Ali Rezai, M.D. - Chairman, Center for Neurological Restoration Director, Brain Neuromodulation Center, Jane and Lee Seidman Chair in Functional Neurosurgery, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation – Dr. Rezai earned his medical degree with honors from the University of Southern California and underwent neurosurgical training at New York University. Subsequently he completed his subspecialty training in functional neurosurgery at the University of Toronto and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He then joined the neurosurgical faculty at New York University Medical Center, becoming the director of the Center for Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery until January 2000, when he joined the faculty at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Dr. Rezai is a board certified neurosurgeon. His clinical area of expertise is the neurosurgical management of patients with severe movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease and dystonia, psychiatric conditions such as depression and obsessive compulsive disorder, chronic pain, and traumatic brain injury conditions. Dr. Rezai has been named as one of the best doctors in America in Castle and Connolly's guide to America's Top Doctors for 2001-2006.

Dr. Rezai has published over 90 articles and over 20 book chapters. He serves on the editorial board of Neurosurgery Journal and several others. He has edited a book on neurosurgery for the treatment of psychiatric disorders and is also an editor for the upcoming Textbook of Neuromodulation. Dr. Rezai has given over 250 lectures nationally and internationally, and he has chaired numerous symposia and meetings. Dr. Rezai holds the Jane and Lee Seidman Chair in Functional Neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic, and was the recipient of NorTech's annual Innovation Award in 2005, the Bottrell Neurosurgical Award, The Congress of Neurological Surgeons Clinical Fellowship award, and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Investigator Award. Dr. Rezai is a member of the Executive Board of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS), North American Neuromodulation Society, and the American Society of Steretoactic and Functional Neurosurgery (ASSFN), which he is currently the Secretary and Treasurer.

Dr. Rezai's area of research involves development of innovative therapies, and Neurostimulation devices for treatment of Parkinson's disease, chronic pain, brain injury and psychiatric disorders. He holds five US patents for surgical techniques and neuromodulation devices. Dr. Rezai received the Achievement of the Year Award for Health and Medicine from Northern Ohio Live magazine. Dr. Rezai's work has been featured in the "Wall Street Journal," "New York Times," "US News and World Report," "USA Today," MIT's "Technology Review Magazine," "Newsweek," "Time"," The Washington Post," " The Los Angeles Times" and "The Cleveland Plain Dealer." He was featured in Crains' "Who's Who in Biotech" and was listed as one of the "40 Under 40". Dr. Rezai has also appeared on numerous local and national radio and television broadcasts including ABC's Primetime, CBS' "60 Minutes," "CNN", "NPR", "PBS, MSNBC and The Discovery Channel.

Nicholas D. Schiff, M.D. - Associate Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience – Dr. Schiff is Associate Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University and Associate Attending Neurologist at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is Director of the Laboratory of Cognitive Neuromodulation at Weill-Cornell where he conducts investigative studies of the pathophysiology of impaired consciousness, the neurophysiological mechanisms of arousal regulation, and the effects of deep brain electrical stimulation techniques on forebrain integration.   A diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Dr. Schiff graduated with Departmental Honors and with Distinction from Stanford University and with Honors in Research from the Cornell University Medical College. He completed his residency in Neurology at the New York Hospital and served as the Administrative Chief Resident of the Neurology Department 1995-1996.

Dr. Schiff is an internationally recognized leader in the neurological subfield of disorders of consciousness and an established physician-scientist dedicated to translational research. His research program precisely bridges basic neuroscience and pre-commercial development of therapeutic devices and  medical diagnostics. Dr. Schiff's work is recognized as highly original and aimed at important and difficult problems:  identifying mechanisms of impaired cognitive function resulting from complex brain injuries and developing novel therapeutic strategies to treat acquired cognitive disabilities.

Dr. Schiff's research has been supported by grants from the NIH (NINDS, NIMH), private foundations (Charles A. Dana Foundation, James S. McDonnell Foundation) and industry (IntElect Medical, Inc). He has authored over 40 peer-reviewed scientific publications that span original work in clinical neuroimaging of disorders of consciousness, the fundamental neurophysiology of cortical and thalamic neurons, and advanced signal processing of neurophysiological data. He is also a listed inventor on several U.S. and international patents. His long-range goals are to develop therapeutic strategies and improved diagnostics for the rational therapy of chronic cognitive disabilities resulting from brain injuries.

