NeuroNEXT

Michael Benatar, MBChB, MS, DPhil, is the Walter Bradley Chair in ALS Research; Executive Director of the ALS Center; Chief of Neuromuscular Division; and Vice Chair for Clinical & Translational Research in the Department of Neurology at the University of Miami. He obtained his medical degree at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, and his doctorate in neuroscience while a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford.  After completing residency and fellowship training at Harvard, he obtained formal training in research methodology through a Master’s in the Science of Clinical Research degree at Emory. Dr. Benatar leads an active clinical and translational research program focused on ALS biomarkers and therapy development, and with a longstanding and special interest in myasthenia gravis. Dr. Benatar leads the Pre-Symptomatic Familial ALS (Pre-fALS) study, which he initiated in 2007, and the CReATe Consortium, a ~35-center network focused on therapy development for ALS and related disorders. He also serves as the academic lead of the ATLAS study that aims to determine whether initiation of an SOD1 antisense oligonucleotide in clinically pre-symptomatic individuals, might delay or prevent the onset of ALS.