International Physician Update

A Treasure Chest of Brain Imaging

Gary Goldstein,M.D., leads the famed Kennedy Krieger Institute.

 Best known as a top place to bring a developmentally disabled child, Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) is nothing more than a godsend for  Hopkins neuroscientists. KKI, which sits just adjacent to the Johns Hopkins medical campus, boasts one of the top imaging facilities in the world for studying the brain.

Known as the F.M. Kirby Imaging Center, the multimillion-dollar functional magnetic resonance resource allows scientists to view the most intricate structures and the most subtle details about the functioning brain. The powerful magnets that make up this technology are bringing together researchers from three campuses—KKI, the School of Medicine and Hopkins’ Homewood campus—to collaborate on brain studies as sophisticated as any in the world.

“You can actually see the mind at work,” says Gary Goldstein, KKI’s president.  And, indeed, the functional MRI displays everything from how the brain is wired to the chemicals it uses and produces. The magnet reveals important regions in minute detail and even discerns the speed and location of a thought process.

Developments in the technology should soon even make it possible to transmit real-time images to collaborators around the country. “We are committed to making sure this Kirby imaging resource grows,” Goldstein notes with pride.

Known the world over, KKI is recognized for studying and treating every kind of neurological condition—cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism, learning disabilities and brain disorders. What most people don’t realize, however, is that KKI’s faculty hold appointments at the School of Medicine. Scientists and clinicians literally run back and forth between the two places, sharing information and using each other’s equipment.

Jack Griffin, Hopkins’ director of neurology, sums up the Hopkins-KKI alliance:  “There is simply nothing like this relationship anyone else in the world.”