Five ANA Members Elected to National Academy of Medicine (NAM)

The ANA is excited to congratulate five of our members who have been elected to The National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the field of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Learn more about our elected members below.  

Randall John Bateman, MD, Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor of Neurology, department of neurology, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis.  For discovering the causes of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the first highly specific blood test for AD, and initiating the first prevention trial in AD with a public-private clinical trial platform.

Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc, chief of neurology and director, Sean M. Healey and AMG Center for ALS, Massachusetts General Hospital; and Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston. For leading the first neuroscience antisense oligonucleotide therapy trial, establishing the first platform trial in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), helping to develop a successful treatment for sporadic ALS, AMX0035, and creating global networks to accelerate treatment development for many disorders. 

Justin C. McArthur, MBBS, MPH, FAAN, FAN, director, department of neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore.  For his translational research in HIV that has led to new disease therapies and changed clinical guidelines, and for being a thought leader in neurology and health care.

Jerry R. Mendell, MD, Curran-Peters Chair of Pediatric Research, Abigail Wexner Research Institute, Nationwide Children’s Hospital; and professor of pediatrics and neurology, Ohio State University, Columbus. For pioneering gene therapy for neuromuscular diseases, performing one the first in vivo adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy trials in 1999, and expanding the application of gene replacement, showing safety and efficacy for untreatable conditions like spinal muscular atrophy, receiving Food and Drug Administration approval as first systemic AAV delivery.

Henry L. Paulson, MD, PhD, Lucile Groff Professor of Neurology, department of neurology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. For making fundamental discoveries regarding protein aggregation and nucleotide repeat expansions as causes of neurodegenerative diseases, and pioneering novel therapeutic strategies, including nucleotide-based gene silencing and harnessing the cell’s own quality-control machinery, for this group of devastating disorders.