Duncan NRI Leadership
The Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children's Hospital was a vision of the late Dr. Ralph D. Feigin and Dr. Huda Zoghbi, the founding director. Now, Dr. Zoghbi leads the institute with Co-Director, Dr. Joshua Shulman.
Huda Y. Zoghbi, M.D., Director
- Ralph D. Feigin, M.D., Endowed Chair
- Distinguished Service Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
- Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Member, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences. and American Academy of Arts & Sciences
We will use research in the true sense of multidisciplinary research as a tool to eventually get treatments in patients. Whether they are childhood or adult neurodegenerative diseases, they can be reversed if we can figure out how to intervene.
Huda Y. Zoghbi, MD is an internationally renowned neurogeneticist who first made headlines when she co-discovered the gene that causes spinocerebellar ataxia type 1, a crippling neurological disease. She and her team then discovered that mutations in MeCP2 cause the neurodevelopmental disease Rett syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder. Her research spans neurodevelopment to neurodegeneration, and has led to key discoveries in Spinocerebellar Ataxia type 1, Rett syndrome, Bipolar disorder and Alzheimer’s disease.
In 2010, Dr. Zoghbi founded the Duncan NRI at Texas Children’s Hospital to develop treatments for brain disorders, which impact one billion people, including 300 million children. Under her leadership, the Duncan NRI has grown to over 30 principal investigators and 300 research trainees with an unparalleled track record of groundbreaking discoveries as well as several new and potential therapies.
Email: hzoghbi@bcm.edu
Phone: 713-798-6523
Fax: 713-798-8728
Address:
Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute
1250 Moursund St., Suite 1350
Houston, TX 77030
Joshua M. Shulman, M.D., Ph.D., Co-director
- Professor, Departments of Neurology and Molecular & Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine
- Director, Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases
- Huffington Foundation Endowed Chair for Parkinson's Disease Research
The Duncan NRI truly is a special place, with unparalleled collaborations and cross-disciplinary approach that propels groundbreaking research on brain diseases affecting children and adults alike.
Dr. Shulman has 25 years of experience as a neuroscientist and adult neurologist specializing in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other neurodegenerative disorders. Using a multidisciplinary approach that integrates human genomic analyses with functional investigation in experimental animal models of neurodegenerative disease, Dr. Shulman and his team have made several important discoveries that have led to a better understanding of the genes and mechanisms involved in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. In recognition of his stellar contributions to neurology, he received a career award for medical scientists from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Derek Denny-Brown Young Neurological Scholar Award from the American Neurological Association. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and serves on the Science Committee. Dr. Shulman’s research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Huffington Foundation and the Effie Marie Cain Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease Research.
He earned his A.B., summa cum laude, in biochemical sciences from Harvard College, and his Ph.D. in genetics from Cambridge University. He subsequently studied at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Division of Health Sciences and Technology, where he received his M.D., summa cum laude, and later, an M.M.Sc. in clinical investigation. Dr. Shulman completed his neurology residency and fellowship training in the Harvard/Partners Program at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Email - joshua.shulman@bcm.edu
Phone - 832-824-8976
Fax - 832-825-1251
Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute
1250 Moursund St., Suite 1150
Houston, TX 77030
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