Merit Cudkowicz, MD, MSc is the Chief of the MGH Neurology Service and the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Cudkowicz directs the Massachusetts General Hospital ALS Clinic and the Massachusetts General Hospital Neurological Clinical Research Institute. She is one of the founders and co-directors of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of over 100 clinical sites in the United States and Canada dedicated to performing collaborative academic led clinical trials in ALS.

Dr. Cudkowicz received the American Academy of Neurology 2009 Sheila Essay ALS award. As Prinicipal Investigator of the Clinical Coordination Center for the NINDS NeuroNEXT Neurology clinical trial network, she is leading 25 sites that conduct high impact phase II trials in Neurology. This network established an academic Central IRB let by MGH and a system for efficient study start-up.

She is actively mentoring young neurologists in clinical investigation in ALS and related neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Cudkowicz is on the medical advisory board for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Massachusetts Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association.

Dr. Cudkowicz’s research and clinical activities are dedicated to the study and treatment of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).