Child Neurology Research

The Department of Neurology Division of Child Neurology at Columbia University was the first program of its kind in the nation. This long history of innovation and leadership in the field extends to our robust research program, which is among the finest in the nation. Across a broad array of child neurology subspecialties, many of our pediatric neurologists conduct clinical research, while also working in collaboration with our laboratory-based scientists and translational investigators, to hasten important discoveries aimed at improving the health, treatment, and well-being of children suffering from neurological illnesses.

Areas of Research

• Cerebral palsy
• Childhood-onset epilepsy
• Cognitive and behavioral problems associated with epilepsy
• Developmental neurophysiology
• Duchenne muscular dystrophy
• Epilepsy and cognitive disorders
• Genetically-determined metabolic diseases that affect the developing brain and neuromuscular system
• Glut1 deficiency
• Imaging modalities used for epilepsy diagnosis
• Imaging of the hippocampus and amygdala
• Inherited and acquired metabolic diseases that affect the developing nervous system and muscular system
• Lactic acidosis
• Mitochondrial diseases
• Neurobiology of learning and memory
• Neuro-developmental outcomes of brain injuries associated with prematurity
• Neurological, behavioral, and psychological outcomes in children with intrauterine exposure to cocaine
• Mitochondrial encephalopathy
• Research focuses on defects of oxidative metabolism and the molecular basis of glucose transporter deficiency syndromes
• Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) and other neuromuscular diseases
• Stroke-like episodes (MELAS)
• Systemic lupus erythematosus