Andreas Horn

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

NAME: Horn, Andreas Georg, MD, PhD

eRA COMMONS USER NAME: ANHORN

POSITION TITLE: Associate Professor of Neurology

A. Personal Statement

I am a medical scientist with training in neuroimaging, movement disorders, software development and both invasive and noninvasive brain stimulation. The goal of my research is to analyze and modulate brain networks to improve treatment of brain disease, predominantly in movement and psychiatric basal ganglia disorders. The primary tools I have used to pursue these goals are structural imaging and noninvasive connectivity measures derived from diffusion weighted and functional MRI. I have spent the last twelve years including a PhD focused on developing and improving methods to analyze brain stimulation sites and how their whole brain effects are mediated via distributed structural and functional brain networks. My work has been recognized with the Heinz-Maier Leibnitz Prize, which is the most prestigious scientific honor awarded for early-career researchers in Germany. I am lead developer of a scientific software that facilitates these types of analyses. The software, Lead-DBS, is distributed as open-source and has empowered academic research on all continents (>65,000 downloads, >1,000 peer-reviewed studies empowered). The software was awarded an academic ventures grant by Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, the Robert Koch Prize of Charité Berlin and the Max Rubner Prize of Berlin Institute of Health. I am group leader of the Network Stimulation Laboratory at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital with the aim to study the impact of neuromodulation on networks of the human brain.

Four citations that highlight my experience and qualifications for this project:

Hollunder B, … Horn A. Mapping Dysfunctional Circuits in the Frontal Cortex Using Deep Brain Stimulation. Nature Neuroscience. 2023

Li N, … Horn A. A unified connectomic target for deep brain stimulation in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Nature Communications. 2020

Ríos AS, … Horn A. Optimal deep brain stimulation sites and networks for stimulation of the fornix in Alzheimer’s disease. Nature Communications. 2022

Ganos C, … Horn A. A neural network for tics: insights from causal brain lesions and deep brain stimulation. Brain. 2022

B. Positions, Scientific Appointments, and Honors

Positions and Scientific Appointments

2021-Present Associate Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

2021-Present Director of DBS research, Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, Brigham & Women’s Hospital Boston, MA

2021-Present Director, Connectomic Neuromodulation Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA

2021-Present Associate Scientist, Department of Neurology, Brigham & Women’s Hospital Boston, MA

2021-Present Organizing Committee, OptoDBS Conference, Geneva, Switzerland

2021-Present Scientific Advisory Board, Thiemann Foundation within the German Neurology Association

2020-Present Scientific Advisory Board, Ilinsky Foundation, Tartu, Estonia

2017-Present Emmy Noether Group Leader (Assistant Prof. equivalent), Department of Neurology, Charité – University Medicine Berlin, Germany

2017-Present PI, Einstein Center for Neurosciences PhD programme, Berlin, Germany

2017-Present PI, Medical Neurosciences MD/PhD programme, Berlin, Germany

2016-2017 Research Fellowship, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

2016-2017 Organizer and Chair: Symposium on Connectomic Deep Brain Stimulation, Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and Radcliffe Institute of Harvard University

2013-2015 Research Fellowship, Department of Neurology, Charité – University Medicine Berlin, Germany

2011-2012 Research Fellowship, Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience & Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany

Honors

2022 Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz Prize, German Research Foundation

2020 Data Reuse Award, BIH Quest Center for Transforming Medical Research

2019 Peer Review Award, top 1% in field, Publons

2019 Best Paper Award, Organization for Human Brain Mapping

2018 3 x “Editor’s Choice” Award, Brain (Oxford Journal)

2017 Emmy Noether Excellence Fellowship, German Research Foundation

2017 Robert Koch Prize, Charité – University Medicine Berlin

2016 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Academic Ventures Grant

2015 Travel Award Fellow, Movement Disorders Society

2015 Clinical Scientist Stipend, Berlin Institute of Health

2015 Max Rubner Prize for Innovation, Stiftung Charité

2015 Thiemann Fellowship, Thiemann Foundation

C. Contributions to Science

1. Defining Optimal Deep Brain Stimulation Targets for Parkinson Disease. Our laboratory defined optimal treatment targets for deep brain stimulation in patients with Parkinson Disease in form of structural and functional networks. This work unites multiple stimulation sites (such as the subthalamic nucleus and internal pallidum) by demonstrating that modulating a specific network, into which these sites fall into, is key for treatment success. Using methods developed in our laboratory (see below), this work had a defining role in our understanding of pathophysiology and neuromodulative treatment of Parkinson Disease.

