The University of Louisville staff member and alumna is planning to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise awareness and support patients with Huntington’s Disease and their families.

“I decided if I was going to make this climb, I wanted to make it count. I want to make a difference for this underserved, underrepresented and often misunderstood population,” Dixon said.

The highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro is a snow-capped dormant volcano that rises 19,341 feet above sea level. After climbing nearby 14,968-foot Mount Meru in February 2022, Dixon set a goal of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with the added motivation of increasing awareness of Huntington’s Disease and raising funds for the research, education and advocacy of the Kentucky Chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA).

Dixon has treated patients with Huntington’s Disease (HD) for more than seven years as a nurse practitioner in the UofL Department of Neurology, co-director of UofL’s HDSA Center of Excellence and director of the Huntington’s Disease Multidisciplinary Clinic at UofL Physicians.

Huntington’s Disease is a progressive, incurable and fatal disease that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. According to HDSA, approximately 41,000 Americans have symptomatic HD. Symptoms usually first appear in patients between the ages of 30 and 50 and can include involuntary movements, cognition difficulties and psychiatric problems such as depression and irritability. The disorder is caused by a single specific gene.

“After caring for more than 100 people with Huntington’s Disease over the years, it is not lost on me how fortunate I am to have the opportunity and the physical and cognitive abilities needed to make this climb,” Dixon said. “I will be carrying my people with me every step of the way.”

UofL has the only HDSA Center of Excellence in Kentucky. The twice-monthly clinic offers multidisciplinary care for patients and families with HD, providing services in nutrition, mental health, social services. Patients also have access to physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language therapy and genetic counseling.

Dixon will start her seven-day ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro on March 1. To support her climb with a donation to HDSA, visit .

At UofL, van Wouwe will work on research to understand the function of the basal ganglia in patients with Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Tourette syndrome and other conditions. The basal ganglia are located at the base of the forebrain and are associated with control of voluntary movements, cognition, emotion and other functions. She will work with Joseph Neimat, MD, chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery, on experiments conducted in the operating room during deep brain stimulation surgeries. Her NIH-funded research will investigate how the basal ganglia affect cognitive functions crucial to navigating daily life situations, such as the ability to stop or change action.

“For example, patients with Parkinson’s disease may find it difficult to stop and control voluntary actions. The ability to stop an action can also depend on whether a positive or negative outcome is expected,” van Wouwe said. “Generally, dopaminergic medication and deep brain stimulation restore the ability to control actions, but some patients develop impulse control disorders. A better understanding of failures in adaptive behavior in neurologic or neuropsychiatric disorders with altered frontal basal-ganglia circuitry could ultimately help tailor treatment to individual needs.”

Since 2012, van Wouwe has been researching cognition and movement disorders at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville. She was educated at Leiden University in the Netherlands and conducted research at the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research in Soesterberg before moving to the United States.

Van Wouwe’s research uses cognitive behavioral tasks, neurophysiological measurements, neuropsychological instruments and interventions such as medication withdrawal and deep brain stimulation to identify changes in action control and action-outcome learning resulting from neurodegenerative diseases. She is investigating the role of the subthalamic nucleus in action control and action-valence learning by means of cognitive testing, deep brain stimulation and intraoperative recording studies.

“It bothers me when people do not know what Huntington’s Disease is, yet so many people are affected by this. After losing my grandmother and being able to understand the disease more, it really put a drive in me to do this event,” Shaughnessey said.

Huntington’s disease is a fatal genetic disorder that causes the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain and affects approximately 30,000 Americans. Symptoms usually appear between the ages of 30 and 50. Patients affected by the disease develop chorea (involuntary movements), difficulties with cognition and often psychiatric manifestations such as depression and irritability.

The Huntington’s Disease Center of Excellence is part of UofL Physicians Parkinson’s Disease and . The center works to improve the lives of people affected by the disease with an elite multidisciplinary approach to care and research. It is one of 41 Huntington’s disease Centers of Excellence in the United States.

Dancers and spectators of all ages and abilities are invited to participate in Dance4Hope. Proceeds from the marathon will support UofL’s research into the causes and potential therapies for Huntington’s disease. Shaughnessey hopes to raise $5,000.

“We appreciate Breann’s efforts to support the center and we share her mission to improve the lives of individuals suffering from this devastating neurodegenerative disorder,” said Kathrin LaFaver, MD, director of the UofL Physicians Movement Disorders center and assistant professor of neurology at the UofL School of Medicine.

Dance4Hope Marathon:

When:��  Sunday, March 5, 1-5 p.m.

Where: Manhattan on Broadway, 716 East Broadway, Louisville

Benefitting:�� Center of Excellence at University of Louisville

Register: Sign up through March 4.