SIU Med School Physician Receives Two National Grants

A physician at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield has been awarded two national grants. Dr. Michael R. Pranzatelli, professor of neurology and pediatrics and chief of child neurology, is the principal investigator for both projects.

A one-year grant has been awarded by the Pediatric Opsoclonus-Myoclonus Syndrome (OMS) Research Foundation for the study of immunological abnormalities in pediatric OMS. The total budget for the grant is $50,000.

The study will look at cellular and chemical abnormalities found in cerebrospinal fluid and blood of children who have OMS. OMS is an autoimmune syndrome associated with a neuroblastoma that causes neurological problems such as loss of ability to sit, stand or speak, as well as extreme irritability and sleeplessness.

A two-year grant has been awarded by the Spastic Paralysis Research Foundation of the Illinois-Eastern Iowa District of Kiwanis International for a study to identify the immunological abnormalities of OMS. The total budget for the second grant is $40,000.

Both studies may lead to development of new therapies for the condition. Pranzatelli’s research has received national funding for twenty years and now totals $1,665,179. His research focuses on pediatric myoclonus.

Pranzatelli joined the SIU faculty in 1999. He is director of the National Pediatric Myoclonus Center and a member of the medical team at St. John’s Children’s Hospital. He was a research fellow in neuropharmacology and neurology at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles at the University of Southern California (1982-1985) and post-doctoral trainee at the Pediatric Stolinsky Laboratory in Denver (1981-82). Pranzatelli completed his residency in pediatric neurology at the University of Colorado in Denver (1982) and a residency in pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio (1979). He earned his medical degree from Pennsylvania State University in Hershey (1976) and his bachelor’s degree at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa. (1968).

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