Sobesky L, Goede L, Odekerken VJJ, Wang Q, Li N, Neudorfer C, Rajamani N, Al-Fatly B, Reich M, Volkmann J, de Bie RMA, Kühn AA, Horn A. Subthalamic and pallidal deep brain stimulation: are we modulating the same network? Brain. 2021 Aug 28. PMID: 34453827.

Irmen F*, Horn A*, Mosley P, Perry A, Petry-Schmelzer JN, Dafsari HS, Barbe M, Visser-Vandewalle V, Schneider GH, Li N, Kübler D, Wenzel G, Kühn AA. Left Prefrontal Connectivity Links Subthalamic Stimulation with Depressive Symptoms. Annals of Neurology. 2020 Jun;87(6):962-975. PMID: 32239535.

Horn A, Wenzel G, Irmen F, Huebl J, Li N, Neumann WJ, Krause P, Bohner G, Scheel M, Kühn AA. Deep brain stimulation induced normalization of the human functional connectome in Parkinson's disease. Brain. 2019 Oct 1;142(10):3129-3143. PMID: 31412106.

Horn A, Reich M, Vorwerk J, Li N, Wenzel G, Fang Q, Schmitz-Hubsch T, Nickl R, Kupsch A, Volkmann J, Kühn AA, Fox MD. Connectivity Predicts deep brain stimulation outcome in Parkinson disease. Ann Neurol. 2017;82(1):67-78. PMID: 28586141

2. Toward Connectomic Deep Brain Stimulation. As a result of work in both Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) and human connectomics, my current focus is on connectivity-based analysis and optimization of neuromodulation. I contributed multiple papers that were first to predict clinical outcomes following deep brain stimulation across multiple DBS centers and neurosurgeons based structural and functional brain connectivity. I used brain connectivity in combination with electrophysiological data to shed light into the occurrence of elevated beta activity in Parkinson’s disease that is now used as a physiomarker for closed-loop applications. I personally think that the combination of the connectome framework with brain stimulation will become a strong and important field of neuroimaging in the future. This work culminated in a handbook entitled Connectomic Deep Brain Stimulation published with Elsevier in fall 2021.

Hollunder B, Ostrem JL, Sahin IA, Rajamani N, Oxenford S, Butenko K, Neudorfer C, Reinhardt P, Zvarova P, Polosan M, Akram H, Vissani M, Zhang C, Sun B, Navratil P, Reich MM, Volkmann J, Yeh FC, Baldermann JC, Dembek TA, Visser-Vandewalle V, Alho EJL, Franceschini PR, Nanda P, Finke C, Kühn AA, Dougherty DD, Richardson RM, Bergman H, DeLong MR, Mazzoni A, Romito LM, Tyagi H, Zrinzo L, Joyce EM, Chabardes S, Starr PA, Li N, Horn A. Mapping Dysfunctional Circuits in the Frontal Cortex Using Deep Brain Stimulation. Neurology. Nature Neuroscience. 2023. (in press)

Li N, Baldermann JC, Kibleur A, Treu S, Akram H, Elias GJB, Boutet A, Lozano AM, Al-Fatly B, Strange B, Barcia JA, Zrinzo L, Joyce E, Chabardes S, Visser-Vandewalle V, Polosan M, Kuhn J, Kühn AA, Horn A. A unified connectomic target for deep brain stimulation in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Nature Communications. 2020 Jul 3;11(1):3364. PMID: 32620886.

Li N, Hollunder B, Baldermann JC, Kibleur A, Treu S, Akram H, Al-Fatly B, Strange BA, Barcia JA, Zrinzo L, Joyce EM, Chabardes S, Visser-Vandewalle V, Polosan M, Kuhn J, Kühn AA, Horn A. A Unified Functional Network Target for Deep Brain Stimulation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Biological Psychiatry. 2021 Apr 20; PMID: 34134839.

Baldermann JC, Schüller T, Kohl S, Voon V, Li N, Hollunder B, Figee M, Haber SN, Sheth SA, Mosley PE, Huys D, Johnson KA, Butson C, Ackermans L, Bouwens van der Vlis T, Leentjens AFG, Barbe M, Visser-Vandewalle V, Kuhn J, Horn A. Connectomic Deep Brain Stimulation for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Biological Psychiatry. 2021 Jul 19;. PMID: 34482949.

