Manuchair Ebadi, '60

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U N I V E R S I T Y

ALUMNIAD FALL 2005

Manuchair Ebadi

Researching a cure for Parkinson’s disease

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Researching a Cure Dr. Manuchair Ebadi’s quest to solve the deadly riddle that is Parkinson’s disease

by Caren Handleman,

Manuchair Ebadi, ’60, Ph.D., internationally respected researcher of Parkinson’s disease, predicts a cure by 2017. The world’s second-most-common progressive neurodegenerative disease, Parkinson’s results from degeneration of neurons in a region of the brain that controls movement. Millions of people worldwide are affected.

Parkinson’s, Ebadi explains, is the result of damaged dopamine transporters.

“Consider a household dishwasher that washes a plate and prepares it for reuse,” he said. “If the dishwasher becomes damaged, it can no longer wash the plate, preventing it from being used again. Dopamine [a chemical naturally produced by the body] is used again and again. In the brain it functions as a neurotransmitter, activating dopamine receptors. If the dopamine transporter becomes damaged, the dopamine cannot be reused.”

Ebadi’s career in Parkinson’s research grew out of an interest in the brain’s chemistry. As associate vice president for health

CHUCK KIMMERLE

vice president for advancement and Kathy Walker, editor

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Ebadi’s research of Parkinson’s provides a glimpse into possible cures. ... One important discovery is that drug-induced Parkinson’s is a side effect of long-term addiction to ampheta-

mines and cocaine. In addition to seeking the cure for Parkinson’s, Ebadi’s research is making advances that one

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day could lead to the prevention of drug addiction.

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affairs in medical research at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, he heads the university’s Center of Excellence in Neuroscience, coordinating cooperative interaction across all of UND’s health programs. The UND research institute has a worldwide influence in the health sciences, focusing on illnesses prevalent in today’s society.

“When we were looking for a new chair of the pharmacology department, I wanted the best,” said H. David Wilson, dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Ebadi “has recruited a team of researchers that has put UND at the forefront of neuroscience research.”

Ebadi and his research associates examine the effect of Parkinson’s on the brains of mice

that have been genetically engineered either to have neural resistance or neural propensity for the disease. (Aging studies also are being conducted on mice bred to live twice as long.)

Sophisticated equipment allows measuring physiological changes without sacrificing the animals. An added advantage is that the researchers can follow the progression of the

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CHUCK KIMMERLE

Ebadi’s research associates utilize the positron emission tomography scanner to examine the effect of Parkinson’s disease on the brains mice.

disease in the animal, enabling additional discoveries along the way.

A positron emission tomography scanner (microPET) — a sophisticated “brain camera” that does magnetic resonance imaging on the mice — is located in UND’s new $4 million Positron Imaging Research Laboratory in the Center of Excellence in Neuroscience.

A breakthrough finding was the discovery of a protein in the brain that provides neural protection against Parkinson’s. The finding came through a three-year grant, one of several Ebadi is conducting concurrently at UND. Since he joined the UND faculty, the university’s health science funding has grown from $4 million in grants to $50 million, many in support of his research.

“By bringing his research program here, [Ebadi] instantly added a whole dimension of emphasis in the neurosciences: something relevant today, something important to North Dakota and to all people,” UND President Charles E. Kupchella said. “His textbook in pharmacology lit up that whole corner of the scientific enterprise, not only

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by his work but by the people he recruited. ...

By his initiative he added a capacity to deep brain research that did not exist before.”

Ebadi’s research of Parkinson’s provides a glimpse into possible cures. His Web page, www.med.und.nodak.edu/users/mebadi/bio/, lists results of his research teams’ efforts.

One important discovery is that druginduced Parkinson’s is a side effect of longterm addiction to amphetamines and cocaine. In addition to seeking the cure for Parkinson’s, Ebadi’s research is making advances that one day could lead to the prevention of drug addiction. The technology in the Positron Imaging Research Laboratory will help researchers determine if the action of dopamine, which produces the euphoric effect, can be blocked.

“Dopamine is a transmitter that brings the agony as well as the ecstasy of cocaine addiction,” Ebadi said. “People don’t take cocaine to become addicted; they like the good feeling, and in the process they become addicted. We want to prevent the addiction to cocaine by interrupting the euphoria [blocking the dopamine] it produces. If you

can prevent addiction, then technically you can prevent the drug-seeking behavior and the crime associated with it.”

Parkinson’s is related to other diseases, including Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease), but it involves different parts of the brain.

Parkinson’s affects the area that involves movement (initial symptoms are limb tremors, especially when the body is at rest), while Alzheimer’s affects the area that involves memory. With ALS, the damage has occurred in the spinal cord.

“The mechanism is the same,” Ebadi explained, “but if your roof leaks and it leaks in your bedroom, then your clothes get wet.

If it leaks in your kitchen, then your dishes get wet. It is the same water, but it depends on where the leaks come from and where the damage is done.”

