NIH awards MUSC researcher $6.5M grant for precision neurorehab center

The National Institutes of Health has awarded Steven Kautz, Ph.D., a $6.5 million grant to start a center focused on precision neurorehabilitation research to help people affected by strokes and other neurological conditions. Kautz, chair of the Department of Health Sciences and Research at the Medical University of South Carolina, said it will be part of the NIH’s Medical Rehabilitation Research Resource Network, also known as the MR3 Network.

“This is the single biggest investment NIH has in rehabilitation - this network of centers. It's their rehabilitation flagship. And to be selected as one of six places in the country that is doing something so outstanding that it needs to be made available to people nationally is a big deal,” Kautz said.

“This means that MUSC is truly a leader in rehabilitation. We're one of the premier rehabilitation research programs in the country. Getting this center is further proof of that.”

It’s familiar territory for Kautz, a professor in the MUSC College of Health Professions. His team hosted a previous MR3 Network center from 2015 until earlier this year. That program, the National Center of Neuromodulation for Rehabilitation, focused on developing the emerging science of neuromodulation for application to rehabilitation. That involves changing nervous system activity by applying electricity or magnetism.

The new 5-year grant, “Neuro-PRECISE: Center for Advancing Precision Neural Circuit-Based Rehabilitation,” will let the MUSC team build on its work. Now, the focus will be on using neuromodulation technology and methods to examine, change and improve neural circuits. 

To do that, the MUSC team has projects that will use techniques such as:

• Transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS.
• Low-intensity focused ultrasound.
• A combination of cognitive training and a non-invasive form of vagus nerve stimulation. 

The center will also use technology to observe the brain’s response to those techniques to see how the neural circuits are changing and maximize the success of the interventions. Kautz said the center will maximize its reach as well by sharing its findings with colleagues and the public and collaborating with other centers in the MR3 Network. It will also seek and incorporate input from people who suffered from neurological issues. 

Randal Davis, director of Strategic Research Initiatives in the College of Health Professions, was closely involved in putting together the center’s proposal and plans. He said its approval is just the latest achievement for Kautz, a prolific stroke rehabilitation researcher.

“This year, he won the 2025 Governor's Award for Excellence in Scientific Research. And looking back, we measured his economic impact since he arrived here in 2011. Dr. Kautz has helped leverage an economic impact of $360 million in award funding,” Davis said.

Kautz is pleased to be able to expand that impact through the new center. He said neurorehabilitation research is badly needed.

“Right now, our drug-based medicine culture is suboptimal. There are certain things that's great for, but for rehabilitation, we'll never find drugs that fix the problem per se. Most drugs work on every neuron that has a certain kind of neurotransmitter,” Kautz said. 

“What we want to do is only change the neurons in this one circuit that are impaired, without the side effects of less targeted treatment. We think that it has the potential to truly be life changing and make a real difference.”