The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) welcomes five new members to its National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council. The Council serves as the principal advisory body to the NINDS, a component of the National Institutes of Health and the nation's primary supporter of basic, translational, and clinical research on the brain and nervous system.

The Council meets three times each year to review applications from scientists seeking financial support for biomedical research and research training on disorders of the brain and nervous system. Its members, who are appointed to four-year terms, also advise the NINDS on research program planning and priorities. The 18-member council is composed of physicians, scientists, and representatives of the public.

NINDS Director Story Landis, Ph.D., introduced the new members at the Council's September 20, 2007 meeting. The new members are:
Luis F. Parada, Ph.D.., is chair of the Department of Developmental Biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He also directs the University's Kent Waldrep Center for Basic Research on Nerve Growth and Regeneration. Dr. Parada's research interests include charting regulatory pathways involved in nervous system development, studying nerve cell signaling disorders that lead to the development of tumors in the brain and peripheral nervous system, and identifying molecules in myelin that inhibit nerve cell regeneration following injury. He is currently on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Pew Scholars Foundation and is a past member of the Retts Syndrome Research Foundation Board. His many honors include receiving the prestigious Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the NIH. Dr. Parada is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Institute of Medicine.

Timothy A. Pedley, M.D., is the Henry and Lucy Moses Professor of Neurology and chair of the Department of Neurology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is also neurologist-in-chief at The New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center. His research interests include clinical neurophysiology and electroencephalography, pathophysiology of epilepsy, and family studies of epilepsy. Dr. Pedley is president of the American Neurological Association, former president of the American Epilepsy Society and the Epilepsy Foundation of America, and past chair of the American Board of Clinical Physiology. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Neurology, the New York Academy of Medicine, and a Fellow of the AAAS. He sits on the editorial boards of several scientific and professional journals.

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