HUGO MOSER RESEARCH INSTITUTE OVERVIEW

Kennedy Krieger’s scientists and researchers are leaders in the worldwide effort to prevent and treat disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and musculoskeletal system.  Our investigators continue to break new ground with innovative magnetic resonance imaging technology, investigate critical areas, such as the role of genetics in developmental disorders, and develop new treatment models and therapies. Kennedy Krieger is committed to sharing our knowledge that can be adapted and used by other healthcare organizations to benefit patients across the country and around the world.

Professional Training Overview

Kennedy Krieger dedicates substantial resources to increasing the number of qualified specialists in the fields of neurological and developmental disabilities. We also take seriously our responsibility not only to improve care through research, but to share that knowledge with others. That is why more than 400 individuals come here to train in a wide variety of disciplines each year. The goals of the Institute’s clinical training programs are twofold: 1) to train leaders in the field of neurodevelopmental disabilities and 2) to help ensure that there is a sufficient number of qualified professionals to meet the needs of children with special health care needs and their families. By training future generations of researchers and professionals – from undergraduate students to current staff – we are ensuring that children everywhere can receive the best possible care.

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Home › Research & Training
A National Research Resource Center for Functional Brain Imaging Technology
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The only children's hospital designated as a NIH National Research Resource for functional brain imaging, Kennedy Krieger is breaking new ground with innovative fMRI techonology.
Understanding Behaviors Through Observational Research
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Discovering the environmental and biological basis of behavior is crucial to understanding and improving treatment outcomes for a wide variety of developmental disorders.
Motion Analysis Research and Laboratory
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Using 3D modeling and other innovative technologies, our researchers are studying new methods to improve walking patterns in those with brain injuries.
IAN Research: Advancing Research, Empowering Advocates, Interpreting Findings
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The Interactive Autism Network (IAN) is the nation's largest online autism research effort. IAN Research collects data from families online and matches them to studies nationwide.

HUGO MOSER RESEARCH INSTITUTE OVERVIEW

Kennedy Krieger’s scientists and researchers are leaders in the worldwide effort to prevent and treat disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and musculoskeletal system.  Our investigators continue to break new ground with innovative magnetic resonance imaging technology, investigate critical areas, such as the role of genetics in developmental disorders, and develop new treatment models and therapies. Kennedy Krieger is committed to sharing our knowledge that can be adapted and used by other healthcare organizations to benefit patients across the country and around the world.

Participate in Research

Over the years, Kennedy Krieger’s scientists and researchers have made crucial medical discoveries that have led to innovative treatments and improved patient care for individuals with disorders of the brain, spinal cord and musculoskeletal system. Learn more about current research studies you can participate in by visiting our recruiting research studies page. Learn more.

