. \r
The approach of making resected human tissue available to research is highly innovative and to date is put into practice at only a small number of locations worldwide. For this reason, this research branch has huge future potential and for a small country such as Georgia with limited resources, constitutes an extraordinary opportunity to establish internationally visible basic research and applied research.\r