Patient scheduling:
310-794-1195
Patient Coordinator:
Ynez Tongson, B.S., [email protected]
310-794-1195
Donate Today Giving: Your gift to the UCLA Multiple Sclerosis program makes a difference.
Contact the multiple sclerosis (MS) program Research Coordinator directly:
Michael J. Montag: [email protected]
310-206-2176
Contact the MS laboratories:
Noriko Itoh, BS, MS: [email protected]
310-206-4640
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UCLA's MS Program uses a “Bedside to Bench to Bedside” approach.
Clinical observations in MS are investigated in UCLA MS faculty labs leading to novel clinical trials in MS, with 4 such MS clinical trials to date.
Current clinical questions that we are addressing include:
Focusing on finding answers to these questions by the UCLA MS program using a “Bedside to Bench to Bedside” strategy has been recognized globally through international and national awards as well as consistent funding in grants from the National Institutes of Health for the last 20 years and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation for the last decade. Philanthropic donors to the UCLA MS Program make all of this possible by providing seed money for early projects and funding to recruit new faculty. Finding neuroprotective treatments to improve disabilities in MS patients is a top priority.
To improve the lives of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases.
The Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Program at UCLA aims to improve the lives of MS patients by developing new therapies for MS and providing expert clinical care. This is accomplished through basic science in neuroscience, genetics, immunology, highly advanced neuroimaging, novel therapeutic trials and a full spectrum of clinical care from inpatient to unique outpatient programs. MS patients are seen by dedicated specialists with decades of combined experience and/or fellowship training in the diagnosis and treatment of this difficult disease. UCLA is a designated MS Comprehensive Care Center.
As an adjunct service to the diagnostic, treatment and consultative services provided, UCLA also offers access to this unique center that provides rehabilitative, recreational, and education services in a small group setting. The center, a joint effort of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the UCLA Department of Neurology, offers a broad continuum of care that complements the medical management of MS.
A major strength of the UCLA MS Research Program is that it is part of the UCLA Health System, ranked #1 in Los Angeles and #7 in the United States. Also, collaborations occur with scientists of extraordinary expertise within the UCLA neuroscience community, focusing this tremendous pool of minds on finding a cure for MS. The UCLA campus has six buildings dedicated to neuroscience, a major focus of the university and an extraordinary resource for the UCLA MS Program.
This is who we are:
Rhonda Voskuhl, M.D. is the Director of the UCLA MS Program, the Jack H. Skirball Chair in MS Research, and a Professor in the Dept. of Neurology. She is an internationally recognized expert in MS, focusing on translational work by moving from the bedside (clinical observations) to the bench (research) to the bedside (novel clinical trials). She has led four clinical trials for MS testing novel treatments based on results from research in her lab. She received the Berlin Institute of Health Excellence Award for Sex and Gender Aspects in Health Research for 2018, a global award recognizing excellence in all areas of health research (not limited to MS). She has been selected for the Keynote Kenneth P. Johnson Memorial Lecture for 2019 by Americas Committee for Research and Treatment of MS (ACTRIMS), the leading U.S. and Canadian organization for MS neurologists.
Dr. Voskuhl's patient care focuses on the diagnosis of MS as well as on major changes in MS treatment management. She trains the next generation of MS researchers, including young faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergraduates.
Lisa Guerette, AuD, MHA, CCC-SLP/A, Executive Director Marilyn Hilton MS Achievement Center. She joined the program in 2021 after previously working as the Director of the House Children’s Hearing Center of UCLA for eight years. Dr. Guerette has 28 years working in the field of speech-language pathology and audiology with all ages of individuals with neurological difficulties and diseases. Areas of interest include dysphagia (swallowing), auditory processing and cognitive therapy.
Yuichiro Itoh, PhD, Associate Researcher, Department of Neurology, specialized in genetic analysis and bioinformatics. Dr. Itoh determines gene expression changes in each cell type in the brain in MS patients and the MS model, aiming to discover novel treatments to reverse abnormal gene expression in the brain in MS. His current work focuses on which gene expression changes in the brain are responsible for each MS disability.
Allan Mackenzie-Graham, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, is a neuroimaging expert in MS who is a faculty member in the UCLA Brain Mapping Center. He showed halting of brain atrophy in MS women in the estriol clinical trial and in MS men in the testosterone clinical trial. Dr. Mackenzie-Graham was the first to create a map of brain atrophy for each MS disability. He also showed brain atrophy in the most widely used MS model in the world, creating a tool to screen drugs to halt this atrophy.
Callene Momtazee, MD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Neurology, specializes in MS patient care and extends consultative, diagnostic and management services from UCLA to the Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. She has particular interest in neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a variant of MS. She has also been involved in MS clinical trials at UCLA and co-authored a comprehensive review of pregnancy and MS in a major clinical journal.
Kevin Patel, MD, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Neurology, is an expert in MS patient care. He joined the UCLA MS Program recently from Harvard where he had received a three year Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National MS Society. In addition to clinical MS patient care, Dr. Patel does neuroimaging studies in MS patients to determine how neurological pathway connections are disrupted, thereby suggesting a new biomarker for novel treatment trials in MS.
Elaine Su, MD, MS, Assistant Professor, Dept of Neurology, is an expert in MS patient care. Dr. Su earned her MD at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed neurology residency and multiple sclerosis fellowship at Stanford. Dr. Su was a National Multiple Sclerosis Society Sylvia Lawry Fellow and received formal training in epidemiology and clinical research during her fellowship. At UCLA, Dr. Su will focus on the clinical care of individuals with multiple sclerosis and other inflammatory conditions of the central nervous system. Her long term goals are to provide care that incorporates epidemiologic trends, translational research, and individual needs.
Eric Williamson, MD, Associate Professor, Dept. of Neurology, is an expert in MS patient care. He joined the UCLA MS Program recently from the University of Pennsylvania where he was an Assistant Professor. He extends UCLA MS expertise to the Westwood Veteran’s Administration (VA), through a joint appointment. His expertise is in disease modifying treatment management in MS, including antibodies during treatment that may impact treatment efficacy and toxicity.
Clinical staff:
Post-doctoral fellows:
Graduate students:
Next Steps – Summary of Projects
Our goal is to harness the tremendous neuroscience expertise at UCLA to find a neuroprotective treatment to repair disabilities in MS and extend this approach to other neurodegenerative diseases. Specific areas include:
Investing in the future
Education
The UCLA MS Program is training the next generation of MS faculty. At any given time there are approximately one to three post-doctoral fellows, two to four graduate students, and six to eight undergraduates, who are all being trained in MS. Support for these students for one year can provide time for them to apply for outside funding for three additional years support, thereby amplifying the investment in their future, and in the future of MS.
Clinical MS Patient Care
We have recently hired two additional MS clinicians to permit us to extend our care to more MS patients in the Los Angeles area and beyond and to boost our clinical trials testing new treatments to repair disabilities.
Research
Funds for our projects in their earliest stages transform an idea into a reality.
The Request
The UCLA MS Program owes much of its success to the philanthropic support it has received. Support of highly innovative projects in their infancy requires vision and this support at early, critical moments was central in generating the results needed to capture more traditional funding, exponential expanding the impact of giving. Indeed, without the support of our visionary partners, the award winning accomplishments of the UCLA MS Program would not have been possible.
We request that you partner with us at UCLA in this paradigm shifting approach to find neuroprotective treatments to improve disabilities in MS by giving online today, or for more information, please contact Elizabeth Naito at [email protected]
Selected Recent Papers
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