UT Southwestern brain institute hires noted Parkinson's disease researcher

February 27, 2019

A neurologist known for his research into Parkinson's disease will become the inaugural director of the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Dr. William T. Dauer, who joins UTSW on July  1, now heads the Morris K. Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease Research at the University of Michigan. He also directs the college's Movement Disorders Group and is a professor of neurology and cell and developmental biology.

William T. Dauer  

(UT Southwestern)

UTSW's brain institute was established in 2015 with a $36 million donation from the O'Donnell Foundation. Dallas businessman and investor Peter O'Donnell Jr. created the foundation in 1957 with his wife, Edith. The couple has given gifts totaling several hundred million dollars to the University of Texas and related institutions.

W.P. Andrew Lee, dean of the UT Southwestern Medical School and executive vice president for academic affairs, praised Dauer's experience as a neurologist and scientist and said he'll be able to accelerate "fundamental discoveries into cutting-edge treatments for a broad spectrum of brain disorders."

For nearly two decades, Dauer's research has focused on dystonia, a movement disorder marked by disabling and involuntary muscle contractions, and Parkinson's disease. Studies taking place under his direction at the Udall Center are being used to pioneer novel therapies.

In 2015, he and another researcher won a grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation to study drug treatments to reduce falls by people with Parkinson's disease. His research also has earned awards from the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation and Columbia University.

"The personal and societal burden of neurological and psychiatric disease is great and increasing," said Dauer, a California native who established a lab at Columbia University in 2001 after completing his residency in neurology. He joined the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School in 2009.

The O'Donnell Brain Institute boasts more than 500 neurosurgeons, neurologists, psychiatrists, radiologists and specialists in rehabilitative medicine. By bringing multiple specialties together, its goal is to increase understanding of the brain and improve how neurological and psychiatric disorders are diagnosed and treated.

UT Southwestern is building a 12-story addition to its William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital as the brain institute's new home. It's scheduled for completion next year. It'll also break ground this spring on a nine-story tower to expand the institute's research programs.

https://www.dallasnews.com/business/health-care/2019/02/26/ut-southwestern-brain-institute-hires-noted-parkinsons-disease-researcher