How donor-funded research at MUSC is changing Parkinson’s care in South Carolina

What makes you, you? The way you think, the way you speak, the way you move. For people with Parkinson’s disease, those everyday abilities are often the hardest to hold onto.

Current therapies can ease tremors and other motor symptoms, but they do little to help with thinking, talking and walking.

“Those three things are actually the most debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's,” said neurologist Gonzalo J. Revuelta, DO, director of the Murray Center for Research in Parkinson’s Disease and Related Disorders at the Medical University of South Carolina. “The Murray Center is one of the few places in the world dedicated to changing that.”

 

A visionary gift founded the Murray Center for Parkinson’s Care

The center exists because of philanthropy. It is named for the late William Edwards Murray, a distinguished attorney, entrepreneur, philanthropist and visionary real estate developer who helped revitalize Charleston’s historic East Bay Street. When Murray was a patient at MUSC in the late 1990s and early 2000s, he had just one Parkinson’s doctor to choose from.

“In gratitude for his care, the Murray family asked: ‘What do you need? What would change the game for Parkinson’s patients in South Carolina?’” recalled neurologist Vanessa Hinson, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Movement Disorders Division, a Parkinson’s Foundation Center of Excellence.

We said we need money to hire more Parkinson’s doctors who are interested in clinic and research.

With Murray’s multi-year commitment through the MUSC Foundation, MUSC established the Murray Center in 2003. Today, it is home to nine physician-researchers, one of the largest movement disorders divisions in the country, where patients gain access not only to expert care but also to groundbreaking studies.

Inside MUSC’s IGNItioN Lab: Exploring TMS for freezing of gait

Within the center, the IGNItioN Lab is studying one of Parkinson’s most debilitating symptoms: freezing of gait (FoG), the sudden sensation of feet “glued” to the floor. For patients, these episodes increase the risk of falls and injuries and often lead to isolation and loss of independence.

Led by Revuelta, the team is exploring how gentle, targeted pulses of magnetic energy, delivered through a noninvasive technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), might help “reset” the brain’s movement circuits. The goal is to help patients like Tom Campbell move with greater safety and confidence without surgery or medication.

Campbell, 83, has been living with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, for more than 20 years. When he first started feeling unsteady on his feet, he assumed it was a side effect of chemotherapy. But despite regular physical therapy, his walking grew “worse and worse.” That led him to MUSC, where Hinson confirmed a new diagnosis: Parkinson’s disease.

“Freezing of gait is my problem right now,” said Campbell.

He uses crutches to stay steady, but he hasn’t let Parkinson’s — or cancer — define his days. Living with his wife on Daniel Island, he still enjoys a daily routine of coffee with friends, community activities and travel. “I have a busy, good life,” he said.

When the opportunity came to join a donor-funded pilot study testing TMS for freezing of gait, Campbell didn’t hesitate. Though the therapy “didn’t really change much” for his symptoms, he saw value in contributing to progress. Raised on a Kansas farm and trained in agriculture, Campbell has always trusted the scientific process. “You just have to believe in science,” he said. “I’d be happy to take part again.”

How a single donor gift paved the way for millions in federal Parkinson’s research

Using TMS to treat freezing of gait in Parkinson’s patients was just an idea — until a single $15,000 donor gift made it possible to test it through a pilot study at MUSC’s IGNItioN Lab. It was the same study Campbell took part in, and the early data it produced was compelling enough to secure a $1 million NIH (National Institutes of Health) grant, which has since grown into a $3.5 million national research effort.

What began as a small, donor-funded trial has opened the door to new, noninvasive treatment possibilities and millions in federal support. But the value of philanthropy goes far beyond dollars leveraged. They make the Murray Center a magnet for top scientific talent and allow its teams to ask the daring “what if” questions that can change the course of a disease.

“What's the brain circuitry affected by this disorder?” Hinson asked. “What techniques could we use to fix it? Philanthropy makes it possible to test those ideas through pilot studies that truly move the needle on Parkinson's disease.”

For Campbell, research is less about what changes for him today and more about what might change tomorrow. Philanthropy makes it possible to move the field forward — for those who come next.