Richard Finkel, MD: Goals of St. Jude Center for Experimental Neurotherapeutics

“[The goal is] to look at new diseases that are not being targeted for treatment. There are hundreds of these pediatric conditions that are begging for evaluation of treatment.”

St. Jude Research Hospital recently entered a new realm of neurology subspecialty care with the opening of its Center for Experimental Neurotherapeutics. Its newly appointed director, Richard Finkel, MD, claims that the focus will be on diseases that do not, as of right now, have a defined treatment.

Finkel understands that with this new position comes new responsibility and a culmination of long-term goals not only for the new center, but for himself as well. Culminating a list and recruiting a group of highly trained experts in the field will be 1 of the first tasks Finkel must complete in order to bolster the staff.

In an interview with NeurologyLive, Finkel gives an overview at how the new Center for Experimental Neurotherapeutics will operate, the long-term goals, and the challenges he’s expecting to face ahead of him as the new director.