Jack M. Parent, MD is the William J. Herdman Professor of Neurology at Michigan Medicine. He received an A.B. with distinction in Human Biology at Stanford University and an M.D. from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed neurology residency and clinical fellowship training in epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology at the University of California, San Francisco. In 2000, he joined the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan. He currently serves as co-director of the Epilepsy Division and directs the Human Stem Cell and Gene Editing Core.
William J. Herdman Professor of Neurology - Michigan Medicine
Dr. Parent’s research focuses on understanding mechanisms of genetic and acquired epilepsies using stem cell and developmental neurobiology approaches. He has pioneered the study of adult neurogenesis in experimental temporal lobe epilepsy, and the use of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) models of genetic epilepsies. Working with Dr. Lori Isom, he has applied mouse and iPSC models to understand mechanisms of seizures and sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) in genetic ion channel epilepsies, and his laboratory has recently applied in vivo rodent gene editing techniques to advance understanding of non-ion channel genetic epilepsies.
Dr. Parent has received several awards for his research, including the Dreifuss-Penry Epilepsy Award from the American Academy of Neurology, the Grass Foundation Award in Neuroscience from the American Neurological Association and the Basic Science Research Award from the American Epilepsy Society. He was also inducted into the UM Medical School League of Research Excellence and named a Taubman Scholar. Dr. Parent recently served as Secretary of the American Neurological Association and on the Board of the American Epilepsy Society, and he founded and now co-chairs the scientific advisory board of the Dravet Syndrome Foundation. He is Chief Editor of Epilepsy Currents, and serves on the editorial boards of Brain Plasticity and the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
Albert Moore Barrett was born in Austin, Illinois, July 14, 1871. Barrett married Eliza Jane Bowman of Clinton, IA, July 8, 1905; they had one son (Edward Bowman). Albert Barrett received his BA (1893) and his MD (1895) from the State University of Iowa. After his medical school training, Barrett was pathologist at the Iowa State Asylum for the Insane at Independence (1895-1897), then assistant physician at the Massachusetts State Hospital for the Insane at Worcester where he worked under the supervision of Adolf Meyer (1897-1898). Between 1898 and 1906, with a break to pursue additional trainin
g, Barrett was the pathologist at the Danvers Insane Hospital in Massachusetts. Between 1900 and 1902, Barrett did post-graduate training in psychiatry in Germany with such luminaries as Emil Kraepelin. He was assistant in neuropathology in the Harvard University Medical School (1905-6), but in 1906 was appointed by the University of Michigan to be Associate Professor of Neuropathology, Director of the Psychopathic Ward, and Pathologist of the State Asylums. In 1907, Barrett became Professor of Psychiatry and Nervous Diseases in the Department of Medicine and Surgery. Between 1920 and his sudden death in 1936, Barrett was Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Barrett was involved in a variety of professional organizations, and was active on many national committees. Barrett was a member of the Medical Council of U.S. Veterans Bureau, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psycho-Pathological Association (president 1923-34), the Central Neuro-Psychiatric Association (president 1925), the American Neurological Association (president 1935-36), Nu Sigma Nu, Sigma Xi, and Alpha Omega. He was president of the APA at an important and formative time of its history (1921-22). At one time, Barrett was the chairman of the Committee on Statistics for the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. Barrett also helped to found the Michigan Society for Mental Hygiene in 1920, as well as the Detroit Society for Neurology and Psychiatry. In his lifetime, he published and presented over 35 papers (including works published in journals such as the American Journal of Medical Sciences, American Journal of Insanity, Journal of Mental and Nervous Diseases, Journal of the Michigan State Medical Society, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry).