Alim Louis Benabid, M.D., Ph.D. – Dr. Benabid received his MD in 1970 and his PhD in Physics in 1978 at the Joseph Fourier University of Grenoble (UJFG), and completed his basic neurosciences training during a sabbatical at the Salk Institute from 1979 to 1980. He was appointed Staff Neurosurgeon in 1972, and Professor of Experimental Medicine at UJFG in 1978. He is Professor of Biophysics. since 1983, Director of the Laboratory of Preclinical Neurosciences at INSERM since 1988, Head of Neurosurgery at the Joseph Fourier University Hospital since 1989 and additionally Coordinator of the Center for Functional Neurosurgery "Claudio Munari", Milano, since 1999. He has been elected as a Member of the French Academy of Medicine in 1999, of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Belgium and of the Academy of Sciences at the Institut de France in 2002. Since his discovery, in 1987, of the effects of high frequency stimulation on neural elements, he established the Deep Brain Stimulation therapy for movement disorders, which he extended to several targets and to other pathologies such as dystonia, epilepsy, and experimental models for obesity, psychosurgery. He authored or co-authored a large number of papers in peer reviewed journals and book chapters. His current research, from the neurosurgery department to animal models, explores the acute and long term biological effects of high frequency stimulation, from neural firing to gene expression, and to understand its mechanisms of action. For this he has received several international awards

P. Hunter Peckham, Ph.d. – Dr. Peckham received his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Clarkson College of Technology (now Clarkson University), Potsdam, NY, and his MS and PhD degrees in biomedical engineering from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland, OH. He is currently: Donnell Institute Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Orthopaedics at CWRU; Senior Career Research Scientist, Department of Veterans Affairs; and Director, Orthopaedic Research, MetroHealth Medical Center.  

Dr. Peckham presently serves as the Director of the Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) Center This research consortium was established with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Case Western Reserve University and MetroHealth Medical Center to broaden the clinical, educational, and technology base of activities related to restoring function for people with disabilities through the use of electrical activation of the nervous system.  The FES Center brings together, in a unique interdisciplinary environment, approximately 28 faculty, primarily from medicine and engineering, and approximately 105 staff including engineers, therapists, technicians and students.  The research programs are directed at functional restoration of upper and lower extremities, and bowel and bladder function in spinal cord injury and stroke.  As director, Dr. Peckham brings together a diverse group of researchers and clinicians to impact functional restoration to a severely impaired population, and as such his contributions are of immediate impact to individuals with physical disabilities.

Dr. Peckham is internationally known for his research in the utilization of functional electrical stimulation to restore hand/arm control to individuals of high-level spinal cord injury (quadriplegia).  The major area of Dr. Peckham's research is in rehabilitation engineering and neural prostheses.  He and his collaborators have developed implantable neural prostheses that utilize electrical stimulation to control neuromuscular activation.  They have implemented procedures to provide control of grasp-release in individuals with tetraplegia.  This function enables individuals who are disabled due to paralysis from central nervous system injury to regain the ability to perform essential activities of daily living.
 
Dr. Peckham’s present efforts concern the integration of technological rehabilitation and surgical approaches to restore functional capabilities. He is currently working on an advanced neuroprosthesis that employs implantable sensors for internal control and regulation of movement. 

Dr. Peckham’s publications include over 90 journal articles, 27 book chapters and 6 edited books and journals.  He is an editor for the upcoming Textbook of Neuromodulation. His work has been featured in numerous local and national television and radio broadcasts

Dr. Peckham is a member of the  NIH National Institute of Bioimaging and Bioengineering National Advisory Council and currently serves on the Advisory Boards of:  Kessler Medical Rehabilitation Research and Education Corporation; Shriners Hospital for Children; Advanced Cochlear Sciences (ACS); Deans Advisory Council, School of Arts and Sciences, Clarkson University; Advisory Committee on Neural Prosthetics and DBS, NIH/NINDS.  He is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering and a fellow and honorary member of the American Spinal Injury Association, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2002, one of the highest professional honors for an engineer.  He is a member of numerous professional organizations.
  
Andre Machado, M.D., Ph.D. – Dr. Machado earned his medical degree and PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Sao Paulo Medical school and then completed Neurosurgery training at the U. of Sao Paulo and the Cleveland Clinic. He completed two years of Fellowship training in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Neurological Restoration in 2006. During that same year, he won the Gildenberg Award in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery by the Joint Section of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Machado’s research interests are in the fields of central nervous system plasticity and its implications in stroke rehabilitation, chronic pain and in movement disorders. In his lab at the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Machado is the principal investigator on translational research studies aimed at the development of novel therapies for stroke rehabilitation, currently funded by a National Institutes of Health award. His clinical area of expertise is the neurosurgical management of patients with otherwise intractable pain syndromes and severe movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, dystonia and spasticity.

Cameron McIntyre, Ph.D. – Dr. McIntyre received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2001, where his doctoral research focused on the biophysics of the interaction between extracellular electric fields and neurons. From 2001 to 2003, Dr. McIntyre performed post-doctoral training at Johns Hopkins University and Emory University where he studied deep brain stimulation (DBS). In 2003 he joined the faculty at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation where he is currently appointed as Associate Staff in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and holds adjunct professorships at Case Western Reserve University. 

Over the last five years the McIntyre lab has published extensively and developed international prominence by coupling theoretical and experimental analyses of DBS. Numerous research grants from the American Parkinson Disease Association, the W.H. Coulter Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health have supported his research program that focuses on both the neurophysiological effects and engineering design of DBS systems.  The fundamental goal of his research program is to use growing knowledge on the therapeutic mechanisms of DBS to better engineer the next generation of DBS devices.