January 26, 2007

Koroshetz named deputy director at NINDS

Walter Koroshetz, MD, vice chair of MGH Neurology and director of the MGH Stroke Service and Neurointensive Care Service, recently left the MGH for a new appointment as deputy director of the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In his new role, Koroshetz advises Director Story Landis, PhD, as she manages the activities of the institute that annually funds $1.5 billion in research on neurologic disorders and stroke.

Following his residency at the MGH in 1981, Koroshetz began training in cellular
neurophysiology and neurobiology in the laboratory of David Corey, PhD, of MGH Neurology. His work focused on excitotoxicity, a cause of neuronal cell death in various disease states. Koroshetz also was a part of projects in both stroke and Alzheimer's disease research. Together with Bruce Jenkins, PhD, of the Athinoula A. Martinos Center, he discovered that patients with Huntington's disease had elevated brain levels of lactic acid that could be partially normalized by treatment with Coenzyme Q10, which now is being studied in large clinical trials for both Huntington's and Parkinson's diseases.

Koroshetz was named director of the Partners Neurology residency program in 1990 and became involved in stroke research and acute stroke care. In 1994 he became director of the Neurointensive Care Service and the MGH Stroke Service. Both services established fellowship programs, made many scientific advances and grew to provide 24/7 coverage. Koroshetz worked with A. Gregory Sorensen, MD, associate director of the Martinos Center, and with the MGH Neuroradiology Division directed by Gilberto Gonzalez, MD, to pioneer the use of diffusion- and perfusion-weighted MRI imaging in acute stroke patients.

Remarking on Koroshetz's departure, Peter L. Slavin, MD, MGH president, said, "Walter is truly a triple-threat physician — a talented and compassionate clinician, an outstanding teacher and a brilliant researcher. While we will certainly miss him greatly at the MGH, the opportunity to play such an important leadership role at the institute is clearly exciting, and we look forward to a continued close relationship as he assumes his new role."