The TMA is very pleased to announce that Drs. James Bowen and Douglas Kerr are joining Drs. Joanne Lynn and Charles Levy on the TMA Medical Advisory Board. The addition of Dr. Bowen and Dr. Kerr enhances the stature of The Transverse Myelitis Association and serves to facilitate the achievement of our goals. We greatly appreciate their willingness to contribute their expertise to our Association and our members. We were very fortunate to have all of the physicians on our Medical Advisory Board attend and make presentations at The Transverse Myelitis Association International Symposium in August, 1999.

James Bowen, MD
Assistant Professor, Neurology
University of Washington

Dr. James Bowen was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi and grew up in New Mexico. He received his undergraduate training at Eastern New Mexico University. He went on to complete his Medical Degree at Johns Hopkins University in 1982. He served two years of residence in internal medicine (1982-84) and three years in neurology at the University of Washington (1984-87). He was the Chief of the Neurology Division at Pacific Medical Center in Seattle from 1987 to 1998. He also attended the Multiple Sclerosis Center at the University of Washington Medical Center during that time and served as Co-Director of the Center from 1989 to 1998. In 1998 he was recruited to join the faculty at the University of Washington. Dr. Bowen is currently an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation (adjunct). He is also the Director of Neurology Services for the Multiple Sclerosis Center at the University of Washington Medical Center and Director of the Multiple Sclerosis Research Center at the University of Washington.

Dr. Bowen has research interests and numerous publications in both multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's disease. Current research involves treatment of multiple sclerosis, rehabilitation issues in multiple sclerosis, and the epidemiology of dementia. Dr. Bowen and the Center are currently conducting seven studies of treatments for multiple sclerosis, including medications, stem cell transplantation and cooling. The Center is the recipient of the Department of Education Research and Training Grant for Multiple Sclerosis Rehabilitation. With this grant, the Center is studying issues of aging in multiple sclerosis, employment, wellness promotion, depression, exercise, cognition, and medical needs analysis in patients with multiple sclerosis.

Douglas A. Kerr, MD PhD
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Department of Neurology
 
Dr. Kerr was born in Bloomington, Indiana. He received his undergraduate degree in Biology from Princeton University in 1988. He received his Medical Degree in 1995 from Jefferson Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and his Ph.D. in 1995 in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the College of Graduate Studies, Thomas Jefferson University. He served as a resident in the Department of Internal Medicine, The Graduate Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1995-1996. Dr. Kerr served as a Resident (1996-1998) and the Chief Resident (1998-1999) of the Department of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. In 1999 Dr. Kerr became an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Dr. Kerr obtained his research training under Dr. Kamel Khalili examining molecular factors relating to virus reactivation during immunosuppression (for example in AIDs patients). He determined the involvement of several cellular factors that cause certain viruses (JC Virus) to reactivate in AIDs patients, resulting in the universally fatal disease Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy. He also determined that several hemotherapeutic agents have potent antiviral activity against HIV-1 and JC virus, a finding that has been extended and is now being evaluated at Johns Hopkins Hospital in patients with HIV-dementia.

It was during his residency that Dr. Kerr became interested in transverse myelitis, and initiated experiments to define mechanisms underlying neuronal death in spinal cord injury. The laboratories of Drs. Marie Hardwick and Diane Griffin have successfully investigated mechanisms of neuronal apoptosis and have revealed fascinating insights about critical modulators of neuronal death. Utilizing the expertise of these laboratories in neurovirology, neuroimmunology and neuronal apoptosis (a fancy term for programmed cell suicide, which is what happens in many patients with TM leading to permanent disability), Dr. Kerr employed a novel viral model system to reveal for the first time that the Survival of Motor Neuron (SMN) protein functions in the protection of neurons from apoptotic death; and that mutant SMN protein found in patients with the neurodegenerative disorder spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) accelerates neuronal apoptosis. He has elucidated several potentially important mechanisms that govern this function, and is in the process of submitting a manuscript detailing his findings. It is hoped that this knowledge will allow the development of strategies designed to protect neurons from death following an injurious event, such as transverse myelitis. He has also generated exciting data regarding the potential role for neuronal stem cells in restoration of function in spinal cord injury. By combining his expertise in neuronal death and stem cell transplantation, Dr. Kerr hopes to advance the field of transplantation into the central nervous system and to ultimately consider the use of this technology in patients with transverse myelitis.

Dr. Kerr has numerous publications involving neurotropic viruses in the central nervous system. He has also published an article regarding the determination of a critical prognostic marker found in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with acute transverse myelitis.