A Rutgers and RWJBarnabas Health neurosurgeon leads testing on whether a one-time treatment can quiet seizure circuits without harming brain tissue
A chef named Colton Beschen came to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital one Tuesday in April to see if an experimental gene therapy could restore the life that epilepsy stole from him.
Rutgers professor and neurosurgeon Robert Gross drilled a hole the width of a pencil lead into Beschen’s skull, threaded a catheter into the deep middle of his brain and slowly infused a few drops of a genetically altered virus.
Beschen went home the next day feeling no pain, lacking no hair, bearing no visible scars and hoping his life would soon go back to normal.
Recognition: Andrew Smith, RUTGERS TODAY Health