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CFR CLINICAL DIRECTOR DR. BRUCE MILLER WINS AWARD; PUBLIC LECTURE ON 10/15/12

The Bluefield Project congratulates Consortium for FTD Research (CFR) Clinical Director Dr. Bruce Miller on his receipt of UCSF’s Twelfth Annual Faculty Research Lectureship in Clinical Science. Awarded for his legacy-building work on frontotemporal dementia and related disorders, Dr. Miller will present a lecture, titled “Frontotemporal Dementia: An Understudied But Important Disorder,” on Monday, October 15, 2012 at 3:30pm in Genentech Hall on UCSF’s Mission Bay Campus. This lecture is open to the general public.

Excerpted from UCSF’s Academic Senate press release:
Dr. Miller’s pioneering work shows how the degeneration of particular networks in the frontal and temporal lobes leads to specific behavioral symptoms in dementia, and he has linked clinical phenotypes to the various genetic and pathological variants. His research has provided exceptional insights into the neural underpinnings of apathy, disinhibition, empathy, emotion recognition and repetitive motor behaviors. He has delineated the roles of the frontal and temporal lobes in social, artistic and emotional behaviors and shown how the traits of creativity, wisdom and altruism improve with age.

A strong proponent of the value of clinical history, frontal executive testing and neuroimaging in the diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia (FTD), it was Dr. Miller who first demonstrated the value of emotion and personality testing to differentiate FTD from Alzheimer’s disease (AD). His research showed that the orbital frontal and anterior temporal regions are key to one’s ability to perceive emotions in others’ faces and voices, and that loss of function in those areas may lead to the perception that the patient has lost the ability to empathize.

A superb educator and engaging speaker, Dr. Miller often shares his scientific and clinical knowledge outside the university setting by lecturing to audiences from all walks of life. He is a powerful advocate for the human treatment for dementia patients and often quoted in the media. He currently is the Director of the Memory and Aging Center at UCSF, which is funded through the State of California, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, amongst others, and he is the principal investigator of the NIH-sponsored Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), NIH-sponsored program project grant on frontotemporal dementia and two privately-funded consortia.

Dr. Miller is Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where he holds the A.W. & Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Chair. Dr. Miller has received numerous accolades including the Potamkin Award from the American Academy of Neurology, the Raymond Adams Lecture at the American Neurological Association, and the Elliot Royer Award from the San Francisco Neurological community.