Professor
Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Dr. Festoff first did a molecular neurobiology fellowship with Stanley Appel at Duke University following his internship there. He did his residency training in Neurology at the University of Miami, Jackson Memorial Hospital. He then was first a Clinical Associate and then Assistant Investigator, Medical Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. He joined the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1976 where he was the first Chief, Neurology Service, at the Kansas City VA Medical Center. Since arriving he has been the Director of the Neurobiology Research Lab and recently was made Head of the Neuroscience Research Division there.
Dr. Festoff’s clinical interests are in neuromuscular disorders, specifically amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He has done extensive research in neurobiology focusing on neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s Disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and in animal models of acute spinal cord injury. He is one of the pioneers in studies of serine proteases, especially thrombin, and their inhibitors (serpins) in the nervous system. His current projects include those to reverse neuronal death in aging, neurodegenerative diseases and in trauma, understanding the mechanisms underlying programmed cell death after spinal cord injury, formation of inclusion bodies in Parkinson’s Disease and other related disorders, as well as mechanisms of spheroid and conglomerate formation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. In addition to being named Professor of Neurology in 1980, he is also Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics at KUMC.
Dr. Festoff is stationed at the Kansas City VA Medical Center where he continues his activities in research and treatment.
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