Alim Louis Benabid is a French-Algerian emeritus professor,

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...

and member of the French

Academy of Sciences An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unit ...

, who has had a global impact in the development of

deep brain stimulation Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a neurosurgical procedure involving the placement of a medical device called a neurostimulator, which sends electrical impulses, through implanted electrodes, to specific targets in the brain (the brain nucleus ...

(DBS) for

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

and other movement disorders. He became emeritus professor of biophysics at the

Joseph Fourier University Joseph Fourier University (UJF, french: Université Joseph Fourier, also known as Grenoble I) was a French university situated in the city of Grenoble and focused on the fields of sciences, technologies and health. It is now part of the Universit ...

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

in September 2007, and chairman of the board of the Edmond J. Safra Biomedical Research Center in 2009 at Clinatec, a multidisciplinary institute he co-founded in Grenoble that applies nanotechnologies to neurosciences.

Biography

Alim Louis Benabid was born May 2, 1942, in

, France. The son of a doctor from Algeria and of a French nurse, Benabid was quoted as saying he could not easily decide between studying physics or medicine. He received his medical degree in 1970 and a doctorate in physics in 1978, both from

(now part of the

Université Grenoble Alpes The Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA, French: meaning "''Grenoble Alps University''") is a public research university in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 resea ...

) in Grenoble. He became a staff neurosurgeon at Joseph Fourier University in 1972, professor of experimental medicine in 1978, and professor of biophysics from 1983 to 2007. Benabid also had a fellowship in 1979 – 1980 in preclinical neuropharmacology in the laboratory of Floyd Bloom at the

Salk Institute The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is a scientific research institute located in the La Jolla community of San Diego, California, U.S. The independent, non-profit institute was founded in 1960 by Jonas Salk, the developer of the polio vacci ...

La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

, California. From 1988 to 2007, he directed the preclinical neurosciences unit at the French biomedical and public health research institution INSERM, and from 1989 to 2007, served as head of the neurosurgery department at the University Hospital of Grenoble. In other roles, Benabid coordinated the Claudio Munari Center for Surgery of Epilepsy and Movement Disorders at Ospedale (Hospital) Niguarda in Milan, Italy from 1998 to 2007, and was a staff consultant at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio from 2000 to 2003. In 2007, Benabid joined the French Commissariat d'Energie Atomique as a scientific adviser during the time a campus for public-private innovation was being created, the Grenoble Innovation for Advanced New Technologies campus, which includes the

Minatec Minatec (initially called the Micro and Nanotechnology Innovation Centre) is a research complex specializing in micro-nano technologies in Grenoble, France. The centre was inaugurated in June 2006 by François Loos, French Minister Delegate ...

research complex and the life-science cluster NanoBio. In 2009, he became chairman of the board of the Edmond J. Safra Biomedical Research Center at Clinatec, a translational biomedical technology organization he helped found within

. Clinatec was jointly created by CEA-LETI (Laboratoire d'électronique des technologies de l'information—an applied micro- and nanotechnology subsidiary of CEA), Grenoble University Hospital, INSERM and Joseph Fourier University. In 2013, when awarding Benabid a $100,00
Robert A. Pritzker Prize for Leadership in Parkinson's Research
to fund continued research, the Michael J. Fox Foundation said in its award announcement that Benabid had published 523 scientific papers, achieving an H Index of 67, as well as given 18 honorary lectures, and received 23 medals and prizes.

Deep brain stimulation neurosurgery

Benabid developed stereotactic surgery methods for brain surgery in patients who had brain tumors or certain types of

movement disorder Movement disorder refers to any clinical syndrome with either an excess of movement or a paucity of voluntary and involuntary movements, unrelated to weakness or spasticity. Movement disorders are synonymous with basal ganglia or extrapyramidal ...

. As part of the work, he and his team members created

tissue bank A tissue bank is an establishment that collects and recovers human cadaver tissue for the purposes of medical research, education and allograft transplantation. A tissue bank may also refer to a location where biomedical tissue is stored under cry ...

s using tissue from brain tumor

biopsies A biopsy is a medical test commonly performed by a surgeon, interventional radiologist, or an interventional cardiologist. The process involves extraction of sample cells or tissues for examination to determine the presence or extent of a dise ...

. The tissue samples were used to characterize brain tumors by oncogenic mapping. Studies of genomics and proteomics have highlighted the factors involved in tumor progression and led to therapeutic advances such as anti-angiogenic factors. For patients with Parkinson's disease, Benabid and Pierre Pollak, a neurologist at the University Hospital of Grenoble, also developed

(DBS) in 1987.

is commonly treated with medicines such as levodopa to improve muscle control, balance and walking, but higher dosages tend to be needed over time in this progressive neurological condition, and long-term use can lead to motor fluctuations such as tremor, rigidity or slowness. Prior to development of DBS, the main surgical treatment for Parkinson's disease was lesioning to inhibit involuntary abnormal motion associated with severe Parkinson's disease not controlled by optimal medication. As described in a 2010 interview with Benabid in the medical journal ''Lancet'', electrical stimulation was used during surgery to locate the ablation target and predict lesioning effects. To precisely locate the right area, an electrode would be placed around the target and those surrounding areas stimulated with physiological frequencies of 20 – 50 Hz while observing the patient's movement. Since electrical stimulation itself sometimes seemed to quiet tremor during the procedure, Benabid reasoned this might be a solution. He tested from very low frequencies of 1, 5, 10 Hz and more up to 100 Hz, which mimicked effects of ablation without destroying tissue. Initially the thalamus was stimulated. Later animal studies indicated the subthalamic nucleus might be a more effective stimulation target. As technology advanced to allow such stimulation to be continuously applied for a long time, DBS became widely adopted in the 1990s for treatment of movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, essential tremor, and dystonia. A meta-analysis of six randomized controlled trials published in 2014 showed that in 1,184 study subjects, DBS significantly improved untreated motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease, permitting a reduction in medication doses and their associated complications; as well as contributing moderately, during the phase when the patients were taking Parkinson's disease medication, to fewer motor symptoms, greater function, and more quality of life.

Honors and awards

Benabid has received a number of awards and honors from various countries, including:

Honorary degrees

* Honorary degree, National University of Ireland,

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city on ...

(2005) * Honorary degree,

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

* Honorary degree,

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

, Canada

References

External links