Dr. Merit Cudkowicz is the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Neurology Service at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Cudkowicz’s research and clinical activities are dedicated to the study and treatment of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Cudkowicz directs the Massachusetts General Hospital ALS Program and the Massachusetts General Hospital Neurological Clinical Research Institute. She is one of the founders and former co-directors of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of over 100 clinical sites in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East dedicated to performing collaborative academic led clinical trials and research studies in ALS. In conjunction with the NEALS consortium, she planned and completed over 15 multi-center clinical research studies s in ALS. She is Principal Investigator of the Clinical Coordination Center for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s Neurology Network of Excellence in Clinical Trials (NeuroNEXT). The NeuroNEXT network is an efficient phase II network to develop innovative and new treatments for people with neurological disorders.
Dr. Cudkowicz received the American Academy of Neurology 2009 Sheila Essay ALS award. She is a pioneer in promoting and developing more efficient methods of developing new therapies for people with ALS. A dedicated educator, Dr. Cudkowicz mentors many young neurologists in clinical investigation of ALS and related neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Cudkowicz completed her undergraduate degree in chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and obtained a medical degree in the Health Science and Technology program of Harvard Medical School. She served her internship at Beth Israel Hospital in New York and her neurology residency and fellowship at Massachusetts General. She also obtained a master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.