Current Research Projects

Predicting Intervention Responsiveness to Improve Rehabilitation in People with Multiple Sclerosis
Principal Investigator: Zackowski, Kathleen
Sponsored by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society -- RG 4668-A-1. Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS) distinguished pathologically by...
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Maternal Antibody Binding to Lymphocytes of Offspring with Autism
Principal Investigator: Zimmerman, Andrew
Sponsored by the Hussman Foundation. We hypothesize that maternal antibodies may bind to the lymphocytes of the mothers' autistic children. This may be important in studying potential biological...
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Addressing Sleep Problems in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder at Multidisciplinary Autism Centers
Principal Investigator: Accardo, Jennifer
Sleep problems are highly prevalent among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), particularly insomnia. Pediatric sleep problems are often overlooked in typically-developing children. It is...
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Problem Sleep in Children and Young Adults with Fragile X Syndrome with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder
Principal Investigator: Accardo, Jennifer
This study will examine relationships between sleep difficulty and autism in boys and young men with full mutation Fragile X syndrome (FXS). This study will analyze retrospective cross-sectional data...
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Study of the relationship between preferences for high fat food items...
Principal Investigator: Amari, Adrianna
Although highly effective for the treatment of intractable epilepsy, the ketogenic diet is not always included in the treatment option hierarchy presented to families, in part due to perceptions that...
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Locomotor Training for Neurological Disease
Principal Investigator: Bastian, Amy
For this pilot study our aims are to:  Understand basic brain mechanisms of inter-limb control and adaptation during locomotion to determine the paradigm to be used for improving interlimb...
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Neural Control of Reaching
Principal Investigator: Bastian, Amy
Aim1: Use dynamic computational models of the human arm and a robot exoskeleton to investigate the mechanisms of cerebral versus cerebellar coordination deficits.  Cerebral coordination deficits...
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Exercise Training Program for Cerebellar Ataxia
Principal Investigator: Bastian, Amy
The cerebellum is important for coordination of movement and for motor learning. No medications systematically improve cerebellar ataxia, and little is known about the effectiveness of rehabilitation...
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Locomotor Control and Learning
Principal Investigator: Bastian, Amy
In this project, we will study split belt treadmill walking and walking under natural conditions. We have found that adaptation to split belt walking in adults and children varies in its...
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Cerebellar Control of Movement
Principal Investigator: Bastian, Amy
Cerebellar damage disrupts movement coordination. Actions ranging from walking to reaching become inaccurate and difficult to control, which has deleterious effects on most functional movements....
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Long term split belt training for stroke recovery
Principal Investigator: Bastian, Amy
We recently discovered that the walking deficits of people with post-stroke hemiparesis can be improved on short timescales by adaptation to split-belt treadmill conditions that exaggerate the...
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Diagnosing Fibrocartilaginous Embolism: A Rare Cause of Acute Myelopathy (A Case Series)
Principal Investigator: Becker, Daniel
Fibrocartilaginous embolism (FCE) is a rarely reported cause of myelopathy. Diagnosis of FCE has typically been made by post-mortem diagnosis. Ante-mortem reports of FCE are rare. Fibrocartilaginous...
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Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Children with Spinal Cord Injury
Principal Investigator: Becker, Daniel
The goal of this study is to assess the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors in children with spinal cord injury. There is a large body of evidence in adults that suggests that apparently...
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CURE-SCI: Clinical Utilization of CNS Growth Factor Release in Response to Electrical Stimulation Following Spinal Cord Injury
Principal Investigator: Becker, Daniel
A Phase II Randomized, Single-Blinded, 80-Subject Clinical Trial of Functional Electrical Stimulation in the Treatment of Adult Spinal Cord Injury The specific aims of the proposal are: To determine...
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FIRST-STIM CNS Growth Factor Release and Changes in the Inflammatory Environment in Response to Electrical Stimulation in Subjects with Inflammatory Myelopathies
Principal Investigator: Becker, Daniel
A Phase II Randomized, Single-Blinded, 100-Subject Clinical Trial of Functional Electrical Stimulation in the Treatment of Inflammatory Myelopathies The specific aims of the proposal are: To...
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Spinal Fluid Research Database Transfer
Principal Investigator: Becker, Daniel
From 2004 until 2007, Dr. Daniel Becker was the principal investigator for creating a tissue repository for spinal fluid samples at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. The samples were collected...
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Characterizing the Natural History of Inflammatory and Traumatic Myelopathies
Principal Investigator: Becker, Daniel
Inflammatory and traumatic causes of myelopathy are a leading cause of disability in the United States. Inflammatory causes of myelopathy include multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis, optica, and...
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Perceptual Organization versus Perceptual Reasoning in a Clinic Sample
Principal Investigator: Beetar, John
The Wechlser Intelligence Scale for Children-Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) is often used to assess the intellectual functioning of children in school, medical, and clinical settings. In revising its...
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Crisis Management in a Special Education School: Trends in the Use of Restraint and Seclusion to Maintain Safety
Principal Investigator: Beetar, John
This study is a description of trends in the occurrence and duration of restraint and seclusion in the lower/middle school and high school of Kennedy Krieger School Programs. Seven years of crisis...