2. Establishing and validating a normative wiring diagram of the human brain. I was first to define a normative structural wiring diagram within standardized stereotactic space during my PhD in 2015. In a team led by Prof. Michael Fox in Boston, I extended this line of research to define a normative functional connectome in standard space. The resulting datasets that have now been estimated and validated on various normative and disease populations could be considered as high-resolution atlases defining the degree of interconnection between each region of the human brain. Over the years, my laboratory created multiple refined connectomes, sometimes of the healthy human brain but also on a patient population (such as depression or Parkinson’s Disease). The technique and generated data offer a unique approach that allows to analyze brain connectivity in situations where subject- or patient-specific connectivity datasets are not available. Especially in clinical populations (brain stimulation, stroke, or MS lesions), where such patient specific data is not available, the approach offers a crucial opportunity to study distributed effects of lesions or stimulation sites on brain networks.

Horn A, Reich MM, Ewert S, Li N, Al-Fatly B, Lange F, Roothans J, Oxenford S, Horn I, Paschen S, Runge J, Wodarg F, Witt K, Nickl RC, Wittstock M, Schneider GH, Mahlknecht P, Poewe W, Eisner W, Helmers AK, Matthies C, Krauss JK, Deuschl G, Volkmann J, Kühn AA. Optimal deep brain stimulation sites and networks for cervical vs. generalized dystonia. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2022;119(14):e2114985119. PMID: 35357970

Ganos C, Al-Fatly B, Fischer JF, Baldermann JC, Hennen C, Visser-Vandewalle V, Neudorfer C, Martino D, Li J, Bouwens T, Ackermanns L, Leentjens AFG, Pyatigorskaya N, Worbe Y, Fox MD, Kühn AA, Horn A. A neural network for tics: insights from causal brain lesions and deep brain stimulation. Brain. 2022:awac009. PMID: 35026844

Hollunder B, Rajamani N, Siddiqi SH, Finke C, Kühn AA, Mayberg HS, Fox MD, Neudorfer C, Horn A. Toward personalized medicine in connectomic deep brain stimulation. Progress in Neurobiology. 102211. PMID: 34958874

Baldermann JC, Melzer C, Zapf A, Kohl S, Timmermann L, Tittgemeyer M, Huys D, Visser-Vandewalle V, Kühn AA, Horn A*, Kuhn J*. Connectivity Profile Predictive of Effective Deep Brain Stimulation in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. Biological Psychiatry. 2019 May 1;85(9):735-743. PMID: 30777287.

4. Development of a software toolbox for deep brain stimulation imaging. I created an open-source software pipeline that generates virtual patient models in which researchers can study the local and global effects of deep brain stimulation. The software, Lead-DBS, has become the major platform for DBS imaging analyses and has been used in >500 research articles from teams on all continents since 2014. The continuing development of Lead-DBS both shapes our own research projects which often combine methods development with addressing translational research questions in neurology and psychiatry.

Horn A, Reich M, Vorwerk J, Li N, Wenzel G, Fang Q, Schmitz-Hübsch T, Nickl R, Kupsch A, Volkmann J, Kühn AA, Fox MD. Connectivity Predicts deep brain stimulation outcome in Parkinson disease. Annals of Neurology. 2017 Jul;82(1):67-78. PMID: 28586141.

Reich MM*, Horn A*, Lange F, Roothans J, Paschen S, Runge J, Wodarg F, Pozzi NG, Witt K, Nickl RC, Soussand L, Ewert S, Maltese V, Wittstock M, Schneider GH, Coenen V, Mahlknecht P, Poewe W, Eisner W, Helmers AK, Matthies C, Sturm V, Isaias IU, Krauss JK, Kühn AA, Deuschl G, Volkmann J. Probabilistic mapping of the antidystonic effect of pallidal neurostimulation: a multicentre imaging study. Brain. 2019 May 1;142(5):1386-1398. PMID: 30851091.

Neudorfer C, Kroneberg D, Al‐Fatly B, Goede L, Kübler D, Faust K, Rienen U, Tietze A, Picht T, Herrington TM, Middlebrooks EH, Kühn A, Schneider G, Horn A. Personalizing Deep Brain Stimulation Using Advanced Imaging Sequences. Annals of Neurology. 2022;91(5):613-628. PMID: 35165921

Oxenford S, Roediger J, Neudorfer C, Milosevic L, Güttler C, Spindler P, Vajkoczy P, Neumann WJ, Kühn AA, Horn A. Lead-OR: a multimodal platform for deep brain stimulation surgery. eLife. 2022;11:e72929. PMID: 35594135

Complete List of Published Work in MyBibliography (>130 papers, >10,500 Citations, h-index 51): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/andreas.horn.2/bibliography/public/ opens in new tab/window