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NEWS RELEASES
HOUSTON – (June 22, 2009) – Dr. Jeffrey L. Neul, assistant medical
director, Blue Bird Circle Rett Center at Texas Children’s Hospital;
Anthony and Cynthia Petrello Scholar, Jan and Dan Duncan
Neurological Research Institute
at Texas
Children's Hospital; and assistant professor, pediatrics, Section of
Neurology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, will
receive the prestigious 2009 Philip Rogers Dodge Young Investigator
Award from the Child Neurology Society for his research on the cause
of autonomic dysfunction in people with Rett syndrome. Dr. Neul will
receive the award at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Child
Neurology Society in October 2009 in Louisville, Kentucky.
The
Philip Rogers Dodge Young Investigators Award is presented annually
for basic or clinical research by a promising young investigator who
is a member of the Child Neurology Society. Dr. Neul will receive a
grant-in-aid of $20,000 and has been invited to present his current
work, research that identifies specific brain regions in which the
control of autonomic function is disrupted in Rett syndrome
patients.
“It’s an honor to be recognized for my research by the Child
Neurology Society,” said Dr. Neul. “I hope my work can provide
insight that will lead to new targets for therapeutic intervention.”
In addition to his work on
understanding the regions of the brain that lead to autonomic
problems for girls with Rett syndrome, Dr. Neul has also been
dissecting the dopamine system in a mouse model of Rett syndrome
using pharmacological, genetic and biochemical approaches.
In
2004, the Young Investigators Award was renamed to honor Dr. Philip
Dodge, whose powerful mentoring skills have been effective in
creating a new generation of child neurologists who have gone on to
foster a subsequent generation of child neurologists.
“I
am thrilled to win an award named after one of the most important
people in child neurology. Dr. Dodge trained many of the academic
child neurologists in this country, including my mentors at Texas
Children’s Hospital, Dr. Marvin Fishman and Dr. Gary Clark, which
means I can trace my intellectual lineage back to him,” added Dr.
Neul.
Dr.
Neul’s groundbreaking pediatric neurological research laboratory
will soon move to the newly built Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological
Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, scheduled to open
in 2010. This innovative facility will serve as the crossroads where
more than 170 researchers, across over 15 disciplines, will
collaborate to bring promising new treatments to those afflicted
with neurological diseases.
Dr. Neul is a member
of several professional organizations including the Society for
Neuroscience and the American Academy of Neurology.
He is a specialist in
Texas Children’s Neurology Service and the assistant director of the
Blue Bird Circle Rett Center at Texas Children’s Hospital. Dr. Neul
was named a Cynthia and Anthony Petrello Scholar at the Jan and Dan
Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital.
About the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at
Texas Children’s Hospital
Recognizing there was no single institution using
multidisciplinary research to guide the study of pediatric cognitive
development and neurological disorders, Texas Children’s Hospital
created the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute.
Scheduled to open in 2010, the institute will be the first dedicated
facility to use a multidisciplinary research approach to rapidly
accelerate the search for treatments for pediatric neurological
disorders. The specially-designed facility will be the crossroads
where more than 170 researchers (over 15 principal investigators and
their teams) across disciplines collaborate to bring promising new
therapies to those afflicted with neurological diseases.
About Texas Children's Hospital
Texas Children's Hospital is committed to a community of healthy
children by providing the finest pediatric patient care, education
and research. Renowned worldwide for its expertise and breakthrough
developments in clinical care and research, Texas Children’s is
ranked in the top ten best children’s hospitals by U.S. News and
World Report. Texas Children’s also operates the nation’s largest
primary pediatric care network, with over 40 offices throughout the
greater Houston community. Texas Children’s has embarked on a $1.5
Billion expansion, Vision 2010, which includes a Neurological
Research Institute, a comprehensive obstetrics facility focusing on
high risk births, and a community hospital in suburban West Houston.
For more information, visit
www.texaschildrens.org.
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