Interview

Abstract

Dr Steven A Goldman is Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Pediatrics, and Chief of the Division of Cell and Gene Therapy at the University of Rochester Medical Center, where he holds the Dean Zutes Chair in Biology of the Aging Brain. He is also the Co-Director with Dr Maiken Nedergaerd of the newly established Center for Translational Neuromedicine at Rochester. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he obtained his PhD from Rockefeller University in 1983, and his MD from Cornell in 1984. He did his residency in medicine and neurology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, where he stayed on faculty until 2000 and where he remains an Adjunct Professor. Dr Goldman is interested in cell genesis and neural regeneration in the adult brain and spinal cord, with a focus on the use of neural stem and progenitor cells in treating demyelinating and neurodegenerative diseases. His laboratory focuses on both the induction of endogenous progenitor cells for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Huntington’s disease, and the transplantation of lineage-restricted progenitors for the treatment of glial and neuronal diseases of single phenotype, such as the pediatric leukodystrophies and Parkinson’s disease. He also has a strong interest in the conversion of endogenous stem and progenitor cells into brain cancers. He has published over 150 papers in his field as either first or senior author. Dr Goldman is a recipient of the Jacob Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award of the National Institutes of Health, and has been elected to the Association of American Physicians, as well as the American Neurological Association and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. He is also a member of both the American Academy of Neurology and American College of Physicians, as well as the Society for Neuroscience, the American Society for Gene Therapy, the Society for Neuro-oncology and the ISSCR. Dr Goldman remains active clinically as an attending neurologist at Strong Memorial Hospital and the University of Rochester Medical Center, with subspecialty interests in stroke and critical care, as well as in the demyelinating diseases.