Health Chat Transcripts
Mission Statement
As part of the Cleveland Clinic’s Neurological Institute, the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis offers state-of-the-art resources to provide the most advanced specialized care, supported by an extensive program of research and education. The Mellen Center is the largest and most comprehensive program for MS care and research worldwide, managing more than 20,000 patient visits every year. Basic and clinical research conducted at Cleveland Clinic sheds new light on MS every year.
The center’s mission statement is guided by these fundamental principles:
- To provide you and your family with compassionate, comprehensive, innovative and technologically advanced care of the highest quality.
- To conduct clinical and basic research of national and international distinction.
- To educate clinicians, academicians, investigators and allied health care providers about MS and to promote the education of our patients, their families and the general public about the disease.
News from the Mellen Center
- »Richard Ransohoff, MD Awarded the 2012 John Dystel Prize for MS Research
February 21, 2012
The award – presented by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society since 1995 – is given annually to one recipient, recognizing “outstanding contributions to research in the understanding, treatment, or prevention of multiple sclerosis” and “significant and exciting work that has influenced how we think about multiple sclerosis.”
Dr. Ransohoff's most recent contributions to the field of multiple sclerosis (MS) include the discovery that MS can progress from the outermost layers of the brain to its interior. Aiming to lower the risk/benefit ratio of multiple sclerosis therapy, he has also recently developed an experimental model that allowed his group to identify a novel mechanism for harmful infiltration of white blood cells into the central nervous system. With increased understanding of this process and how it is regulated, new therapeutic targets are possible.
“It is an honor to receive this award, which recognizes the research done by my colleagues and me. With support from the National Institutes of Health, the National MS Society and generous individual donors, this prestigious award inspires our daily work,” Dr. Ransohoff said. “During the past 15 years, we’ve identified several new molecules as potential targets for MS treatments and rationales for developing new MRI techniques to visualize brain damage in MS.”
Dr. Ransohoff will be awarded the prize at the 2012 AAN Annual Meeting in New Orleans. With Dr. Ransohoff and the 2003 recipient, Bruce Trapp, Ph.D., the chairman of the Neurosciences Department of the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic joins Yale University and the University College London as the only institutions with two Dystel Prize awardees.
Cleveland Clinic’s Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research is one of the largest and most comprehensive programs for MS care. Mellen Center physicians are national leaders in basic and clinical research related to MS pathogenesis and medical management and have made major contributions in the development of drugs to control MS disease activity and progression.
- »Richard Rudick, MD receives medal from TVS motor company
Expert sees hope on the horizon for multiple sclerosis cure
Modern medicine stands somewhere half way in its race for a cure for Multiple Sclerosis, an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, and the next couple of years could see a larger choice of drugs and advances in personalised medicine, Richard A. Rudick, Director of the Mellen Centre for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research, Cleveland Clinic, U.S., said on Saturday.
- »Dr. Jeffrey Cohen discusses his stem cell research that is helping treat multiple sclerosis
- »Dr. Rudick - Overview of MS and the Mellen Center
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- »Clinical Trials Using Adult Stem Cells to Treat MS
The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and Case Western Reserve University are collaborating on a one-of-a-kind clinical trial in the United States, designed to treat, or even reverse, the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis by using a patient's own adult stem cells.
View a full description of the mellen center ms stem cell trial
- »Cleveland Clinic multiple sclerosis patients got engaged during a treatment session
- »Multiple Sclerosis: Taking Control of Spasticity
View a series of videos from the International Organization of Multiple Sclerosis Rehabilitation Therapists (IOMSRT) about taking control of Spasticity.
- »Hip Flexion Clinical Trial Needs Volunteers
A new study being conducted by Dr. Francois Bethoux at Cleveland Clinic’s Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis, and funded by the National MS Society, is investigating the use of a new device that may help ambulatory MS patients improve their walking abilities.
Volunteers ages 18-60 who have MS and difficulty walking due to weakness of their hip flexor muscles are invited to participate in the study. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a hip flexion assist device (HFAD) on gait performance. The device is a brace that can be worn comfortably and discretely under clothing.
- »FDA Issues Warning About Experimental MS Therapy
The U.S Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about the potential risks of an experimental therapy used to treat a condition--chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, or CCSVI--often linked to multiple sclerosis.
- Dr. Fox, medical director of the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis at Cleveland Clinic, comments on this controversial therapy with ABC NEWS