PATH TO SUCCESS Ebadi came to the United States from Iran as one of 100 academically talented students who received scholarships from the shah for use in foreign schools. What began as a boy’s quest for knowledge, fueled by hours of free time spent in the local library close to his home — to this day, books on Abraham Lincoln remain a favorite — has evolved into a lifetime of dedicated medical research.

He arrived in Parkville through sponsorship by the American Society for Friends of the Middle East and was matched with Park because he requested a university in a small town outside a major city. He was the first in his family to earn a college education, and he completed his degree in 3 1/2 years. While at Park he participated in a variety of organizations, including the Natural Science Colloquium; the Biology, French, Economics, Cosmopolitan and Anthony-Cleopatra clubs; and club sports.

Following his graduation in 1960 with a bachelor of science in chemistry, Ebadi earned a master of science in pharmacology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City College of Pharmacy in 1962 and a doctorate in pharmacology from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine in 1967. He completed postdoctoral training at the Laboratory of Preclinical Pharmacology

at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, D.C. Ebadi joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in Omaha, where he was chairman of the department of pharmacology and then became professor of pharmacology, neurology and psychiatry.

After being recruited by UND in 1999, he was appointed chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology in UND’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Grand Forks.

In September 1999 he became professor and chairman of the newly created Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Therapeutics. In November 1999 he became professor of neuroscience, and in December 1999 he was appointed associate dean for research and program development.

He was appointed director of the Center of Excellence in Neuroscience in UND’s School of Medicine in September 2000 and associate vice president for health affairs in medical research in March 2002.

Ebadi’s staff consider him creative, hardworking (365 days a year) and demanding of himself and them, yet they acknowledge his caring attitude. In the short time he has been at UND, he has created and funded three awards: the Hippocratic Dignity Award for faculty members who treat all students and their educational programs in a dignified fashion; the H. David Wilson Award for faculty members who exhibit a sustained record of accomplishment in any area of the neurosciences; and Charles E. Kupchella’s Award, which recognizes individuals and organizations in North Dakota and surrounding regions who contribute significantly to disease prevention and healthy living.

These awards mirror the Park University Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award that Ebadi created and funded in 1997 in honor of Dr. Delta Gier, former chair of the Department of Chemistry.

“The teachers at Park were very caring, but I especially loved Dr. Gier. He taught me

PASSION FOR SCHOLARSHIP, RESPECT FOR STUDENTS

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Dr. Manuchair Ebadi

Ebadi’s love of teaching is evident in the 34 academic awards he has received, including the Burlington Northern Faculty Achievement Award in 1987 and the University of Nebraska’s system-wide Outstanding Teaching and Creative Activity Award in 1995. At UND he was inducted into the Golden Apple Hall of Fame for having received 11 Golden Apple awards.

He attributes his teaching success to three principles.

“Teaching is an immortal, honorable profession,” he said. “To be a good teacher it is absolutely essential that you care for your students, stay knowledgeable — medical students are very bright — and be very organized. You must also make complex subjects very easy to remember.”

Ebadi has demonstrated his passion for scholarship and his respect for students by creating and funding the Avicenna Academic Award, for medical students with top grades in neurology and the neurosciences, and the Thomas Jefferson Ingenuity Award for graduate students who demonstrate ingenuity in completing research projects.

the ethics and value of hard work,” Ebadi said.

The award is presented annually at the spring Honors Convocation to “members of faculty who have exhibited evidence of commitment to high standards of excellence in the scholarship of teaching, research and service.”

“Park College is my home,” said the recipient of Park’s 1999 Distinguished Alumnus Award. He met his wife, Pari Maherronaghsh, ’62, now a retired medical technologist, at Park. They wed in 1958 and are the parents of three accomplished children: John F. Ebadi, Ph.D., a doctor of Oriental medicine practicing in Santa Barbara, Calif.; Michelle McCormick, Miss Nebraska 1990, wife of an attorney and mother of twin daughters, living in Holdredge, Neb.; and Mark A. Ebadi, M.D., twice board certified and a diplomat in internal medicine and allergy and immunology practicing in Denver, Colo.

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Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology.

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Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and Clinical Neuroscience.

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Member of 18 research and scholarly societies, including Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Medical Society.

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2004 recipient of the UND Foundation Thomas J. Clifford Faculty Achievement Award for Excellence in Research.

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Author of 10 books, including Pharmacology, which was translated into Japanese in 1987 (Medical Science International LTD, Tokyo); Core Concepts in Pharmacology, which was translated into Chinese in 2002 (Ho-Chi Book Publishing of Taiwan); and Pharmacodynamic Basis of Herbal Medicine (CRC Press 2002), a best-seller in its field, now undergoing a second revision.

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Co-author with Ronald F. Pfeiffer, M.D., of Parkinson’s Disease (Taylor and Francis, London, 2005), a comprehensive reference book.

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