Marc W. Slutzky, MD/PhD
Assistant Professor of Neurology and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation

303 E. Chicago Ave., Ward 5-150
Chicago, IL 60611
312-503-2625

Dr. Slutzky graduated summa cum laude in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He then entered the Medical Scientist Training Program (joint MD/PhD) program at Northwestern University and completed his PhD in biomedical engineering in 2000.  His dissertation research involved applying nonlinear dynamical systems theory to controlling epileptiform activity in the rat hippocampus.  He completed his MD in 2002, internship at Evanston Hospital in 2003 and completed his neurology residency at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 2006.  In 2006 he was appointed Instructor in Neurology and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and in 2007 he was promoted to Assistant Professor.  At Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Dr. Slutzky sees both general neurology and epilepsy patients as part of the epilepsy center’s First Time Seizure Clinic. 

            In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Slutzky pursues research interests in neural prosthetics, specifically brain-machine interfacing (BMI).  A device that records signals from the cerebral cortex, decodes them, and uses them to control a variety of outputs such as a computer cursor, prosthetic limb, or electrically-stimulated muscles in a paralyzed limb, a brain-machine interface could allow a severely motor impaired patient (quadriplegic or “locked-in,” for example from ALS or spinal cord injury) to interact with his or her environment and potentially regain the use of a limb again. In addition, this technology provides a powerful new way to study normal in vivo brain physiology. Dr. Slutzky’s ultimate goal is to refine BMIs to the point that they can safely and effectively be used in humans for long-term applications. He recently received a NIH K08 career development award to investigate different brain signal sources as inputs to a BMI.

• Pohlmeyer, E.A., Perreault, E.J., Slutzky, M.W., Kilgore, K.L., Kirsch, R.F., Taylor, D.M., Miller, L.E. Real-time control of the hand by intracortically controlled
  functional neuromuscular stimulation. In: The 10th IEEE International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics, The Netherlands, 2007.
• Pohlmeyer, E.A., Perreault, E.J., Slutzky, M.W., Kilgore, K.L., Kirsch, R.F., Taylor, D.M., Miller, L.E. Use of intracortical recordings to control a hand neuroprosthesis. 3rd International IEEE/Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society Conference on Neural Engineering, 2007
• Miller, L.E., Perreault, E.J., Pohlmeyer, E.A., Slutzky, M.W., Kilgore, K.L., Kirsch, R.F., and Taylor, D. EMG prediction and the development of a primate model of cortically controlled FES for grasp. NINDS Neural Interfaces Workshop, 2006.
• Mogul, D.J., Slutzky, M.W., and Cvitanovic, P. State point forcing permits validation of fixed point locations during chaotic epileptic bursting in the rat brain. Proceedings of the 25th Annual Meeting of the IEEE-Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2003.
• Slutzky, M.W., Cvitanovic, P., and Mogul, D.J. Manipulating epileptiform bursting in the rat hippocampus using chaos control and adaptive techniques. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 50(5), 559 70, 2003.
• Slutzky, M.W., Cvitanovic, P., and Mogul, D.J. Identification of determinism in noisy neuronal systems. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 118(2), pp. 153 61, 2002.
• Mogul, D.J., and Slutzky, M.W. The use of chaos control techniques to manipulate epileptiform bursting in rat hippocampus. Proceedings of the 2nd Joint EMBS/BMES Conference, 2002.
• Slutzky, M.W., Cvitanovic, P., and Mogul, D.J. Deterministic chaos and noise in three in vitro hippocampal models of epilepsy. Annals of Biomedical Engineering 29(7), pp. 607-618, and cover photo, 2001.
• Slutzky, M.W. and Mogul, D.J. Modification of epileptiform bursting using chaos control. Proceedings of the World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, 2000.
• Slutzky, M.W. and Mogul, D.J. Chaotic dynamics in epilepsy: in vitro studies. Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop on Biosignal Interpretation, 1999.
• Slutzky, M.W. and Mogul, D.J. Chaotic behavior in two hippocampal models of epilepsy. Proceedings of the 20th Annual Meeting of the IEEE-Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 1998.