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Yoga Based Movement Therapy Study
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
This preliminary study will examine the feasibility of conducting a randomized clinical trial of Yoga Based Movement Therapy (YBMT)and standard care mental health (SCMH) treatment compared to SCMH...
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Child Attitudes Towards Drug Use Risk
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
Examine the responses of children treated at the JHH Adolescent clinic towards drug use and drug use risk. Baseline responses of children, ages 10-14 years, on a Project Alert: Survey of Student...
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The Garden of Hope: Horticultural Therapy with Traumatized Children
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
The Garden of Hope: Horticultural Therapy with Traumatized Children (HTTC) study will evaluate the effectiveness of horticultural therapy as an adjunct therapy to standard mental health treatment for...
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TF-CBT Effectiveness Study
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) is an evidence-based mental health treatment designed for children who have experienced traumatic life events. Children at the Kennedy Krieger...
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KKI Benchmark TFC
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
The Kennedy Krieger Institute (KKI) Benchmark Treatment Foster Care (TFC) evaluation study will collect program evaluation and patient demographic, treatment and eight outcome measures on the KKI TFC...
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NCTSI Cross-Site Evaluation Component 1 and 2
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
What are the descriptive and clinical outcomes of 25 children treated at KKFC? Child-Caregiver dyads treated at KKFC will be assessed at baseline, three-months, six-months, nine-months and 12-months...
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KKFC Children at Risk Study
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
This study is designed to evaluate the association between parental risk factors and child behavior and parental stress following six months of mental health treatment. The study will use data from a...
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Dayspring Program Evaluation
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
The Dayspring Community Programs, Inc. is a community based program designed to address the specialized needs of parents in recovery from drug dependency and their children. The goal of this research...
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The Baltimore BETTER Family and Community Partnership The Baltimore Behavioral Enhancement through Training & Teaching to Expand Resiliency (BETTER) Family & Community Partnership
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
Does Head Start Center-based mental health and substance abuse prevention intervention improve parent, child, and family outcomes (e.g. child behavior, parent stress and mental health, family...
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FamilyLive Feasibility and Effectiveness Study
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
Children who have been exposed to neglect often have parents who experienced their own childhood neglect and/or trauma (defined as childhood physical, sexual or emotional abuse, exposure to life...
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National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Quality Improvement Initiative Database
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
The proposed study is to request permission to continue federally mandated data collection to examine the clinical outcomes of children at the Family Center at Kennedy Krieger Institute who are...
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KKI TFC KIDnet Outcome Monitoring System
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
The KIDnet system is a clinical needs assessment, functional outcome measure, and therapeutic effectiveness database used by the State of Maryland and clinical foster care providers (Kennedy Krieger...
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Strengthening Families' Coping Resources Open Trial
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
This study is an open trial to determine the effectiveness of the Strengthening Family Coping Resources (SFCR) clinical treatment for children and families affected by trauma exposure. The clinicians...
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RISE: Promoting Diversity among Public Health Professionals
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
This IRB proposal is to obtain permission to publish the outcome results of a student training program to promote public health careers among under-represented graduate students. All data have been...
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MCHC/RISE-UP and Ferguson Fellowship Program Evaluation
Principal Investigator: Belcher, Harolyn
The proposed study is an federally mandated evaluation of two CDC-funded public health training programs. The overarching goal is of the programs is to increase the diversity of the public health...
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Differentiation of Fibroblast-Derived Induced Pluripotent Cells into Oligodendrocytes for Treatment of Neurological Disorders
Principal Investigator: Belegu, Visar
The isolation of human embryonic stem cells (hSECs) and the development of protocols to differentiate these cells toward various lineages are revolutionizing regenerative medicine. Transplantation of...
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Relationship of Cortical MRI to ASIA Impairment Scale in Chronic Spinal Cord Injury
Principal Investigator: Belegu, Visar
Preliminary data suggests that spinal cord and sensorimotor cortical function is disrupted following SCI and individuals with SCI have a different pattern of brain activation compared to individuals...
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The Use of Naturally Occurring Schedules of Reinforcement to Decrease Inappropriate Mealtime Behavior: Are General Recommendations Enough?
Principal Investigator: Borrero, Carrie
The primary objective of this research is to determine if an approximation of natural schedules of reinforcement (observed during caregiver-fed meals with children) can be approximated through the...
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A Comparison of Two Physical Guidance Procedures in the Treatment of Pediatric Food Refusal
Principal Investigator: Borrero, Carrie
Escape prevention procedures implemented in the treatment of food refusal may vary across clinical settings. An evidence base exists for at least one form of physical guidance that is commonly...
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Conceptualizing food preferences as rich-to-lean and lean-to-rich transitions: A translational analysis
