AANP Meeting Presidential Symposium Speaker: Neil Cashman, MD

From the American Association of Neuropathologists front office:

Neil Cashman, MD

AANP is very excited to have Dr. Neil Cashman present at this year’s Presidential Symposium on Sunday, June 19. His talk will be on Seeding and Propagation of SOD1 Misfolding in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.

Dr. Neil Cashman is a neurologist-neuroscientist working in neurodegeneration and neuroimmunology.  His special areas of work are the motor neuron diseases, particularly amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and the amyloid encephalopathies, including prion illnesses and Alzheimer’s disease. He is Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Neurodegeneration and Protein Misfolding Diseases. He is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of ProMIS Neurosciences in Toronto.

Special honors include the Jonas Salk Prize (2000), his Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in at the UBC (2005-2018), election to the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2008), and Genome BC award for Scientific Excellence (2012).

We look forward to Dr. Cashman’s discussion on ALS at the 92^nd Annual Meeting!

Dr. Peter Cummings Challenges Neuropathologists to Ice Bucket Challenge

Peter Cummings, MD

Dr. Peter Cummings has challenged his neuropathology colleagues to take the ALS ice bucket challenge. The good doctor dumps a bucket of ice water on his head in this video. If you are unfamiliar with the viral phenomenon of the ice bucket challenge, here's a New York Times article describing it. Now, grab a bucket!

Is it possible that Lou Gehrig did not have ALS?

Neuropathologist Ann McKee (pictured) is back in the news today with a fascinating article about trauma-related motor neuron disease as a distinct entity from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS is also known as "Lou Gehrig's disease". The implication is that, with all the head trauma he sustained both in baseball and in college football, Lou Gehrig himself may not have had ALS, but rather trauma-related motor neuron disease! Read more here from today's New York Times.