PeterKennedyToddMD

Summary

• I am the inaugural Bucky and Patti Harris Collegiate Research Professor of Neurology at the University of Michigan. As a physician scientist, I head a translational research lab focused on inherited neurodegenerative disorders. We study how nucleotide repeat expansions cause or contribute to human diseases, including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Fragile X-associated disorders (FXS and FXTAS), Myotonic Dystrophy, and Huntington’s Disease. We utilize models in drosophila, mice, cell culture, and human tissues to explore the mechanisms underlying these disorders with a long term goal of identifying novel therapeutic targets. Much of our current research focuses on how repeat expansions trigger a non-canonical translational initiation process known as repeat associated Non-AUG (RAN) translation and what consequences this process has on neuronal function and neurodegeneration. Additional studies are exploring other mechanisms by which disease associated RNA repeats are pathogenic.
  
  In addition to my work as a scientist, I am a board certified neurologist with subspecialty training in movement disorders and neurogenetics and an expertise clinically in inherited neurodegenerative disorders. I regularly see patients with Frontotemporal Dementia, ALS, and other neurodegenerative disorders at the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor VA neurology clinic. I direct the Neurogenetics Clinical Research Program at UM aimed at improving our approach to obtaining genetic diagnoses in patients with neurological disease. I co-direct the UM Fragile X clinic and UM Cerebellar Ataxia clinic, both of which draw patients from across the country.