Jacqueline A. French | |
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Academic background | |
Education | MD, Alpert Medical School |
Academic work | |
Institutions | NYU Langone Health NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center University of Pennsylvania |
Jacqueline A. French is an American neurologist. She is a Professor in the Department of Neurology at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine and Academic Division Director of Epilepsy. French became the Chief Scientific Officer of the Epilepsy Foundation in 2015 after previously serving as the President and Vice-President of the American Epilepsy Society.
Upon earning her medical degree from Brown University's Alpert Medical School,French completed her fellowship in epilepsy and residency in neurology at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan. She also completed another epilepsy fellowship at Yale University in 1989. [1]
Following her fellowship in epilepsy at Yale University,French was recruited to join the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). As a professor at the institution,she oversaw a number of multicentre drug studies that were underway in the department. [2] She eventually became the assistant dean for clinical trials at UPenn, [3] and her efforts were recognized with the 2005 American Epilepsy Society (AES) Distinguished Service Award. [4] At the same time,French was appointed the Chief Scientific Officer for the Epilepsy Therapy Project from 2005 to 2011 and served on the Epilepsy Foundation's Professional Advisory Board. [5] Prior to leaving UPenn in 2007,French gained FDA approval for her newly developed method of testing epilepsy drugs and established the Epilepsy Study Consortium. Following FDA approval,several studies began testing her new trial design on different drugs. [2]
French left UPenn in 2007 to join the faculty at NYU Langone Health. [2] During her early tenure at the institution,she demonstrated that historical data from previously completed withdrawal to monotherapy studies for antiepileptic drugs provided valid control for future studies. Based on her study,the FDA accepted this concept in an effort to get monotherapy easier approval for AEDs. [6] She was also the recipient of the 2009 Ambassador for Epilepsy Award from the International League Against Epilepsy. [7] French was shortly thereafter appointed Director of Translational Research and Clinical Trials at the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and sat on the editorial boards of Lancet Neurology and Neurotherapeutics . French was also elected to sit on numerous committees including for the American Society of Experimental Therapeutics,International League Against Epilepsy Commission on Therapeutic Strategies,and the North American Commission. [3] While serving in these roles,French also became a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and oversaw the first clinical trial of a new drug called perampanel. [8] As a result of her research efforts,she served as the Epilepsy Foundation's vice president for research from 2011 to 2012 [5] and was elected the first vice president of the AES for a one-year term. [3] Following her term as vice-president,French was given the title of president of the AES for another one-year term from 2012 to 2013. [9] During her term as president,French also received the 2013 Hero of Epilepsy Award from the Epilepsy Foundation. [10]
Upon stepping down as president of the AES,French became the Chief Scientific Officer of the Epilepsy Foundation in 2015. [11] In this role,she helped develop new guidelines to inform clinicians on how to treat a first seizure which was then released jointly by the American Academy of Neurology and AES. [12] In 2017,she received the William G. Lennox Award for lifetime accomplishments in epilepsy from the AES. [13] In January 2020,French was one of five new members elected to join the Board of Directors for the American Brain Foundation. [14] During the COVID-19 pandemic,French was a member of NYU's COVID-19 and Epilepsy Study Group. This group released research studying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people with epilepsy. [15] She was later recognized by Clarivate Analytics as being among the world's most-cited researchers in her field. [16]
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Lamotrigine,sold under the brand name Lamictal among others,is a medication used to treat epilepsy and stabilize mood in bipolar disorder. For epilepsy,this includes focal seizures,tonic-clonic seizures,and seizures in Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. In bipolar disorder,lamotrigine has not been shown to reliably treat acute depression;but for patients with bipolar disorder who are not currently symptomatic,it appears to be effective in reducing the risk of future episodes of depression.
Levetiracetam,sold under the brand name Keppra among others,is a medication used to treat epilepsy. It is used for partial-onset,myoclonic,or tonic–clonic seizures and is taken either by mouth as an immediate or extended release formulation or by injection into a vein.
Ruben Kuzniecky is an Argentine neurologist who is Vice-chair academic affairs and professor of neurology at Northwell Health specializing in the field of epilepsy,epilepsy surgery and neuro-imaging.
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Eva Lucille Feldman,M.D.,Ph.D.,F.A.A.N.,F.A.N.A. is an American physician-scientist and one of the world’s leading authorities on neurodegenerative disease. Currently,she serves as the Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology at the University of Michigan,as well as Director of the NeuroNetwork for Emerging Therapies and ALS Center of Excellence at Michigan Medicine. She was also recently named the James W. Albers Distinguished University Professor of Neurology,the highest faculty honor at the university.
Lacosamide,sold under the brand name Vimpat among others,is a medication used for the treatment of partial-onset seizures and primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures. It is used by mouth or intravenously.
Remacemide is a drug which acts as a low-affinity NMDA antagonist with sodium channel blocking properties. It has been studied for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke,epilepsy,Huntington's disease,and Parkinson's disease.
NYU Langone Health is an academic medical center located in New York City,New York,United States. The health system consists of NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Long Island School of Medicine,both part of New York University (NYU),and more than 300 locations throughout the New York metropolitan area,including six inpatient facilities:Tisch Hospital,Kimmel Pavilion,NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital,Hassenfeld Children's Hospital,NYU Langone Hospital –Brooklyn and NYU Langone Hospital –Long Island. It is also home to Rusk Rehabilitation. NYU Langone Health is one of the largest healthcare systems in the Northeast,with more than 46,000 employees.
Orrin Devinsky is an American neurologist who is the Director of the NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center and the Saint Barnabas Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery (INN). He is also a professor of Neurology,Neurosurgery,and Psychiatry at NYU Langone School of Medicine. Devinsky specializes in epilepsy and behavioral neurology.
David Charles is an American neurologist,professor and vice-chair of neurology,and the medical director of Telehealth at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
James O. McNamara is an American neurologist and neuroscientist,known for his research of epileptogenesis,the process underlying development and progression of epilepsy. He is the Duke School of Medicine Professor of Neuroscience in the Departments of Neurobiology,Neurology,and Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University. He served as chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Duke from 2002 to 2011
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John Mark Freeman was an American pediatric neurologist specializing in epilepsy. He is known for bringing two long-abandoned treatments for pediatric epilepsy back into popular use. One,the ketogenic diet,is a carefully managed,low-carbohydrate high-fat diet plan that reduces the incidence of seizures in children during and after its use,and the other,the hemispherectomy,is a drastic surgical procedure in which part or all of one highly seizure-prone hemisphere of the brain is removed to alleviate severe epilepsy.
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Ayana Jordan is an American addiction psychiatrist and immunopathologist. She researches treatments for substance use disorders in marginalized communities. She is the Barbara Wilson Associate Professor of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health and was a professor at Yale School of Medicine. She served as an attending psychiatrist in the Yale University Department of Psychiatry. She was elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association in 2018. She attended Hampton University and received her MD and PhD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.