Jeffrey Rothstein, MD, PhD

Professional Titles

• Director, Robert Packard Center for ALS Research
• John W. Griffin Director of the Brain Science Institute

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Neurology

Background

Centers and Institutes

• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Clinic
• Brain Science Institute
• Muscular Dystrophy Center
• Robert Packard Center for ALS Research

Clinical Trial Keywords

Novel therapeutics in ALS

Videos

• Conversations That Matter: New Facts About The Brain - MS, ALS & Parkinson's Disease

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

• For ALS families, coping is real 'challenge', Louisville Times-Courier (08/31/2014)

  Five myths about ALS, Washington Post (08/22/2014)

Additional Academic Titles

Professor of Neuroscience

Research Interests

• Basic biology of glutamate transporters and their role in acute and chronic neuronal degeneration (e.g. ALS, epilepsy, stroke, spinocerebellar ataxia)
• Cloning and characterization of novel proteins which may be responsible for the cellular regulation of glutamate transporters 
• Identification of novel drug or peptide therapeutics to delay or prevent motor neuron degeneration in ALS through the use of cell culture and transgenic models of ALS
• Models of motor axon regeneration regrowth
• Use of neuronal and non-neuronal stem cell therapies to treat motor neurons diseases including ALS and Spinal Muscular Atrophy
• Various molecular mechanisms of selective neurodegeneration in motor neuron diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Lab Website

Brain Science Institute (BSi) - Lab Website

• The Brain Science Institute (BSi) brings together both basic and clinical neuroscientists from across the Johns Hopkins campuses. The BSi represents one of the largest and most diverse groups in the university. The BSi's mission is to solve fundamental questions about brain development and function and to use these insights to understand the mechanisms of brain disease. This new knowledge will provide the catalyst for the facilitation and development of effective therapies. The goals of our research are to foster new programs in basic neuroscience discovery; initiate a translational research program that will develop new treatments for brain-based diseases; and encourage collaboration, interdisciplinary teams, and new thinking that will have a global influence on research and treatment of the nervous system.

Research Summary

His lab has been responsible for the initial discovery of foundational defects that cause ALS including astrocyte dysfunction, excitotoxicity, oligodendroglial injury and loss, and nuclear pore and nuclear transport defects.  His work was responsible for the successful trials and FDA approval of riluzole for ALS and multiple clinical trials since 1995.

He directs the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research, the largest and most comprehensive academic consortium that discovers the biological causes of ALS. Packard Center researchers, working together since 2000, work as a consortium to discover what causes ALS and are the principal researchers worldwide for the vast majority of drug pathways for the disease. Almost all well-researched drug trials originate from Packard Center researchers.

Google Scholar

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=Jeffrey+Rothstein&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C21&as_sdtp=

PubMed

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=rothstein%2C+jeffrey

Graduate Program Affiliations

Department of Neurosceince and the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine