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Our Impact

Formed in the 1980s as part of UT Southwestern’s Department of Neurology, the Division maintained a successful academic and training program through the 1990s. The Division has been part of the Department of Pediatrics since 2006, and Dr. Minassian became the Division Chief in 2016.

Under Dr. Minassian’s direction, the Division provides comprehensive diagnosis and management for pediatric patients at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, from newborn to late adolescence, who have disorders of the brain, spinal cord, nerves, or muscles. Faculty members specialize in providing neurological care, consultations, and second opinions for children in response to almost every neurological disorder.

Division faculty conduct a variety of neurologic bench/basic research and clinical studies, including clinical trials.

2024 Impact

  • By the Numbers

    By the Numbers

    Faculty and Staff icon

    Faculty

    • 40+ faculty
    Fellowships icon

    Clinical

    • 5 clinical sites
    • 27,553 outpatient encounters
    • 9,047 inpatient encounters
    Doctors in Training icon

    Education

    • 50+ trainees (residents, fellows, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows)
    Clinical Studies Icon

    Research

    • 30 active awards
    • 2 Federal awards
    • $6,325,944 total funding from grants (FY25)
    • 32 active clinical trials
    • $3,290,791 revenue from clinical trials (FY25)
    • 16 lab and data studies
    • 86 publications
    • 6,610 citations
  • Honors and Awards

    Honors and Awards

    Rana R. Said, M.D., F.A.A.N. – AB Baker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Neurology Education (April 2025)

  • Top Peer-Reviewed Publications and Book Chapters

    Top Peer-Reviewed Publications and Book Chapters

    Williams MI, Donohue KJ, Sanz P, Messahel S, Serratosa JM, Duran J, Michelucci R, Muccioli L, Delgado-Escueta A, Nguyen VV, Minassian BA, Gentry MS. The 9th annual Lafora science symposium: a rare epilepsy community makes progress towards clinical readiness. Epilepsy Behav. 2025 Aug 27;171:110654. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2025.110654. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40876194.

    Chen X, Dong T, Hu Y, De Pace R, Mattera R, Eberhardt K, Ziegler M, Pirovolakis T, Sahin M, Bonifacino JS, Ebrahimi-Fakhari D, Gray SJ. Intrathecal AAV9/AP4M1 gene therapy for hereditary spastic paraplegia 50 shows safety and efficacy in preclinical studies. J Clin Invest. 2023 May 15;133(10):e164575. doi: 10.1172/JCI164575. PMID: 36951961 Free PMC article.

    Nitschke S, Montalbano AP, Whiting ME, Smith BH, Mukherjee-Roy N, Marchioni CR, Sullivan MA, Zhao X, Wang P, Mount H, Verma M, Minassian BA, Nitschke F. Glycogen synthase GYS1 overactivation contributes to glycogen insolubility and malto-oligoglucan-associated neurodegenerative disease. EMBO J. 2025 Mar;44(5):1379-1413. doi: 10.1038/s44318-024-00339-3. Epub 2025 Jan 13. PMID: 39806098; PMCID: PMC11876434.

    Mitra S, Chen B, Shelton JM, Nitschke S, Wu J, Covington L, Dear M, Lynn T, Verma M, Nitschke F, Fuseya Y, Iwai K, Evers BM, Minassian BA. Myofiber-type-dependent 'boulder' or 'multitudinous pebble' formations across distinct amylopectinoses. Acta Neuropathol. 2024 Feb 27;147(1):46. doi: 10.1007/s00401-024-02698-x. PubMed PMID: 38411740.

    Sadiq A, Funk AT, Waugh JL. The striatal compartments, striosome and matrix, are embedded in largely distinct resting-state functional networks. Front Neural Circuits. 2025 May 16;19:1514937. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2025.1514937. PMID: 40453419; PMCID: PMC12122536.

    Nguyen L, Wang CX, Hernandez R, Greenberg BM. (2024) Clinical analysis of myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease in a diverse cohort of children: A single-center observational study. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2024 Apr;84:105497. doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2024.105497. Epub 2024 Feb 11. PMID: 38364768.

    Crawford TO, Servais L, Mercuri E, Kölbel H, Kuntz N, Finkel RS, Krueger J, Batley K, Dunaway Young S, Marantz JL, Song G, Yao B, Zhao G, Rossello J, Tirucherai GS, Mazzone ES, Butterfield RJ, Gomez Garcia de la Banda M, Seferian AM, Sansone VA, De Waele L, van der Pol WL, Cances C, Pechmann A, Darras BT, for the SAPPHIRE Study Group. Efficacy and safety of apitegromab in nonambulatory type 2 or 3 spinal muscular atrophy (SAPPHIRE): a phase 3, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Accepted for publication in The Lancet Neurology. June 2025; 24: 727–39. 

    Guo W, Rioux M, Shaffo F, Hu Y, Yu Z, Xing C, Gray SJ. AAV9/SLC6A1 gene therapy rescues abnormal EEG patterns and cognitive behavioral deficiencies in Slc6a1-/- mice. (2025) J Clin Invest. 135(3):e182235. PMID: 39589822.

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