Northwestern University, Davee Department of Neurology & Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Becky and Mike Wright presented Dr. Siddique with a $50,000 for use toward ALS Research at Northwestern University in Chicago.
To see the check presentation to Dr. Siddique, CLICK HERE.
www.neurology.northwestern.edu
The Department of Neurology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine comprises clinicians, scientists and clinician-scientists who care for patients, teach medical students, residents, and fellows, and conduct basic, clinical, and translational research. The mission of the department is to provide the highest-quality care and treatment for patients with neurological disorders. The department strives to advance new therapies, develop and implement educational programs, and conduct basic and clinical research to uncover the causes and cures of central and peripheral neurologic diseases.
Patient care and clinical teaching occur through the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation, the multi-specialty group practice staffed by full-time medical school faculty members, and in the affiliated hospitals of the McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University. Areas of expertise in neurology include general neurology; Alzheimer's disease and behavioral neurology; brain tumors (neuro-oncology); dizziness (otoneurology); epilepsy and seizure disorders; headache; movement disorders; multiple sclerosis; sleep disorders; muscular disorders, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's Disease; and visual disorders (neuro-ophthalmology).
The HelpAmerica Foundation is extremely proud to donate $50,000 to the Davee Department of Neurology to be used for ALS research. Dr. Teepu Siddique, from the Davee Department of Neurology, was not able to attend the awards ceremony on July 28. Instead, the check was presented to Dr. Siddique at AtHome America's Home Office on July 20, 2006.
Dr. Siddique is an internationally recognized researcher, and has received numerous awards for his work in neuromuscular disorders, especially ALS. He earned his medical degree in 1973 from the University of Karachi in Pakistan, and came to the United States in 1975 for an internship and a neurology residency at the New Jersey Medical School in Newark.
In 1981, as a junior faculty member at the University of Southern California medical school, Dr. Siddique decided to take on ALS. He joined his colleagues in testing possible treatments for the disease, but he soon became frustrated.
In 1984, he transferred to Duke University Medical School, where he and his team embarked on a search for the culprit. They discovered a gene mutation responsible for a rare, slowly progressive, early-onset form of the disease, called juvenile-inherited ALS. He expects to eventually find about a dozen genes that contribute in some way to ALS, and he hopes that subsequent discoveries will come more rapidly, given what he and his team already know.
Dr. Siddique's awards include the 1994 Hope through Caring Award from the Les Turner ALS Foundation; the Forbes Norris Award from the International Alliance of ALS/Motor Neuron Disease Associations in 1995; the Sheila Essey Award for ALS Research from the American Academy of Neurology and ALS Association, which he received as a co-recipient in 1996; the Teacher Investigator Development Award from the National Institute of Health in 1985; and the Third Annual Eleanor and Lou Gehrig Award from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1997. He is the author of more than 200 journal articles, abstracts and book chapters.
CLICK HERE to watch video clip of check presentation with Dr. Siddique.
