Jeffrey D. Rothstein, M.D., Ph.D. is the John W. Griffin Director for the Brain Science Institute, as well as a Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience, and the Founding Director of the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He received his BA in Neuroscience from Colgate University (1977), along with an MA in Neurochemistry-Biopsychology from the University of Chicago (1979). He received his PhD in Physiology and Biophysics-Neurochemistry (1984), and MD (1985) at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and Health Sciences Center. He completed a medical University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill and his neurology residency (1989) and neuromuscular fellowship (1991) at Johns Hopkins University. In 1991, Dr. Rothstein accepted a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology. In 2000, in addition to being promoted to his current position as Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience, Dr. Rothstein became the Director and Founder of the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research, which has raised approximately $130 million to date. In 2011, he became the Director of the Johns Hopkins Brain Science Institute; a University Wide Translational Neuroscience institute founded on a $100mil gift. A respected and internationally renowned neuroscientist, Dr. Rothstein is credited as being one of the world’s top clinical and basic ALS researcher and has over 30 years as a clinician scientist studying ALS pathophysiology, astrocyte/oliogodendroglial biology and therapy discovery; it was his research on ALS pathogenesis that lead to the first successful, FDA-approved drug to alter neurodegeneration in ALS. More recently his group has defined the basic cellular defect in nuclear transport/pores that underlie a large percentage of ALS, Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s dementia patients. He holds patents for candidate therapeutics and started a biotech company to help develop drugs and PET ligands for neurodegeneration. In addition to running an ALS clinic at Johns Hopkins which evaluates and manages over 400 ALS patients every year, he also runs a Brain Science Institute drug discovery group to identify novel therapeutics for neurological and psychiatric disease. Dr. Rothstein has received numerous awards for his work in the field of ALS and basic-to-clinical science, such as the Sheila Essay Award recognizing his worldwide contribution to ALS research, and the Diamond Award for ALS research, as well as the Lois Pope Foundation award for medical research, the Swiss Hartmann Muller Prize and more.