Dr. Kenneth Fischbeck

Dr. Fischbeck received an A.B. degree in Biochemical Sciences and an A.M. in Biology from Harvard University, and he completed medical school at Johns Hopkins University. He did an internship in medicine at Case Western Reserve University and completed residency training in Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. After two years as a research fellow in the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Fischbeck was appointed as an Assistant Professor, rising through the ranks to full Professor of Neurology. In 1998, he was recruited to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as the first Chief of a newly created Neurogenetics Branch in the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Cotzias Award from the American Academy of Neurology, the George W. Jacoby Award from the American Neurological Association, election to the National Academy of Medicine, and NIH Distinguished Investigator (now Emeritus). His research has included neuromuscular disease gene identification, studies of disease mechanisms in cell culture and animal models, identification of therapeutic targets, and preclinical and clinical trials of therapeutic interventions.