Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc

Dr. Cudkowicz is currently at Massachusetts General Hospital as an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. She is trained in Neurology and Experimental Therapeutics with a focus in neurodegenerative disorders. She obtained a Masters degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health in June 1996. She was a fellow in the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Clinical Investigator Training Program from 1994-1996 where she received additional training in clinical trial design and statistics.

Dr. Cudkowicz co-directs the MGH Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) clinic and the Neurology Clinical Trials Unit (NCTU) at MGH and Partners HealthCare System. Dr. Cudkowicz is currently the PI of a NIH-funded (NS39988-01) multi-center trial of Topiramate in ALS coordinated and managed from the MGH Neurology Clinical Trials Unit (NCTU). Dr. Cudkowicz was also the site PI of an AMGEN sponsored clinical trial of intrathecal BDNF in ALS, and a Regeneron sponsored clinical trial of subcutaneous BDNF in ALS.

She is currently the principle investigator of an FDA funded (FD-R-001968) trial of Minocycline in Huntington’s disease. Dr. Cudkowicz is also involved in experimental therapeutic trials of novel agents in a mouse transgenic ALS model and has tested over 25 different therapies. Dr. Cudkowicz is on the board of scientific advisors for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Medtronics, Inc. and Massachusetts Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association Chapter.