NREF Success Story:
Dr. Andrew T. Hale
Dr. Andrew T. Hale, MD, PhD, University of Alabama at Birmingham, is the 2024-25 recipient of the NREF & Academy of Neurological Surgeons Research Fellowship Grant for his project titled “Cerebral organoids as a model of genetic and acquired hydrocephalus.”
Recently, Dr. Hale had a paper published in Science Translational Medicine.
Hydrocephalus (HC), a disorder of abnormal cerebrospinal fluid homeostasis leading to increased intracranial pressure, is amongst the most common indications for children’s brain surgery world-wide. However, development of effective pharmacologic therapies has been impeded by a lack of detailed molecular mechanistic and genetic understanding of the disease. Recently, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-derived cerebral organoids – which form anatomically and genetically representative brain structures in a dish– have been used as a tool to elucidate mechanisms of neurologic disease.
As the NREF/Academy Research Grant Awardee, Dr. Hale is creating the first cerebral organoid models of genetic and acquired HC in partnership with scientists and neurosurgeons at the University Cape Town Neuroscience Institute (UCTNI), MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Cambridge, UK (Madeline Lancaster) and Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School (Kristopher T. Kahle), focusing on deriving models representative of African ancestries where the burden of HC is highest.
Graham Fieggen, MD, IFAANS and Mubeen Goolam, PhD are co-sponsors of the research project.