Charles J. Vierck, Jr. - US grants
Affiliations: | University of Florida, Gainesville, Gainesville, FL, United States |
Area:
PainWebsite:
http://www.mbi.ufl.edu/people/fac-form.php?id=98We are testing a new system for linking grants to scientists.
The funding information displayed below comes from the NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools and the NSF Award Database.The grant data on this page is limited to grants awarded in the United States and is thus partial. It can nonetheless be used to understand how funding patterns influence mentorship networks and vice-versa, which has deep implications on how research is done.
You can help! If you notice any innacuracies, please sign in and mark grants as correct or incorrect matches.
High-probability grants
According to our matching algorithm, Charles J. Vierck, Jr. is the likely recipient of the following grants.Years | Recipients | Code | Title / Keywords | Matching score |
---|---|---|---|---|
1985 — 1988 | Vierck, Charles J. | T32Activity Code Description: To enable institutions to make National Research Service Awards to individuals selected by them for predoctoral and postdoctoral research training in specified shortage areas. |
Research Training--Neurobiological Sciences @ University of Florida |
0.958 |
1985 — 1989 | Vierck, Charles J. | R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
Movement Deficits Following Spinal Cord Lesions @ University of Florida Motor disorders have long been known to follow damage to the dorsal columns. However, following extensive postoperative training, the only enduring deficits are those involving the grasping and manipulation of objects with the fingers. These results have indicated that the dorsal columns provide specialized sensory information that is critical to the execution of the precise finger movements involved in active touch. As a source of feedback to motor cortex, the dorsal columns may provide information that is critical for digital fractionation, involving precisely timed and directed sequences of movement of individual digits. The proposed experiments test this hypothesis with a methodology that permits direct challanges and measurements of digital motor acts. We have developed two paradigms which evaluate the ability of monkeys to make independent finger movements or track moving stimuli with the fingers. The experiments will evaluate in detail the deficits in individual finger movements that result from DC lesions, and the animals will be retrained to maximal capacity with specialized shaping procedures. The contributions of separate populations of joint and cutaneous receptors to digital fractionation and tracking will be evaluated, and the role of dorsolateral sensory pathways in recovery of digital dexterity will be determined. Because the corticospinal pathway is regarded as the afferent pathway of control over motoneurons involved in digital fractionation of primates, the consequences of dorsal column and corticospinal tract section will be compared directly. A major goal of this work is to provide information of direct relevance to clinical neurology and neurosurgery. A better understanding of spinal tract function is fundamental to accurate diagnosis of CNS pathology affecting the somatosensory system. Also, fundamental to an understanding of somatosensory coding mechanisms at thalamic and cortical levels is an accurate description of the functional contributions of the different spinal inputs to these regions. We have previously demonstrated that many of the initially debilitating motor effects of DC lesions recover with training. Fine movements of the hands have been an exception to this, but training procedures are critically important in providing the full opportunity for recovery. The stepwise shaping procedures for the finger movement tasks are appropriate to test the limits of functional plasticity of the spinal cord following well-defined damage. |
0.958 |
1985 — 2003 | Vierck, Charles J. | R01Activity Code Description: To support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator(s) in an area representing his or her specific interest and competencies. |
@ University of Florida The proposed investigations are intended to provide new information of clinical importance on the functional consequences of restricted injuries to peripheral nerves or the spinal cord. The injuries are restricted to an individual nerve with a small peripheral distribution or to a single spinal pathway, so that non-debilitating models can reveal important principles that will aid in the diagnosis, management and treatment of more severe injuries that are seen clinically in the human population. The spinal lesion studies are conducted with non-human primates, because the organization of the spinal pathways of primates differs considerably from that of other mammals. In addition, we will utilize powerful techniques of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging to evaluate the extent of the spinal cord injuries, which will enhance the ability to correlate functional deficits with the location and extent of a lesion. Two investigations will evaluate sensory capacities that are diminished or remain after interruption of ascending pathways on one side of the spinal cord. The first of these will provide the first thorough series of tests of proprioceptive sensations (providing information about the movement and position of the limbs) following a lesion of the ipsilateral dorsal column or lateral column. The results of this study will provide needed information concerning mechanisms of motor deficits that occur with spinal injuries. Also, the effects of dorsal column lesions on modulation of tactile sensitivity will be investigated. Previous studies have indicated that some impairments of touch sensations following interruption of the dorsal column result not from a loss of information but from activation of an inhibitory process by the lesion. Further understanding of this inhibitory process may suggest strategies to circumvent it, for the purpose of restoring tactile capabilities. Two other investigations are concerned with mechanisms responsible for generation of pain following injuries to peripheral nerves or the spinal cord. The first of these seeks to reveal whether partial injuries to peripheral nerves of rats result in an enhanced perception of pain in the region innervated by that nerve. If the mechanism for generation of this abnormal sensation can be determined, then treatments of peripheral nerve injuries for prevention of pain could be developed. Another investigation seeks to reveal the characteristics of spinal cord lesions in monkeys that can generate abnormal pain sensitivity. Current hypotheses concerning mechanisms of chronic pain from spinal lesions will be addressed by interrupting spinothalamic or lemniscal pathways. Identification of the mechanisms for pain of central origin could lead to improved treatments for control of chronic pain. The stimuli utilized in these studies are brief, non-injurious and easily tolerated by monkeys and humans. These experiments provide highly quantitative evaluations of changes in sensory capacities over time following clinically relevant restrictions of input. |
