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Sridevi Sarma
Born1972 (age 51–52)
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Cornell University
Scientific career
InstitutionsJohns Hopkins University, Whiting School of Engineering
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Thesis Finite-rate control : stability and performance  (2006)
Academic advisorsMunther A. Dahleh
Emery Brown
Websitesarmalab.icm.jhu.edu

Sridevi Sarma (born 1972) is an American biomedical and electrical engineer known for her work in applying control theory to improve therapies for neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease and epilepsy. She is vice dean for graduate education of the Johns Hopkins University Whiting School of Engineering, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Computational Medicine, and an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Early life and education[edit]

Sarma did her undergraduate studies at Cornell University where she received a BS in Electrical Engineering in 1994. She received her SM and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1997 and 2006.[1] From 2000 to 2003 she took a leave of absence to start a data analytics company. She was a postdoctoral fellow in the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Science from 2006 to 2009.[2]

While pursuing her PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Sarma took a course on neural systems. During this time, she conducted a three-day case study on her aunt, who had early-onset Parkinson’s disease, as part of a class project. She recalled the experience to profoundly affect her, as she observed the impact of Parkinson’s on both her aunt and caretaking uncle. The exposure significantly influenced Sarma's interest in the application of control theory to treatments for neurological disorders.[3]

Research[edit]

Sarma joined the Johns Hopkins Department of Biomedical Engineering as a professor in 2009.[4] She was appointed as associate director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Computational Medicine in 2017, and vice dean of graduate education for the JHU Whiting School of Engineering in 2019.[5][4] She is best known for her research combining learning theory and control systems with neuroscience to create translational work aimed at improving therapies for neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease (PD) and epilepsy.[6]

Parkinson's Disease[edit]

Sarma’s early work focused on improving therapies for PD, primarily studying the effects of deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy as a method of PD treatment. DBS is a rapidly growing treatment used for Parkinson’s disease, but is limited by a single signal type, a single stimulus location, and power efficiency.[7] Sarma’s research team developed the first computational model of the motor network under PD conditions.[8] DBS was previously thought to block abnormal activity seen in PD with continuous, high-frequency signals. Sarma’s research team discovered that, contrary to this prevailing belief, high-frequency DBS restores pathological network dynamics in the brain.[7] [9]

Epilepsy[edit]

Sarma’s research into epilepsy centers on the development of advanced computational tools aimed at improving the diagnosis and treatment of epileptic seizures. Epilepsy affects over 60 million people worldwide, with approximately 30% of patients unresponsive to AEDs.[8] In these patients, surgery is the standard of care, which involves identifying and removing the brain's epileptogenic zone (EZ) from where seizures originate. However, accurately localizing has proven to be a significant research challenge. Seizure recurrence occurs in 50% of patients due to misidentification of the EZ.[10]

Among Sarma’s most notable contributions is the development of EZTrack, a computational tool designed to accurately identify epileptogenic zones using electroencephalogram (EEG) data. EZTrack has demonstrated substantial improvements in clinical settings, predicting surgical outcomes with 25% greater accuracy than clinicians and achieving a 100% accuracy rate in predicting surgical failures.[11]

Chronic Pain[edit]

Sarma’s lab is also developing an adaptive, model-based closed-loop peripheral nerve stimulation method for the restoration of the dysfunctional pain system back to a healthy state. Chronic pain can result from nerve and tissue injuries and has a prevalence of 11.2% in the US. Prior research into neuromodulation techniques has been limited to open-loop control systems that lack feedback response and closed-loop systems that block essential pain signals. Sarma’s lab is exploring an approach to suppress chronic pain while allowing short-lasting protective acute pain to be transmitted to the brain to be perceived. She is currently developing computational models of the spinal cord's dorsal horn (DH) circuit to predict how various electrical stimulation treatments alter neuronal activity.[8][12]

Presentations[edit]

Sarma serves on the International Workshop Statistical Analysis of Neuronal Data Committee, has served as associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation, and was the editor of a 2017 special issue of the Journal of Computational Neuroscience.[8]

Sarma has also appeared as a domain expert on several episodes of the National Geographic TV series, Brain Games.[13]

Entrepreneurship[edit]

Sarma serves as President and CEO of Neurologic Solutions, where she is commercializing her work on EZTrack and developing further EEG Analytics tools for epilepsy.[14] In addition to EZTrack, she is also developing EpiScalp, a software analytics tool providing a risk score to diagnose new seizure onset cases.[15]

Sarma is also the executive director of Neurotech Harbor, a technology accelerator focused on advancing the development of medical devices that diagnose, treat, and manage neurological disorders. The accelerator selects high-risk, high-potential projects addressing neurological conditions, and specifically targets equitable and accessible technology solutions.[16] The initiative is part of the National Institutes of Health’s Blueprint MedTech: Incubator Hubs program, and was founded as a partnership between Johns Hopkins University and Howard University.[17]

Awards and honors[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Sridevi Sarma, MIT PhD '06 | MIT EECS". www.eecs.mit.edu. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
  2. ^ "Sridevi V. Sarma, Ph.D., S.M., Joint Appointment in Neurology". Johns Hopkins Medicine. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  3. ^ "LIDS/ALL 2013". lidsmag.lids.mit.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  4. ^ a b "Sridevi Sarma Named WSE's Vice Dean for Graduate Education". Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  5. ^ "BME's Sridevi Sarma Appointed Associate Director of Institute for Computational Medicine". Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  6. ^ "Sri Sarma | World Science Festival". World Science Festival. Retrieved 2017-11-03.
  7. ^ a b "Parkinson's Disease – Johns Hopkins – Sarma Lab". Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g "Sridevi Sarma". Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  9. ^ Santaniello, Sabato; McCarthy, Michelle M.; Montgomery, Erwin B.; Gale, John T.; Kopell, Nancy; Sarma, Sridevi V. (2015-02-10). "Therapeutic mechanisms of high-frequency stimulation in Parkinson's disease and neural restoration via loop-based reinforcement". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (6): E586–E595. doi:10.1073/pnas.1406549111. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 4330724. PMID 25624501.
  10. ^ "Epilepsy – Johns Hopkins – Sarma Lab". Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  11. ^ "EZTrack – Neurologic Solutions Inc". Retrieved 2024-06-10.
  12. ^ "Chronic Pain – Johns Hopkins – Sarma Lab". Retrieved 2024-06-12.
  13. ^ Brain Games DIY: The Cup and Knife Game, archived from the original on March 17, 2015, retrieved 2017-11-03
  14. ^ "About – Neurologic Solutions Inc". Retrieved 2024-06-10.
  15. ^ "EpiScalp – Neurologic Solutions Inc". Retrieved 2024-06-10.
  16. ^ "JH – Howard – NeuroTech Harbor". Retrieved 2024-06-10.
  17. ^ Sept 27, Jill Rosen / Published; 2022 (2022-09-27). "Johns Hopkins, Howard University partner to develop tech for neuro disorders". The Hub. Retrieved 2024-06-10. {{cite web}}: |last2= has numeric name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ "Changing the Face of STEM". L'Oréal. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  19. ^ "JHU – Institute for Computational Medicine | Sri Sarma recipient of CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation". icm.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  20. ^ a b "Sridevi Sarma". Retrieved 2021-11-03.
  21. ^ "Sri Sarma receives NIH Outstanding Investigator Award". Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering. Retrieved 2024-06-09.
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