Frank Garcia, PhD, with his neurosurgeon and mentor G. Edward Vates, MD, PhD, of the University of Rochester School of Medicine.
A career in neuroscience research
Two years later, in 2012, certain that he wanted to make neuroscience research his career, Frank started working toward his doctoral degree in cognitive neuroscience at the University of Rochester. The focus of his research was how the brain controls abilities that enable us to understand and use objects.
“ When we look at a toothbrush, our brains have to understand what it is, what it is for, and how to use it, and then translate all that information into the coordinated action of brushing our teeth,” says Frank. For some patients who have suffered a brain injury this ability is lost, either temporarily or permanently, a condition known as limb apraxia.
Last summer, after five years of research, Frank received his PhD. He is now in Philadelphia at the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute( MRRI), doing postdoctoral research with Laurel Buxbaum, PsyD, an expert in limb apraxia and action representation in the human brain. The MRRI is devoted to improving the lives of individuals with neurological disabilities through research.
Frank is thrilled to be working with Dr. Buxbaum and looks forward to eventually establishing his own research lab to continue his quest to better understand the brain and human cognition.“ My long-term goal is to use the knowledge derived from my scientific studies of the human brain to improve therapeutic techniques for patients as they recover from brain injury,” says Frank.
Last July, Dr. Vates and a colleague Michael Lawton, MD, published an article on subarachnoid hemorrhage in the New England Journal of Medicine. Their introduction told the story of a 17-year-old who suffered a subarachnoid hemorrhage on the soccer field. That teenager was Frank Garcea, who now looks back on that day as one of the luckiest of his life.
BRAIN ANEURYSM FOUNDATION | SUMMER 2018 | BAFOUND. ORG 15