Clinical Fellowship Program
Combined Harvard Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders Fellowship
Fellows rotate through the Mass General Brigham Pediatric MS Center at Massachusetts General Hospital for one to two years (with Tanuja Chitnis, MD), with additional rotations at Children’s Hospital Boston (with Mark Gorman, MD) and the adult Mass General Brigham MS Center (with Tanuja Chitnis, MD).
Fellows will learn about pediatric MS, neuromyelitis (NMO), and related demyelinating disorders (DD) and will build a knowledge base regarding MS, NMO, and DD clinical care. Through exposure to adult patients with MS, they will understand the long-term consequences of MS, including pediatric-onset MS. In addition, fellows will be exposed to cases of autoimmune encephalopathy, opsoclonus-myoclonus, and other neuroimmunology disorders.
Fellows will participate in direct supervised MS patient care and multidisciplinary care including a child psychiatrist, neuropsychologist, family counselor, and nurse. Fellows will also participate in a research project tailored to their interests, through resources available within the program including a clinical database, ongoing neuroimaging and neuroimmunology studies, clinical trials, and access to a national pediatric demyelinating diseases database.
This fellowship is GME accredited by Mass General Brigham.
Fellowship information
Medical degree and completion of a U.S. or Canadian residency program in pediatric neurology or neurology.
Tanuja Chitnis, MD and Mark Gorman, MD
We are currently accepting applications for start date of July 2024 to June 2025. Applications are due by December 1, 2022.
Please prepare your CV, a cover letter describing your interests and goals, along with two letters of recommendation (to be sent directly from the referee).
For application submission and general inquiries, please email: MSFellowship@partners.org. Be sure to note ‘Pediatric Clinical Fellowship’ in the subject line.
Mark P. Gorman, MD, 2007-2009
Current position: Director, Pediatric Neuroimmunology Clinic, Children Hospital, Boston
Publications:
- Gorman MP, Healy BC, Polgar-Turcsanyi M, Chitnis T. Increased relapse rate in pediatric-onset compared with adult-onset multiple sclerosis. Arch Neurol.2009 Jan;66(1):54-9.
- Gorman MP, Tillema JM, Berger AM, Guttmann CR, Chitnis T. Daclizumab use in patients with pediatric multiple sclerosis. Archives of Neurology. 2012 Jan;69(1):78-81. PMCID: PMC22232346
Leslie Benson, MD, 2011-2013
Current position: Staff neurologist, Pediatric Neuroimmunology Clinic, Children Hospital, Boston
Publications:
Benson LA, Healy BC, Gorman MP, Baruch NF, Ghoulipour T, Musallam A, Chitnis T. Elevated relapse rates in pediatric compared to adult MS persist for at least 6 years. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2013 June. In press.
Grace Gombolay, MD, 2017-2018
Current position: Director, Pediatric MS and Neuroimmunology Clinic, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
Publications:
- Gorman MP; Gombolay GY; Mehan WA; Thibert RL, Case 27-2018: A 3-Year-Old Boy with Seizures., N Engl J Med, 2018. 379: p. 870 – 878.
- Gombolay GY; Chitnis T, Pediatric Neuromyelitis Optica Spectrum Disorders., Curr Treat Options Neurol, 2018. 20: p. 19.
- Kim G; Chitnis T, Child Neurology: Primary angiitis of the CNS., Neurology, 2017. 89: p. e268 – e271.
Jonathan Santoro, MD, 2018-2019
Current position: Medical Director and Attending Physician, Neuroimmunology and Demyelinating Disorders; Assistant Professor of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine of USC
Publications:
- Santoro JD, Filippakis A, Chitnis T, Ketamine use in refractory status epilepticus associated with anti-NMDA receptor antibody encephalitis., Epilepsy Behav Rep. 2019 Jun 23;12:100326. doi: 10.1016/j.ebr.2019.100326. eCollection 2019.
- Santoro JD, Chitnis T, Diagnostic Considerations in Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis and the Interface with MOG Antibody., Neuropediatrics. 2019 Oct;50(5):273-279. doi: 10.1055/s-0039-1693152. Epub 2019 Jul 24.
- Santoro JD, Chitnis T, Stroke-like Episodes in a Patient With Chronic Gait Abnormalities., JAMA Neurol. 2019 May 1;76(5):621-622. doi: 10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.0057.
Clinical Research Fellowship Program
Clinical research fellows are offered a rich research environment with exposure to ongoing clinical research in diagnosis, diseases course, response to treatment, clinical trials, neuroimmunology, and neuroimaging in pediatric MS, NMO, and related demyelinating diseases. The research project depends on current study needs and may be tailored to the fellow’s interests and skills. Access to a comprehensive local and national database on pediatric demyelinating diseases may be utilized. Observation of clinical care may be incorporated into this fellowship.
External sources of funding are an asset.
Fellowship information
MD or PhD. Prior experience in neuroimmunology, immunology, and neuroscience research are assets.
Tanuja Chitnis, MD
We are currently accepting applications on a rolling basis starting January 1, 2022.
Please prepare your CV, a cover letter describing your interests and goals, along with two letters of recommendation (to be sent directly from the referee).
For application submission and general inquiries, please email: MSFellowship@partners.org. Be sure to note ‘Pediatric Research Fellowship’ in the subject line.
Cristina Fernandez-Carbonell, MD, 2012-2013
Current position: Child Neurology Fellow, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, NY
Fellowship Project: Clinical and MRI phenotype of myelin-antibody positive children with demyelinating disease.
Publications:
- Inflammatory demyelinating disorders in children: An update. Minerva Pediatrica 2013 Jun;65(3):307-23.
- Fernandez-Carbonell C, Benson L, Rintell D, Prince J, Chitnis T. Functional Relapses in Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis. J Child Neurol. 2014 Jul;29(7):943-6. PMID: 24065582.
- Fernandez-Carbonell C, Vargas-Lowy D, Musallam A, Healy B, McLaughlin K, Wucherpfennig KW, Chitnis T. Clinical and MRI phenotype of children with MOGantibodies. Mult Scler. 2016 Feb;22(2):174-84. PMID: 26041801.
David Vargas-Lowy, MD, 2008-2012
Current position: Child Neurology Fellow, Tufts University, Boston, MA
Fellowship Project: T cell responses to myelin peptides in children with MS
Publications:
- Vargas-Lowy D, Kivisaak P, Gandhi R, Radassi K, Gorman MP, Khoury SJ, Chitnis T. Increased Th17 response to myelin peptides in pediatric multiple sclerosis. Clin Immunol. 2013 Mar;146(3):176-84. PMCID: PMC23352968
- Vargas-Lowy D., Chitnis T. Pathogenesis of Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis (2012) (review). In Journal of Child Neurology. In press.
Mellekate Vishwas, MD, 2008-2009
Current position: Pediatric Neurology resident, Wake Forest, Salem, NC
Fellowship project: Diffusion tensor imaging in pediatric MS, clinically isolated syndromes and ADEM
Publications:
- Vishwas MS, Chitnis T, Pienaar R, Healy BC, Grant PE. Tract-based analysis of callosal, projection, and association pathways in pediatric patients with multiple sclerosis: a preliminary study. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2010 Jan;31(1):121-128.
- Vishwas MS, Healy BC, Pienaar R, Gorman M, Grant PE, Chitnis T. Diffusion Tensor Analysis of Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis and Clinically Isolated Syndromes. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2012 Aug 2.