Featured Clinical Researchers

David L. Brody, M.D., Ph.D., is the director of the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine (CNRM) and a professor of Neurology within the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. He is a board-certified neurologist with both a research and a clinical specialization in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and neurodegenerative diseases. His research focuses on accelerating better outcomes for U.S. military TBI patients.

Prior to his current positions, Dr. Brody was the Norman J. Stupp Professor of Neurology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Brody was also the Washington University site director for the National Football League's Neurological Care Foundation.

His achievements have been recognized with several awards, including a Career Development Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and a Burroughs Wellcome Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Brody is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neurotrauma and Acta Neuropathologica and a permanent member of the National Institute of Health Acute Neural Injury and Epilepsy study section.

Dr. Brody earned a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He completed his neurology residency at Washington University.

“The CNRM provides a unique opportunity to help those who have sacrificed so much for our country.”

Dr. Chan is the Chief of Rehabilitation Medicine Department at the Clinical Center at National Institutes of Health (NIH), Co-Director of the Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine (CNRM), and the Co-Director of the Rehabilitation and Evaluation Program. He received his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College, with a major in political science. He graduated from the UCLA School of Medicine in 1990. Chan then completed postgraduate training in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Washington. During his training he also obtained a Master of Science degree in rehabilitation science. Subsequently, he completed a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Fellowship, earned a master of public health degree at the University of Washington School of Public Health and was a Congressional Fellow for the representative, Honorable Jim McDermott (D-WA). From 1994 to 2006, Dr. Chan was on the faculty of the University of Washington's Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. He is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and in electrodiagnostic medicine.

"I really enjoy applying innovative techniques and technologies to improve the care we provide to service members, such as using virtual reality and smart phone applications to improve the treatment of PTSD."

Dr. Roy is Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Military Internal Medicine at Uniformed Services University (USUHS) and Principal Investigator of Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine (CNRM) Recruitment Core. He is a graduate of Brown University and Brown University School of Medicine, completed medicine residency and a general medicine fellowship at WRNMMC, and retired as a colonel after 24 years in the Army. Dr. Roy is the principal investigator on multiple studies on war-related health, often using cutting edge technologies such as fMRI and virtual reality.

Dr. Roy was the first to document significant improvement in brain function after exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress (PTS), using fMRI to show that all key areas of the brain were better after treatment. He also has identified imaging findings and genetic markers that might help to predict who is at high risk for having difficulties after deployment. His current studies include one using smart phone-based applications to decrease symptoms after deployment, terrorism, and natural disasters, and others comparing virtual reality and imaginal exposure therapy for PTSD, as well as whether the antibiotic d-cycloserine can add value to either of these treatments.

The CNRM provides a way to bring together researchers in a collaborative manner to maximize our ability to treat individuals impacted by brain injury. The focus of my research is to use novel biomarkers to identify patients most at risk, and to inform methods to mitigate these risks.

My interest in traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder began early in my career, when working as a nurse with veterans and civilians impacted by trauma. I questioned why some individuals recovered; whereas others went on to develop chronic symptoms and deficits. These observations lead me to pursue a PhD at Johns Hopkins University and then a post-doctoral fellowship at NIH following this. I am currently a Lasker Clinical Research Scholar and primary investigator at NIH, in the National Institute of Nursing Research. My research program is focused on improving our ability to mitigate the impact of brain injury on the lives of many individuals, including military personnel, athletes and patients with mild traumatic brain injury. Specifically my research program examines the mechanisms related to neurological and neurobehavrioral symptoms and deficits following brain injury, including sports concussion, mild and moderate traumatic brain injuries in clinical patients and military personnel with blast related injuries. We focus on biomarkers that relate to the risk for chronic symptoms and include genomic and proteomic methods of investigation. The ultimate goal is to identify pharmacological agents or other interventional methods to mitigate the neurological and  behavioral risks that head injuries pose.