At NYU Langone’s Parekh Center for Interdisciplinary Neurology, our researchers conduct research into the cross-disease drivers of pathology. In particular, we study peripheral influences on the central nervous system via immune cells and the microbiome, and central nervous system–resident non-neuronal mechanisms driven by glial cells. These insights will provide new therapeutic approaches with wide applications across neurodegenerative conditions.

The following researchers participate as members of the center and contribute to the Parekh Center for Interdisciplinary Neurology’s mission:

Jayeeta Basu, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Departments of Neuroscience and Physiology and Psychiatry. Her lab studies the cellular and circuit mechanisms underlying long-term memory formation and processing with the goal of understanding how sensory experiences are encoded in complex representations of the world around us.

Timothy J. Cardozo, MD, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology who has more than 20 years’ experience with drug discovery projects. His interdisciplinary experience spans pathophysiology, target validation, clinical trials, medical ethics, epidemiology, medicinal and computational chemistry, molecular modeling, and commercialization.

Leigh E. Charvet, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Neurology at NYU Langone. Her lab uses noninvasive brain stimulation therapies and other emerging technologies to reduce symptom burden and to restore cognitive and motor function.

Sumantra Chatterjee, PhD, is a research assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology. His lab studies neurodevelopmental neurocristopathies in the central and autonomic nervous systems.

Orrin Devinsky, MD, is director of NYU Langone’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, chief of the NYU Langone epilepsy service, and professor in the Departments of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. His research examines cannabidiols as a therapeutic treatment for epilepsy, and he also performs significant work on sudden unexplained deaths in children (SUDC).

Horacio Kaufmann, MD, is the Felicia B. Axelrod Professor of Dysautonomia Research in the Department of Neurology, director of the Division of Autonomic Disorders and its Autonomic Disorders Fellowship, director of NYU Langone’s Dysautonomia Center, and a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics. His research focuses on autonomic disorders that are caused by genetic and neurodegenerative conditions.

Ilya Kister, MD, is a professor in the Department of Neurology and director of the Neuromyelitis Optica Treatment and Research Program and director of the Multiple Sclerosis Fellowship at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Kister is an active clinical researcher whose interests include multiple sclerosis and related disorders of neuroinflammation.

Lauren B. Krupp, MD, is the Nancy Glickenhaus Pier Professor of Pediatric Neuropsychiatry in the Department of Neurology, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Comprehensive Care Center and leads its Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center. Her research is geared toward enhancing quality of life, in addition to finding a cure and understanding the genetic and environmental interactions that lead to MS.

Thong C. Ma, PhD, is a research assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at NYU Langone. Dr. Ma is interested in understanding brain circuitry plasticity in Parkinson’s disease using mouse models. He studies disease mechanisms of synucleinopathies such as Parkinson’s disease and multiple system atrophy by molecular and cellular characterization of neuronal, immune cells using patient-derived tissues such as gastrointestinal biopsies and autopsy brains to generate hypotheses for testing in experimental models.

Ricardo M. Osorio Suarez, MD, is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and director of the Brain Aging and Sleep Center. He is a clinical expert in sleep medicine with a specific research interest in the intersection of sleep disturbance and Alzheimer’s disease. He is also interested in using neuroimaging and biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid to assist in the study of sleep disturbances as risk factors for cognitive impairment in aging and for dementia.

Deepak Saxena, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Surgery and a professor of molecular pathobiology at NYU College of Dentistry. He has extensive experience studying the microbiome in the mouth and is looking to expand into the interactions between the microbiome in the gut and neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Saxena has an active collaboration with Dr. Steriade.

Gregg Silverman, MD, is the Mamdouha S. Bobst Professor of Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine, professor in the Department of Pathology, and co-director of the Introduction to Immunology course in the Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. His research focuses on the mechanism of action of B cell depletion therapies, microbial superantigens, autoimmunity, and the contributions of the microbiome to lupus pathogenesis.

Claude Steriade, MD,CM, is an associate professor in the Department of Neurology at NYU Langone. She is a clinical expert in epilepsy with a strong research interest on how drug-resistant epilepsy and neuroinflammation can affect the gut microbiome and what role seizures play in dysbiosis.

Thomas M. Wisniewski, MD, is a professor in the Departments of Pathology and Psychiatry and the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman Professor of New York University Alzheimer’s Disease Center in the Department of Neurology. He has been director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center since 2014. For more than 30 years, he has been working to elucidate the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and prion diseases with an aim to develop possible therapeutic strategies.