Robert Macdonald

A single mutation in one gene can impair inhibitory signaling in the brain and cause multiple types of seizures and behavioral abnormalities. Read More

Dane Chetkovich, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Neurology and Physiology and director of the Medical Scientist Training Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, has been named chair of Vanderbilt’s Department of Neurology. He will join the faculty on Sept. 1. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) are one step closer to understanding what causes early-onset epileptic encephalopathy, a rare form of childhood epilepsy that is difficult to treat and has poor developmental outcomes. Read More

Genetic variation in GABA-A receptors confers risk for inherited forms of epilepsy. Read More

Robert Macdonald, M.D., Ph.D., Margaret and John Warner Professor of Neurological Education and chair of Neurology since 2001, will be stepping down as chair of the Department of Neurology at Vanderbilt University when his successor is recruited and joins the Vanderbilt faculty. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University for the first time have demonstrated in a mouse model that aggregation, the “clumping together” of abnormal proteins, can contribute to a severe form of genetic epilepsy. Read More

Defects in the production of certain receptors are linked to the pathogenesis of genetic epilepsies and fever-induced seizures. Read More

A new telemedicine partnership between Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Williamson Medical Center (WMC) is allowing more patients with acute neurological conditions to stay in their community. Eight VUMC neurologists are on call 24 hours a day to provide remote consultations for patients at WMC with urgent neurological conditions,… Read More

Vanderbilt anesthesiologists who recently received board certification as neurointensivists include (from left) Nahel Saied, M.D., Roy Neeley, M.D., and Christopher Hughes, M.D. Not pictured are Nathan Ashby, M.D., John Barwise, M.D., Stuart McGrane, M.D., Tracy McGrane, M.D., and Sheena Weaver, M.D. (Photo by Steve Green) After eight… Read More

Understanding how mutations in neuronal receptors contribute to epilepsy could lead to improved therapies. Read More

Brain Blast 2011 featured 35 different ways to learn about the brain, guided by Vanderbilt neuroscience graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members and other volunteers. More than 100 neuroscientists participated. Read More