News

Members of the Duke Neurology Department advanced the fields of clinical and translational neuroscience this November, contributing to 16 new peer-reviewed studies.

This week’s Spotlight interview shines on our newest headache fellow, Mina Essak, DO. Essak talks to us about his work treating patients with migraines and facial pain in our Morreene Road Clinic, how he was swayed from primary care to neurology during his medical school rotations, and why in another life he would be a ski instructor. He also shares his passion for the outdoors and hopes for skiing in Banff this coming winter.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Duke University Hospital as the top hospital in North Carolina and the 23rd best across the nation for neurology and neurosurgery in its 2022-2023 hospital rankings. The annual rankings, which assessed more than 4,500 hospitals nationwide, analyze and integrate dozens of medical and surgical services.

This June, members of the Duke Neurology Department contributed to 12 new peer-reviewed journal articles as well as two new book chapters. Among other findings these studies uncovered retinal differences that may one day act as early biomarkers for cognitive impairment, population-based studies that will improve treatment for stroke and other conditions, and investigations of hydrogel scaffolds as potential therapies.

The second half of 2021 was as eventful as the first for the Duke Neurology Department. Story highlights from July through December of this year include our Leonard White, PhD, winning a national award for excellence in teaching, the founding of a joint Duke/UNC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, two of our hospitals receiving the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s highest award for quality stroke care, and the School of Medicine receiving  awards totaling $18 million to uncover the origins of Parkinson’s disease.

The Duke Neurology Department continued to grow and expand its missions of providing excellent clinical care, conducting research to improve our understanding of neurological conditions and how to treat them, and training the next generation of neurologists throughout 2021.

This October, members of the Duke Neurology Department contributed to 12 new peer-reviewed journal articles, advancing our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, chronic pain, and other conditions. These articles include discussions of the best framework for neuroscience curricula for medical students, the discovery of an existing experimental drug which offers a new avenue for treating pain without potential addiction issues, and an examination of the viability of ketogenic diets as an alternative treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Several disorders cause chronic pain, including nerve injuries and bone cancer, but existing remedies can trigger uncomfortable side effects, or worse, addiction. So researchers from Duke University, including the Neurology Department's Yong Chen, PhD, and Wolfgang Liedtke, MD, PhD, and the University of California at Irvine teamed up to tackle this problem by searching for compounds that tackle pain in a new way—by targeting genetic switches that cause it.

Members of the Duke Neurology Department did their part for Stroke Awareness Month, contributing to eight new peer-reviewed studies published this May. But our other divisions didn’t hold back either, with thirteen other articles advancing our understanding of neuro-oncology, multiple sclerosis, headache, and other subjects.

Read about each of the studies published from members of the Duke Neurology Department below, and find links to the original journal articles as well.

Stroke

Members of the Duke Neurology Department advanced the fields of clinical, translational, and basic neuroscience this April with 14 new peer-reviewed studies. Nicole Calakos, MD, PhD, was the senior author of a new study in Science that  expands our understanding of the integrated stress response in the brain and how it influences learning and memory.