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Brain Awareness Week March 10 - 14 Research update reveals progress, promise Fifty million Americans have a permanent, neurological disability that limits their daily activities.  Three million incidences of stroke are reported each year at a cost of $30 billion.  Two million Americans suffer from schizophrenia, the most chronic and disabling of mental illnesses. The cost for treatment is $32.5 billion annually. And 40,000 Americans are stricken with brain tumors each year, resulting in paralysis or death. Clinicians and researchers at MUSC plan to participate in Brain Awareness Week 2003, March 10-14, and are inviting the community to help alleviate devastating neurological disabilities. The purpose of Brain Awareness Week is to update the medical and general populations on the progress and promise of brain research.  The week’s activities will include a tour of MUSC’s state-of-the-art brain labs for elementary school children. In addition, MUSC staff including neuroscientists, faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows will visit science classes in local schools.  A public symposium entitled, “Something in the Way You Move,” in which prominent neuroscientists will discuss movement disorders, aging, and stroke, is planned for 7 - 8:30 p.m., March 12, in the  auditorium of the Storm Eye Institute. The event is free and parking will be available across the street from the Storm Eye Institute. Neuroscience Grand Rounds on Thursday, March 13, will take place in the Storm Eye Institute Auditorium and will be on the topic “High Frequency Deep Brain Stimulation as a New Tool for Functional Neurosurgery: Application to Parkinson’s Disease, Epilepsy, OCD and Cluster Headache.”  The week will conclude on Friday, March 14, with “Frontiers in Science Day” at the Holiday Inn on Folly Beach and the annual meeting of the South Carolina Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. For more information call 792-4342 or  792-9036, or go to http://www.musc.edu/neuroscienceinstitute/newsletternews1.html.     Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.