Dr. Shefner is Professor and Chair of Neurology at Upstate Medical University, and Director of the Clinical Neurophysiology Laboratory and the MDA/ALS Research and Treatment Center at University Hospital, in Syracuse, New York. He is also Associate Vice President for Clinical and Translational Research at SUNY Upstate. He is trained in neurology and clinical neurophysiology, and has devoted his clinical and research efforts to ALS. He received a PhD in experimental psychology from the University of Illinois in 1976, and was a NRSA Research Fellow from 1976 to 1979. After receiving his MD from Northwestern University, he trained in Neurology at the Harvard Longwood Neurological Training Program. He then completed a fellowship in clinical neurophysiology and neuromuscular disease with the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. While at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dr. Shefner directed the ALS Clinic and participated in multiple industry sponsored ALS clinical trials. With Dr. Cudkowicz, he cofounded NEALS in 1996. Since moving to Syracuse, he established the multidisciplinary ALS clinic there, and held many leadership positions in both industry- and investigator-initiated clinical trials. He also established the NEALS Outcomes and Clinical Monitoring Cores at Upstate Medical University, which he continues to lead.

Dr. Shefner has also been active in the development of a physiological outcome measure in trials of ALS. This outcome measure, called Motor Unit Number Estimation (MUNE) has been used in studies of both animals and patients with ALS.

Clinical Sites

State University of New York (SUNY Upstate)

Jeremy Shefner, MD, PhD, Principal Investigator (Upstate)