Principal Investigator: Borrero, Carrie
The purpose of this study is to determine if a children's food preferences following treatment for pediatric food refusal continue to impact mealtimes. During meals, typically multiple foods are...
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Maternal Antibody Binding to Lymphocytes of Offspring with Autism
Principal Investigator: Bressler, Joseph
The origins of autism are prenatal, though the biological mechanisms specifically causing changes in brain function have yet to be identified. Besides genetic factors, the maternal uterine...
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Fragile X Clinical and Research Cooperative Consortium Registry and Repository
Principal Investigator: Budimirovic, Dejan
This project will advance the core activities of the Fragile X Clinical and Research Consortium (FXCRC). The FXCRC is a collaborative endeavor initiated in 2006 by the National Fragile X Foundation (...
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Early Communicative Functions and Later Autism
Principal Investigator: Budimirovic, Dejan
This study is a de-identified retrospective review of previously collected clinical data. The aim of the study is to compare acquisition of early communication skills between individuals with fragile...
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Early signs of Fragile-X syndrome
Principal Investigator: Budimirovic, Dejan
The proposed study intends to begin identifying early signs of deviation from typical development (i.e., motor, language/communication, social) in individuals with FXS. Our study will be based on the...
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Neuropsychiatric disorder in young adults with Down syndrome
Principal Investigator: Capone, George
We propose to consecutively enroll new patients presenting to our clinic for initial clinical evaluation of neuropsychiatric and behavioral problems. Our goal is to 1) quantify psychiatric and...
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A 20-week double blind placebo controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of rivastigmine in children (ages 10-17) with Down syndrome
Principal Investigator: Capone, George
The specific aims of this study are to: a) investigate short-term safety and efficacy of rivastigmine treatment; b) build upon the open-label treatment results of overall function and language...
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Autism Spectrum Disorder in Down Syndrome: A Model of Repetitive and Stereotypic Behavior for Idiopathic ASD
Principal Investigator: Capone, George
The proposed project will be an initial delineation of the distinctive and specific features of Down syndrome (DS) and co-morbid autism spectrum disorder (DS + ASD). The primary focus is on the...
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Depression and Sleep Disorders in Adolescents and Young Adults with Down Syndrome
Principal Investigator: Capone, George
Persons with Down syndrome (DS) are known to exhibit adolescent and adult-onset psychopathology such as depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive and schizophreniform disorders. Many also have...
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Translational Analyses of Chronic Aberrant Behavior Across the Lifespan
Principal Investigator: Cataldo, Michael
The goal of the proposed line of research is to gain a better understanding of the processes that evoke and maintain severe problem behavior (i.e., chronic aberrant behavior) in persons with...
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Therapeutic Hypothermia After Pediatric Cardiac Arrest: The THAPCA Trials (Telephone Follow Up Center)
Principal Investigator: Christensen, James
Cardiac arrest in childhood often results in death or poor quality neurologic survival. Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in children is usually preceded by respiratory failure and hypoxia, whereas in-...
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The Effects of Multi-Sensory Environments on the Stereotypic Behaviors of Children with Autism
Principal Investigator: Church, Robin
Questions: Will individually-designed sensory-based interventions, delivered in a multi-sensory environment have an immediate effect on the stereotypic and out-of seat behaviors of elementary school...
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Training Paraeducators to Use Time Delay to Teach Students with Moderate to Severe Disabilities
Principal Investigator: Church, Robin
Research questions that will be addressed as part of this project include: Will the paraeducator training program increase paraeducator use of time delay when prompting students during a known and...
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Improving Teacher Effectiveness in Classrooms for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Principal Investigator: Church, Robin
Standard practice in educational settings includes teacher evaluation by administrators to provide feedback about the quality of programming in their classrooms. This data is then used to improve a...
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Innovative approaches to gauge neurologic progression in Sturge-Weber syndrome
Principal Investigator: Comi, Anne
This 1 of three projects funded by a NIH consortium grant to study Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS). It will create a national database, determine if urine biomarkers can predict neurologic progression in...
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Multidiciplinary Protocol to Address the Pathophysiology of Sturge-Weber Syndrome
Principal Investigator: Comi, Anne
The Multidisciplinary Protocol to Address the Pathophysiology of Sturge-Weber Syndrome's goal is to better understand how Sturge-Weber Syndrome affects the brain, eyes, skin, blood vessels, behavior...
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Individualizing Learning Arrangements for Children with Intellectual Disabilities
Principal Investigator: DeLeon, Iser
The frequent and immediate delivery of reinforcers (rewards) following completion of academic tasks and related activities is an integral part of many educational programs for children with...
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Functional Neuroimaging of Time Perception in Children with and without Autism
Principal Investigator: DeLeon, Iser
RESEARCH QUESTION: This study uses fMRI to examine whether children with autism experience time differently to children without autism. The adequate processing of temporal information is fundamental...
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Work, Rewards, and Disruptive Behaviors
Principal Investigator: DeLeon, Iser
Procedures that have been shown to produce counterproductive pausing behaviors in humans and animals will be studied in persons with mental retardation and histories of disruptive behaviors (...
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Faculty & Research Scientists