Stephen George Waxman (born 1945) is an American neurologist and neuroscientist. He served as Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Yale School of Medicine, and Neurologist-in-Chief at Yale-New Haven Hospital from 1986 until 2009. As of 2018, he is the Bridget Flaherty Professor of Neurology, Neurobiology, and Pharmacology at Yale University. He founded the Yale University Neuroscience & Regeneration Research Center in 1988 and is its Director. He previously held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School, MIT, and Stanford Medical School. He is also visiting professor at University College London. He is the editor-in-chief of The Neuroscientist and Neuroscience Letters.
Education
Waxman received his BA from Harvard University (1967), and his PhD (1970) and MD (1972) degrees from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. After finishing medical and graduate school, Waxman trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, a Clinical Fellow at Harvard Medical School, and a Resident at Boston City Hospital until 1975.
Research
Waxman has built on the "molecular revolution" to study, at a fundamental level, how neurons and glial cells work within the normal nervous system, and why they do not work properly in various diseased states. His laboratory studies isolated nerve cells in culture, and rodents with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a model of multiple sclerosis. These studies have, for example, provided a basis for a clinical trial of the efficacy of phenytoin, a sodium channel blocker in patients with optic neuritis.
Waxman's studies have combined molecular genetics, molecular biology, and biophysics to show how specific ion channels relate to human pain. He has been a member of an international coalition that showed that sodium channel mutations can be a cause of peripheral neuropathy. He has used atomic-level modeling to study pharmacogenomics, at first in laboratory studies, and then in early studies on genomically guided approaches to the treatment of pain. A novel class of medications that target sodium channels in the peripheral nervous system, and that do not have potential for addiction, is based in part on his work and is currently being assessed in early-stage clinical trials.
Awards and distinctions
Waxman has been the recipient of many distinctions:
1973 - Trygve Tuve Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Biomedical Sciences, NIH 1975 - Research Career Development Award, NINCDS 1987 - Established Investigator, National Multiple Sclerosis Society 1991 - Distinguished Alumnus Award, Albert Einstein College of Medicine 1991 - Fellow, Royal Society of Medicine 1993 - Member, Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives 1994 - Listed in The Best Doctors in America. 1995 - The Adrian Lecture (Xth International Congress of Clinical Neurophysiology) 1996 - Elected to Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences 1999 - Landmark Award for Biomedical Research 1999 - Wartenberg Award, American Academy of Neurology 1999 - Honorary Senior Fellow, Institute of Neurology, London 2000 - Dystel Prize for Research on Multiple Sclerosis, American Academy of Neurology/NMSS 2004 - Reingold Award, National Multiple Sclerosis Society 2005 - Honorary Member, Association of British Neurologists 2009 - W.I. McDonald Award, British Multiple Sclerosis Society 2009 - William S Middleton Award (highest scientific honor of the Department of Veterans Affairs, presented at Ceremonies at the U.S. Capitol). 2009 - Annual Review Prize, The Physiological Society (Premier Award of the Society; previous awardees include A.F. Huxley, A.L. Hodgkin) 2013 - Paul B. Magnuson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 2013 - American Neurological Assoc/Annals of Neurology Prize for Distinguished Contribution to Clinical Neuroscience 2014 - Soriano Award, American Neurological Association 2018 - Julius Axelrod Prize, Society for Neuroscience