Dr. Kissel is currently Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Neuromuscular Medicine at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, where he serves as Director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and ALS Clinics, as well as the SMA Clinic. He was educated at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, where he did both his undergraduate and medical school training. He graduated from medical school in 1978, and did a year of internal medicine residency at Ohio State University. He did his residency at Washington University in St. Louis, followed by one year of clinical neuromuscular fellowship and two years of research fellowship at The Ohio State University. He has been on the staff at The Ohio State University since 1985 and was Interim Chair Department from 2004 to 2006.
Dr. Kissel has published extensively in a wide range of peripheral nerve, muscle, and anterior horn cell disorders. His principal areas of interest currently include the anterious horn cell disorders (SMA and ALS) and clinical trials in the various muscular dystrophies and inflammatory myopathies. He has also participated in clinical trials involving the inflammatory neuropathies and myasthenia gravis. He is the co-author of a popular textbook of peripheral nerve disease, “Diagnosis and Management of Peripheral Nerve Disorders”, and has written chapters for many of the standard neuromuscular textbooks. He is a Past-President of the Neuromuscular Section and current member of the Science Committee of the American Academy of Neurology, a Fellow in the American Academy of Neurology, and a member of the American Neurological Association. He serves on the Medical Advisory Committee of the Families of SMA, and Chairs the Outcome Committee for the International Coordinating Committee on SMA.