Neurology News

Dear Colleagues and Alumni,

Welcome to our Yale Department of Neurology Winter 2026 newsletter.

Over these last months as your new chair, I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and learning more about your unique contributions to our critical clinical, investigational, and educational work. This newsletter is intended to be a celebration of that work, including updates on our initiatives, faculty and staff spotlights, and highlights of our current trainees. Please send suggestions for content for future newsletter editions. I look forward to working with you all and to all that we will accomplish in the months and years to come.

I hope you had a joyous and restful holiday season and I wish you a happy new year!

Sincerely,

Pooja Khatri, MD

Albert E. Kent Professor of Neurology

Chair of Neurology

• Rachel Forman, MD: appointed as the department's director of community engagement
• Carolyn Fredericks, MD: received a pilot award co-funded by Yale Biomedical Imaging Institute's Fund for Exploratory Studies program (YBII FES) and Women's Health Research at Yale
• Clemens Scherzer, MD: received an American Parkinson Disease Association award
• Tomokazu Sumida, MD, PhD: received a Department of Defense (DOD) grant
• Jesse Cedarbaum, MD: received a R01 grant
• Kevin O'Connor, PhD: received a R21 grant
• Phillip Chan, MBChB, PhD: received a R21 grant
• Jonathan Weerakkody, PhD: received a Patterson Trust Mentored Research award
• Yoshiaki Yasumizu, MD, PhD: received a Michael J. Fox Foundation award and a Patterson Trust Mentored Research award
• Efrat Abramson: received a F31 grant
• Maria Olivero-Acosta: received an American Parkinson Disease Association fellowship
• Zechuan Lin: received an American Parkinson Disease Association award
• Yang Zheng, MD, PhD: received an American Epilepsy Society (AES) fellowship
• Yuxuan Hu: received a Michael J. Fox Foundation award

The Department of Neurology Clinical Research Office (NCRO) has officially launched its monthly meetings, creating a forum to streamline communication, share resources, and support our expanding clinical research portfolio. We are delighted to welcome two new team members, Ayesha Amatya and Danielle Carlson, who bring valuable experience and energy to the NCRO. Across the department, we continue to see strong growth, with several new federal, foundation, and industry awards awarded to our faculty. Looking ahead, our teams remain deeply engaged in advancing new initiatives across the health system, ensuring that Neurology continues to lead in innovation, collaboration, and impact.

The Department of Neurology's basic science research is thriving, marked by the successful launch of the Neurology Grand Rounds: Research Connections Series - Building Bridges Across Our Department to foster collaboration between scientists and clinicians to accelerate translational discoveries.

Faculty continue to make significant advances in understanding neurologic diseases. Focusing on neurodegenerative diseases in this newsletter, there are many examples of such advances:

• The Chandra Lab discovered that GBA mutations cause cognitive deficits via α-synuclein-independent synaptic vesicle defects (Nature Communications 2025).
• The Neuroimmunology Lab (Principal Investigator David Hafler, MD) discovered that gut-derived T cells inhabit the healthy brain's subfornical organ, revealing a normal physiological role for immune cells in brain function (Nature 2025).
• The Sansing Lab uncovered a mechanism for resilience for calcium dysregulation in aging and cognitive decline (JCI Insight 2025).
• The Grutzendler Lab led two major Alzheimer's disease studies identifying amyloid-β aggregation at myelin-axon interfaces and reversible axonal spheroid formation mechanisms (Nature Neuroscience 2025; Nature Aging 2025).

Demand for our clinical services has continued to outpace recruitment. Total department productivity rose by more than 11% from fiscal year 2024 to 2025. Productivity per cFTE increased by 7.2% (6,128 RVU/cFTE), which exceeds our peer group median by well over 20%. We are extremely grateful to our physicians, advanced practice providers, clinician-scientists, and trainees, as well as to our nursing and administrative staff, whose commitment to excellence in patient care and willingness to go the extra mile have mitigated ongoing access issues.

The clock is ticking towards the opening of the Adams Neurosciences Center (ANC) on the Saint Raphael Campus in the spring of 2027. We are looking forward to this transformative opportunity for neurologic and neurosurgical care within Yale New Haven Health, throughout Connecticut, and beyond. ANC will set new standards in clinical care in the neurosciences and advance our ability to provide multidisciplinary, patient-centered care at unprecedented levels. We have started interviewing candidates for stroke, neurointensive care, and neurohospitalist teams, and we will complete recruitment as soon as position approval is finalized.

We have launched two additional, transformative projects: the establishment of the Divisions of Hospital Neurology and General Neurology (the latter is currently combined with Headache Medicine). Positions for inaugural division chiefs have been posted, search committees have been formed, and candidate interviewing has started.

We are in the midst of a busy interview season, with seven interviews completed and five remaining. This year, we are interviewing 144 candidates for 13 spots in the Class of 2030, including a candidate for the new General Neurology Track, and an additional seven for a one-resident addition to the Class of 2029. Thank you to all faculty and residents who have volunteered their time to interview an outstanding group of candidates.

On the undergraduate side, a record seven students from the Yale School of Medicine (YSM) Class of 2026 applied to Neurology this year and are currently completing interview season. We look forward to celebrating their match in the coming months, and to them being our future colleagues! The Advanced eXperience for Outstanding Neurology Students (AXONS) program will launch its next cycle in January. We are always seeking faculty and trainee mentors for our students considering careers in clinical neuroscience. Please contact Jeff Dewey, MD, MHS, or Chris Gummerson, MD, if interested.

Lastly, a shout-out to the department faculty who participated as preceptors for the first longitudinal High Engagement Group this semester during the pre-clinical phase: Mary Barden, MD; Aaron Bower, MD; Jeff Dewey, MD, MHS; and Harry Sutherland, MD. Adeel Zubair, MD, will be joining in the spring semester as the program expands. Altogether, Neurology faculty accounted for one quarter of the teaching team, reinforcing our department's prominent involvement in education at YSM.

Meet your department directors:

• Director of Wellness Jeffrey Dewey, MD, MHS
• Director of Collaborative Excellence Reshma Narula, MD
• Associate Director of Collaborative Excellence, Education Vanessa Cooper, MD
• Mentorship Director Amar Patel, MD

Under the tenure of David Hafler, MD, chair of neurology from 2009–2025, the Department's total faculty expanded to 193.

Patricia Anne McDonnell, senior administrative assistant, division of neurocritical care & emergency neurology

"Patricia joined our administrative team in August 2016, and from day one, her outgoing spirit and fierce determination left a mark on everyone she met. She was never one to shy away from speaking up when processes or policies needed to be challenged, always pushing for what she believed would make things better for the team. Her energy could light up a room, and she approached every challenge, both professional and especially personal, with courage, persistence, and an unwavering commitment to doing what was right. Those of us who had the privilege of working alongside her will always remember her resolve, and the deep care she had for her work and her colleagues." - Message sent to Neurology Department from Diana Lorenzo, MBA