Speaker: Mathula Thangarajh, MD, PhD

Dr. Thangarajh, trained in child neurology, neuroimmunology, and neuromuscular medicine, is a
productive tenure-track Assistant Professor of Neurology at Virginia Commonwealth University. As a
physician-scientist, her translational research contributions span from molecular, mechanistic, and
biomarker studies through animal models, natural history studies, patient reported outcomes, to clinical
trials and equity in recruitment to research participation. She has made signal observations of
developmental and cognitive abnormalities in patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD),
revealing contributions of brain dystrophin and mechanisms of clinical heterogeneity. Her discipline
spanning and highly collaborative work has been supported by the National Center for Advancing
Translational Science, the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, and the
Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Dr. Thangarajh will share her work on cognitive domains affected in DMD with recent work that has
focused on connectivity and advanced diffusion measures with these patients.