Nemours neurologist wins prestigious NIH grant to study hippocampal dysfunction
Rodney Scott, MBChB, MRCP, DipStat, PhD, Division Chief of Neurology at Nemours Children’s Health in the Delaware Valley, has been awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Transformative Research Award. The $2.6 million, five-year grant will fund an ambitious project to investigate malfunctions in the brain’s hippocampal region and identify patterns that could enable shared therapies for people affected by autism, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease.
A new approach to brain disorders: looking for shared patterns
“In disorders like autism, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s, the part of the brain called the hippocampus doesn’t function properly. Current treatments target each disease separately, often with limited success,” Dr. Scott explained. “Instead, our research will look for shared abnormal brain activity patterns across conditions. If found, we will develop novel methods of brain stimulation that could restore healthy hippocampal function across a range of disorders.”
The NIH Transformative Research Awards are designed to fund cross-cutting, interdisciplinary approaches with high-risk, high-reward potential. The aim is to catalyze new paradigms for understanding disease and creating therapies and preventive strategies that could benefit broad patient populations.
The team and the science plan
Dr. Scott’s project centers on the hippocampus, a brain region crucial for memory and emotion regulation. The premise is that autism, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s may share a common faulty mechanism: disruptions in neural networks that involve hippocampal circuits. To test this, Dr. Scott and co-principal investigator Matt Mahoney, PhD, Principal Computational Scientist at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, will combine living models, computer simulations, and extensive biological data collection.
“We will generate and analyze a large volume of data to identify disruption patterns,” said Dr. Mahoney. “By blending empirical data with mathematical modeling, we can trace how hippocampal dysfunction propagates through neural networks and how it might be reversed.”
The research plan includes developing living models (e.g., animal or organotypic systems) alongside computational models that simulate network dynamics. The team will explore potential neuromodulation strategies, including brain stimulation techniques tailored to restore stable hippocampal activity patterns. If successful, these approaches could offer unified therapeutic avenues rather than disease-specific solutions.
Why this matters for patients of all ages
“This is not just about understanding the diseases in isolation,” Dr. Scott noted. “If we can identify shared neural signatures and effective stimulation strategies, we could improve cognitive function and quality of life for patients across childhood and adulthood who live with these conditions.”
Dr. Scott joined Nemours Children’s Health in 2021 after a career spanning hospitals in Zimbabwe, England, and the United States. He is also a Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Delaware. His extensive background in epilepsy treatment and the application of complex adaptive systems theory to neurology informs this forward-looking project.
What the NIH support enables
Matthew M. Davis, MD, MAPP, Executive Vice President, Enterprise Physician-in-Chief, and Chief Scientific Officer at Nemours, highlighted the value of NIH support. “This high-risk, high-reward funding allows investigators like Dr. Scott to pursue innovative ideas outside the mainstream, with potential to transform how we understand and treat multiple neurological conditions.”
Dr. Scott emphasized that the grant will enable rigorous testing of novel hypotheses and accelerated discovery through integrated data analysis and modeling. The ultimate goal is to translate insights into practical therapies and interventions that can help individuals manage cognitive and emotional symptoms across autism, epilepsy, and Alzheimer’s disease, aligning with Nemours’ mission to improve health outcomes across generations.
About the NIH Transformative Research Awards
The NIH Transformative Research Awards encourage interdisciplinary, high-risk research with the potential to create new paradigms for disease understanding and management. By supporting ambitious projects like Dr. Scott’s, the NIH seeks to push boundaries and catalyze breakthroughs that traditional funding streams might overlook.
