The Foundation's Scientific/Medical Advisory Committee is comprised of respected researchers and practitioners knowledgeable about Canavan disease and similar disorders. To reach members of the committee, simply click on their names as they appear throughout the site and an e-mail window will appear

Scientific/Medical Advisory Committee

Darryl C. De Vivo, M.D. bio »
dcd1@columbia.edu
Chairman
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center

Verne S. Caviness, Jr., M.D., Ph.D. bio »
caviness@helix.mgh.harvard.edu
Harvard Medical School and
Massachusetts General Hospital

Salvatore DiMauro, M.D. bio »
sd12@columbia.edu
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center

Edwin Kolodny, M.D. bio »
edwin.kolodny@med.nyu.edu
New York University Medical Center

Isabelle Rapin, M.D. bio »
rapin@aecom.yu.edu
Albert Einstein College of Medicine

David Wenger, Ph.D. bio »
david.wenger@mail.tju.edu
Jefferson Medical College

From the outset of our quest for answers about Canavan disease, our medical advisory board has provided professional advice and encouragement for all our efforts. They have always been thoughtful, caring and compassionate, even during discouraging times. Their guidance has been invaluable. The advisory panel is a vital part of our Foundation, and we are grateful for the commitment, time and expertise the members so graciously provide.

DARRYL C. DE VIVO, M.D., (Committee Chair), is the Sidney Carter Professor of Neurology, Professor of Pediatrics, and Director Emeritus (1979-2000) of the Pediatric Neurology Service at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. He also is the Associate Chairman for Pediatric Neurosciences and Developmental Neurobiology, and the Founding Director of the Colleen Giblin Research Laboratories for Pediatric Neurology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. Dr.De Vivo did his undergraduate work at Amherst College, received his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and completed postgraduate training in medicine, pediatrics, and neurology at the Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals and the Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as at the National Institutes of Health where he was a Clinical Associate in Neurology. Dr. De Vivo and his research team are committed to the study of metabolic diseases that adversely affect the developing brain in infants and young children, with a strong focus on mitochondrial disorders and metabolic conditions that affect delivery of glucose to the brain. Dr. De Vivo is Director for Neurology, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Secretary of the American Academy of Neurology, and past President of the Child Neurology Society. He has published nearly 300 original articles and reviews, lectures extensively in the U.S. and abroad, serves on several editorial boards and advisory committees and is ongoing Associate Editor for Rudolph’s Textbook of Pediatrics. Dr. De Vivo’s Chairmanship of the Canavan Foundation’s Scientific/Medical Committee is further evidence of his dedication to helping children with life-threatening and potentially devastating neurodegenerative diseases.
dcd1@columbia.edu

VERNE S. CAVINESS, JR., M.D., Ph.D., is the Joseph and Rose Kennedy Professor of Child Neurology and Mental Retardation at the Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Child Neurology in the Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University, M.D. from Harvard Medical School and Ph.D. from Oxford University. The primary focus of Dr. Caviness’ research has been on the mechanisms of brain development, including a series of investigations on the formation of brain cells and on specific genetic mutations in the cerebral cortical development of mice. He has studied patterns of brain growth and genetic mutations disrupting this growth in otherwise normal children who have a variety of learning and behavioral disabilities. These career-long clinical research efforts, especially the exploration of genetic mutations that disrupt normal growth, make Dr. Caviness’ participation particularly significant to the work of the Canavan Foundation.
caviness@helix.mgh.harvard.edu

SALVATORE DI MAURO, M.D., is Lucy G. Moses Professor of Neurology and Director of the H. Houston Merritt Clinical Research Center for Muscular Dystrophy and Related Diseases at Columbia University. A native of Italy, Dr. DiMauro went to medical school and completed a residency in neurology at the University of Padua. Subsequently Dr. DiMauro pursued clinical research in the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Combining his interest in mitochondrial disease with the study of bioenergetics and molecular genetics, Dr. DiMauro defined the molecular bases of several genetic deficiencies. He was the first to document a biochemical defect in fatty acid metabolism (carnitine palmitoyltransferase [CPT] deficiency). His research group defined many mitochondrial DNA mutations, leading to the discovery of over 100 more mutations that are causes for a variety of diseases. Today, he directs a multidisciplinary group of "mitochondriacs" that is considered one of the best in the world. Dr. DiMauro has published well over 300 original articles, lectures all over the world, and is the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2000 Robert Guthrie Award from the American Association on Mental Retardation.
sd12@columbia.edu

EDWIN H. KOLODNY, M.D., is the Bernard A. and Charlotte Marden Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at New York University School of Medicine in New York City. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College and his M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine. A specialist in inherited and degenerative diseases of the nervous system, Dr. Kolodny has made many contributions to the field of Jewish genetic diseases. Among his major research interests are the biochemical genetics, diagnosis, prevention and epidemiology of the lysosomal storage diseases, and linkage analysis, gene isolation and gene therapy for degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Dr. Kolodny has served on the editorial board of Annals of Neurology, the advisory board of Developmental Brain Dysfunction, and is currently ad hoc reviewer for Neurology, Annals of Neurology, Journal of Inherited Metabolic Diseases, New England Journal of Medicine, Brain and others. He has published more than 140 original reports and 65 reviews and book chapters and lectures extensively, nationally and internationally. Among his many professional society affiliations, Dr. Kolodny served as Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center and is currently a member of the Expert Committee, Project Hope/Genzyme Corporation’s Gaucher Initiative.
edwin.kolodny@med.nyu.edu

ISABELLE RAPIN, M.D., is Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics (Neurology) and Attending Neurologist and Child Neurologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, and its affiliated hospitals. After graduating from medical school in Lausanne, Switzerland, Dr. Rapin completed a pediatric internship at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center and a neurology residency and pediatric neurology fellowship at the Neurological Institute of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, New York City. At Einstein, she founded and served as Director of the Child Neurology Service and Fellowship Training Program. Her research interests center on neurogenetic disorders and those of higher cerebral function in children, particularly communication disorders and autism. As a clinician, Dr Rapin has cared for many children with genetic metabolic disorders, among them some two dozen children with Canavan disease.
rapin@aecom.yu.edu

DAVID A. WENGER, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Neurology and Director of the Lysosomal Diseases Testing Laboratory at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. After obtaining his Ph.D. in biochemistry, he did two postdoctoral fellowships. One was at The Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and one at the University of California-San Diego where he worked with Dr. John S. O’Brien who found the enzymatic defect that causes Tay-Sachs disease. After moving to the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Dr. Wenger did research on a number of genetic diseases, including Gaucher disease (one of the first genetic disorders for which successful enzyme therapy is available), Niemann-Pick disease and Krabbe disease. He started a laboratory that is devoted to the study of lysosomal enzymes that cause neurodegenerative diseases. Reflecting his increased commitment to finding effective treatment for genetic neurological diseases, currently Dr. Wenger combines his diagnostic services for lysosomal disorders with research on Krabbe disease in the Department of Neurology at Jefferson Medical College. Current research is aimed at finding new ways to treat Krabbe disease initially using the available animal models.
david.wenger@mail.tju.edu