CHICAGO - Neda Bernasconi, MD, PhD and Andrea Bernasconi, MD were presented with the 2021 Clinical Science Research Award during the 2021 Annual Meeting of the American Epilepsy Society (AES). The Research Recognition Awards are the Society's highest research awards, to encourage and recognize active basic science and clinical investigators whose research contributes importantly to understanding and conquering epilepsy.
Dr. Andrea Bernasconi and Dr. Neda Bernasconi are Professors of Neurology in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University in Canada. They are the co-founders and co-directors of the Neuroimaging of Epilepsy Laboratory at the McConnell Brain Imaging Centre of the Montreal Neurological Institute.
Dr. Neda Bernasconi’s research is dedicated to drug-resistant syndromes involving the limbic system. She combines state-of-the-art MRI techniques with advanced statistics to study the structural and functional architecture of the brain in search of biomarkers of epileptogenesis. She also aims at tracking disease progression and its consequences on connectivity and cognition. She has published more than 120 peer-reviewed papers and has trained more than 40 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.
Dr. Andrea Bernasconi's research is devoted to the investigation of causes and consequences of epilepsy using MRI and artificial intelligence. His group has pioneered a series of novel MR acquisition and image-processing methods. A significant achievement has been the design of biology-driven MRI models for automatic detection of cortical dysplasias, particularly those that elude standard radiology. Dr. Bernasconi spearheaded the development of new guidelines aimed at standardizing MRI protocols for the investigation of people with epilepsy. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and trained 30 postdocs and 20 graduate students in neuroscience and biomedical engineering.