News

The life of Bryan Day involves balancing two separate roles. From Monday through Friday, Day acts as a staff assistant for the Neurology Department, answering phone and email requests, and helping patients and providers make and keep their schedules. On weekends and evenings, Day heads over to the Clarksville Station restaurant, which he owns and manages. For this week’s Spotlight interview Day talks to us about his work at Duke, the joys and challenges of running a restaurant, and how he uses lists to keep his busy life in order.

Recent addition to the Duke Neurology Department Pamela Neville has big shoes to fill. After the retirement of Kathy Ervin, a nearly four-decade veteran of Duke, at the end of 2021, Neville is taking on the duties of making sure new faculty have the tools and systems they need to be successful at Duke as well as assisting in the promotions process.

Research authored by members of the Duke Neurology Department published during the final month of 2021 advanced our knowledge of stroke, epilepsy, dystonia, and other conditions.

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.

Jeison Valencia has been inspired to pursue science and laboratory research since age 7, after he watched an episode of the Powerpuff Girls, in which a scientist creates the three female superheroes. Now, as a member of the Chiba-Falek lab, the lab technician is performing analyses on brain tissue to better understand the roots of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Members of the Duke Neurology Department contributed to 14 new peer-reviewed journal articles written this November. Highlights include an analysis of fragmentation within the delivery of neurological health care, an examination of racial disparities in the use of telehealth, and a discussion of the best ways to use social medicine to share news on epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology. Read the paragraphs below for short summaries of each of these 14 articles, as well as links to the original entries themselves.

Memory Disorders

As an undergraduate, Miranda Shipman studied drawing and painting, teaching art and managing a gallery until she developed a rare brain tumor. After she had the tumor removed, Shipman developed a passion for neuroscience, with the hope of helping to discover new treatments. Now she’s helping to do just that in the lab of Nicole Calakos, MD, PhD, where she’s screening compounds to help people living with dystonia.

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).

Within the lab of Carlene Moore, PhD, Ashley Moore, MS, MAT, (no relation) does “a little bit of everything,” acting as a lab manager, performing western blots, teaching and guiding undergraduate research students and more--and that’s just how she likes it. For this week’s Spotlight interview, Moore talks to us about this work, how her five years of experience as a public school teacher inform her work, and loving concerts and baking for family and friends when she’s not at work.