Researcher Kevin Budge Recognized at Brain Health Event

A presentation on a protein that has a unique ability to protect the brain against Parkinson’s Disease brought a Northeast Ohio Medical University researcher acclaim at a Cleveland Brain Health Initiative retreat held in August.

For more than 15 years, the lab of Fayez Safadi, Ph.D., professor of anatomy and neurobiology, has researched a protein in the bone called GPNMB. Kevin Budge, a Kent State University graduate student in Dr. Safadi’s lab, discovered that this protein has novel neuroprotective effects in Parkinson’s Disease.

Budge’s presentation of this research at a recent retreat by the Cleveland Brain Health Initiative (CBHI) won first place among fifty presentations from top labs and institutions in the region. The CBHI is operated under the auspices of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.