Prof. Mandar Jog, the director of the Movement Disorders Centre in London, Ontario and Professor of Neurology at Western University, Canada.
“Dr. Jog's research interests include topics such as motor control, neurophysiology and computational modeling, multichannel recording and web-based teaching of movement disorders. He has trained many undergraduates, graduates, PhD students and post-doctoral fellows from physiology, neuroscience, physics, computer science and engineering and has travelled internationally to conduct workshops and courses along with many speaking engagements. Dr. Jog has a passion for clinical and scientific innovation and hold numerous patents that are reaching commercialization with strong collaboration with university technology transfer and industry partners. Dr. Jog holds multiple patents relating to electrophysiological technology and is the founder of Medtrode Inc. and ManJog Enterprises.” (Source: From the Western University website) .
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Recently, a story appeared on the BBC that attracted a lot of attention. The report was on the use of spinal cord stimulation to treat Parkinson’s patients with severe gait impairments. Though the procedure has only been tried in a small number of people for a relatively short period of time, the team working on it at Western University in London, Canada has had some very promising preliminary results.
Leading the team is Prof. Mandar Jog, the director of the Movement Disorders Centre in London, Ontario and Professor of Neurology at Western University. Coincidentally I met Prof. Jog for the first time about a week before this story broke and had already arranged to come visit him in his lab to learn more about his work. After seeing the excitement this story raised, as well as all the questions the PD community had regarding it, I thought it would be a good opportunity to dust off my interviewer hat and see if I could help shed a little more insight into this treatment.
But before I get to the interview, I also had the opportunity to sit down with PhD candidate Olivia Samotus. I am constantly amazed by the young minds that I come across who have decided to devote themselves to this disease. It is their ingenuity and their hours spent at the bench tinkering and perfecting our models and methods that enables the development of new strategies to treat disease.
Here is Olivia explaining how spinal cord stimulation for Parkinson’s disease works:
As you will hear, Prof. Jog has a rather unique perspective on the brain and the diseases that ail it. His background as a physicist and mathematician, as well as his clinical experience, has led him to some interesting hypotheses about neurodegenerative diseases. It is encouraging to see people from non-traditional neuroscience or neurology backgrounds applying themselves to this problem as they often have intriguing new ways of looking at it. I also particularly like the motto of his lab…
INNOVATE. TRANSLATE. COMMERCIALIZE.
Listen to the interview with Prof. Mandar Jog that I recorded on May 1st, 2019 on the original blog post here.
To discover more about the research of Prof. Jog, go here.
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Keep an eye out for more entries in this section soon, and go here to view all Benjamin Stecher's unique blog posts for JPD! See all entries his Tomorrow Edition blog on that website here.