0.958 |
1989 — 1993 | Vierck, Charles J. | T32Activity Code Description: To enable institutions to make National Research Service Awards to individuals selected by them for predoctoral and postdoctoral research training in specified shortage areas. |
Research Training-Neurobiological Sciences @ University of Florida |
0.958 |
1995 — 1999 | Vierck, Charles J. | T32Activity Code Description: To enable institutions to make National Research Service Awards to individuals selected by them for predoctoral and postdoctoral research training in specified shortage areas. |
Research Training Neurobiological Sciences @ University of Florida |
0.958 |
1996 — 2000 | Vierck, Charles J. | P01Activity Code Description: For the support of a broadly based, multidisciplinary, often long-term research program which has a specific major objective or a basic theme. A program project generally involves the organized efforts of relatively large groups, members of which are conducting research projects designed to elucidate the various aspects or components of this objective. Each research project is usually under the leadership of an established investigator. The grant can provide support for certain basic resources used by these groups in the program, including clinical components, the sharing of which facilitates the total research effort. A program project is directed toward a range of problems having a central research focus, in contrast to the usually narrower thrust of the traditional research project. Each project supported through this mechanism should contribute or be directly related to the common theme of the total research effort. These scientifically meritorious projects should demonstrate an essential element of unity and interdependence, i.e., a system of research activities and projects directed toward a well-defined research program goal. |
Hindlimb Reflexes After Sci and Neural Grafting @ University of Florida The long-term objectives of this project are to evaluate functional consequences of spinal cord injury (SCI) and of fetal tissue transplants at previous injury sites in cats and rats. The injury models (spinal contusion or compression) to be used mimic many features of SCI in humans. The techniques for functional evaluation have been developed by this group of researchers, and these methods have shown that a central core spinal lesion caused by contusion/compression represents the minimal spinal trauma responsible for spasticity, which often is a hallmark consequence of SCI. The proposed experiments will further evaluate the effects of SCI on spinal reflexes and will determine mechanisms for generation, maintenance and attenuation of spasticity. Also, we have shown in other studies that transplantation can attenuate the development of hyperreflexia following SCI. The proposed experiments will test how this graft-associated effect is governed by various lesion conditions such as injury-to-graft delay interval and proximity of the injury/graft site relative to the lumbar motoneuron pool. The use of behavioral methods of reflex assessment in awake animals will provide quantitative monitoring of the time-course of changes in functional integrity of spinal cord circuitry caudal to compression injury (with or without a transplant). Additional physiological measures will identify the modulatory capabilities of spinal circuits caudal to a lesion (with or without a transplant), and the importance of these data will be greatly enhanced by knowledge of the reflex excitability of each animal, as characterized behaviorally. Experiments with cats will take advantage of kinematic analyses to relate the time-course of changes in hindlimb locomotor capacities to the progression of single limb reflex abnormalities following thoracic compression injury with or without transplantation. Experiments in cats and rats will evaluate the effects of transplantation soon after SCI that could favor protective effects preventing secondary degeneration over time, as compared with late transplantation which would be more directed at the restorative capacities of transplantation. Experiments in rats will provide additional comparisons between the effects of lumbar compression injuries and transplants (that occur near the segmental circuitry mediating hindlimb reflexes) and thoracic injuries and transplants (that occur remotely rostral to the lumbosacral hindlimb circuitry). Overall, these experiments will provide a comprehensive analysis of: 1) the effects of central cord injuries on the functional status of spinal cord circuits near and remote to the injury and 2) lesion variables that could influence desirable effects of transplantation on near and remote spinal circuits. |
0.958 |
2000 — 2002 | Vierck, Charles J. | P01Activity Code Description: For the support of a broadly based, multidisciplinary, often long-term research program which has a specific major objective or a basic theme. A program project generally involves the organized efforts of relatively large groups, members of which are conducting research projects designed to elucidate the various aspects or components of this objective. Each research project is usually under the leadership of an established investigator. The grant can provide support for certain basic resources used by these groups in the program, including clinical components, the sharing of which facilitates the total research effort. A program project is directed toward a range of problems having a central research focus, in contrast to the usually narrower thrust of the traditional research project. Each project supported through this mechanism should contribute or be directly related to the common theme of the total research effort. These scientifically meritorious projects should demonstrate an essential element of unity and interdependence, i.e., a system of research activities and projects directed toward a well-defined research program goal. |
@ University of North Carolina Chapel Hill The Behavioral Core is core-directed by Alan R. Light and Charles Vierck. The behavioral facility is responsible for all behavioral testing proposed in Projects 1 and 3. In these projects, it is important to assess changes in the sensitiveness of rats and mice to thermal and mechanical stimulation of cutaneous surfaces before and after administration of inflammatory mediators or other treatments of peripheral tissue or nerves. The behavioral core utilizes testing strategies originated by Dr. Vierck and Light have collaborated in this manner for some time, communicating frequently about the development of the proposed techniques and the analysis of results obtained with different manipulations. Furthermore, Dr. Vierck will travel from Gainesville to Chapel Hill once a month in order to review progress in the behavioral paradigms and to meet with personnel using these paradigms. |
0.902 |