Page 16 - 2021 Winter CMTA Report

Three New CMTA Centers of Excellence

The CMTA designated three
new Centers of Excellence
in 2020, bringing the
international total to 40.
Adding to the CMTA’s wide
network of clinical support
ensures that as many people
as possible have access to
expert advice and care. Like
all of the centers, they are led
by professionals with deep
experience in treating CMT.

NEW JERSEY DR. FLORIAN THOMAS, at the Hackensack University
Medical Center in New Jersey, has cared for people with CMT and engaged in
CMT research for over 30 years. He has long been active with CMT advocacy
groups, and in 1998 co-founded the CMTA peer support group in St. Louis,
Missouri. He is fellowship-trained in neuromuscular research and board-certified
in neurology and neural repair and rehabilitation. He is the chair of the Neuro -
science Institute and the Department of Neurology at Hackensack Meridian
School of Medicine. He has published on several CMT subtypes, identified, with
an international team of collaborators, a novel CMT disease gene and spearheaded two of the first
clinical drug trials for CMT in the United States. Additional treatment studies are being initiated.
For appointments, call 551-996-1324 or email Annerys.Santos@HMHN.org.

C O L O R A D O DR. MICHELE YANG is a pediatric neurologist at Children’s
Hospital Colorado with certification in neuromuscular disorders and
electrophysiology. She trained at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in
pediatrics and child neurology, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in
electromyography and at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in pediatric
neuromuscular medicine.

For appointments, call 720-777-3907 or email Allison.ballard@childrenscolorado.org.

C A L I F O R N I A DR. ALEXANDER FAY, at the University of California San
Francisco (UCSF), is a pediatric neurologist with a focus on neuromuscular
disorders. He obtained his PhD in biophysics and his MD from UCSF and
completed his child neurology residency and neuromuscular fellowship at
Washington University in St. Louis. Since joining the faculty at UCSF, he has
devoted his time to identifying a novel form of CMT in a large family from South
America, developing CRISPR-based therapeutics for CMT2, serving as an
investigator on several clinical trials for childhood neuromuscular diseases and expanding his
neuromuscular practice to include UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in both San Francisco and
Oakland. He is a native of the Bay Area and is proud to be serving this community.
For appointments, call 415-353-7596 or email Audrey.glancy@ucsf.edu.

16 THE CMTA REPORT WINTER 2021