Douglas Kerr, M.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor of Neurology, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology Director of the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center 600 N. Wolfe St. Baltimore, MD 21287 Phone: (410) 502-7099 Email: dkerr@jhmi.edu

Research Biography

Dr. Kerr is an Associate Professor of Neurology with a joint appointment in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology; and Cellular and Molecular Medicine. He specializes in transverse myelitis and multiple sclerosis. Dr. Kerr has established the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center which is the only such center in the entire world. The center utilizes the expertise of physicians and therapists from a variety of disciplines including neurology, neurosurgery, neuroradiology, rheumatology, rehabilitation medicine and urology for a comprehensive evaluation of transverse myelitis.

Dr. Kerr also has research interest in determining the cause(s) of transverse myelitis, evaluating novel markers to help prognosticate outcomes in the acute phase, and in developing novel treatments. Dr. Kerr also investigates neural stem cells as a potential tool for functional recovery in patients with transverse myelitis and motor neuron disease. He has made significant discoveries concerning the basic molecular biology of neuronal apoptosis, especially in motor neurons of the spinal cord.

Dr. Kerr’s laboratory research focuses on models of neuronal injury in the spinal cord. Using genetic and viral induced models of motoneuron injury, his laboratory has found that though there is an intrinsic abnormality within neurons, this abnormality is insufficient to induce death of that neuron. Rather, the surrounding astrocytes and microgial cells become deranged and “kill” the “at-risk” neuron. His research laboratory is now focused on elucidating the pathways involved in this killing. These findings are relevant to viral induced diseases of the CNS and to human motor neuron diseases such as ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and SMA (spinal muscular atrophy).

Additionally, these models are utilized to examine the possibility of neuroregeneration. By transplanting a variety of human and mouse stem cells into the spinal cord, a partial restoration of function can be facilitated. The mechanisms underlying this functional recovery are varied and not completely understood. Dr. Kerr has also been interested in the endogenous response of spinal cord neural stem cells to paralysis. Interestingly, adult spinal cords DO have stem cells. Following viral-induced paralysis, they proliferate, presumably in an attempt to repopulate the spinal cord with those cells that just recently died. But it doesn’t happen: no new neurons are formed, and instead, the proliferating stem cells become shunted toward a glial fate. It is important to understand why these cells get “pushed” toward becoming glia and by modulating the fate specification of endogenous stem cells, perhaps the spinal cord can regenerate its own neurons rather than having to transplant them! This analysis will shed light on inherent biology of the spinal cord, and may have applications to human spinal cord diseases.

Dr. Kerr also directs The Johns Hopkins Project RESTORE, a multidisciplinary research and clinical collaboration emerging from The Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis and Multiple Sclerosis Centers to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in the treatment of neuroimmunologic disorders, such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and transverse myelitis (TM). Project RESTORE has three principle goals: to recover from acute attacks and illness; to stop progression of disease and disability; and to regenerate nerve cells and myelin.

Recent Publications ( from a list of over 60 publications)

• KERR DA*, Llado J, Shamblott MJ, Maragakis NJ, Irani DN, Crawford TO, Krishnan C, Dike S, Sappington A, Gearhart JD and Rothstein JD. 2003. Human embryonic germ cell derivatives facilitate motor recovery of rats with diffuse motor neuron injury. Journal of Neuroscience; 23(12):5131-5140.
• Darman JS, Backovic S, Dike S, Maragakis NJ, Krishnan C, Rothstein JD, Irani, DN and KERR DA*. 2004. Viral induced spinal motoneuron death is non-cell autonomous and involves glutamate excitotoxicity. Journal of Neuroscience; 24 (34): 7566-75.
• Hummers LK, Krishnan C, Casiola-Rosen L, Rosen A, Morris S, Mahoney JA, KERR DA, and Wigley FM. 2004. Recurrent Transverse Myelitis Associates with Anti-Ro (SSA) Autoantibodies. Neurology; 62: 147-149.
• James A. Harper, Chitra Krishnan, Jessica S. Darman, Deepa M. Deshpande, Schonze Peck, Irina Shats, Stephanie Backovic, Jeffrey Rothstein, DA KERR*. 2004. Axonal Growth of Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Motoneurons in vitro and in motoneuron-injured Adult Rats. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science; 101(18): 7123-7128.
• Krishnan C , Kaplin AI, Graber JS, Darman JS, and KERR DA. 2005. Recurrent transverse myelitis following neurobrucellosis: Immunologic features and beneficial response to immunosuppression. Journal of Neurovirology; 11 (2): 225-231.
• Adam I. Kaplin, Deepa M. Deshpande, Erick Scott, Chitra Krishnan, Jessica S. Darman, Irina Shats, Tara Martinez, Jennifer Drummond, Sonny Dike, Mikhail Pletnikov, Sanjay C. Keswani, Timothy H. Moran, Carlos A. Pardo, Peter A. Calabresi, Douglas A. KERR*. 2005. Interleukin-6 induces regionally selective spinal cord injury in patients with the neuroinflammatory disorder Transverse Myelitis. Journal of Clinical Investigation; 115 (10): 2731-2741.
• Douglas KERR*, Chitra Krishnan, Michele L. Pucak, and Jessica Carmen. 2005. The immune system and neuropsychiatric diseases. International Review of Psychiatry; 17(6): 443-449.
• Maragakis NJ, Rao MS, Llado J, Wong V, Xue H, Pardo A, Herring J, KERR DA, Coccia C and Rothstein JD. 2005. Glial restricted precursors protect against chronic glutamate neurotoxicity of motor neurons in vitro. Glia; 50 (2): 145-159.
• David Irani , Caroline Anderson, Rebekah Gundry , Robert Cotter, Stacy Moore, Douglas KERR , Justin C. McArthur, Ned Sacktor, Carlos Pardo, Melina Jones, Peter Calabresi, and Avindra Nath. 2006. Cleavage of Cystatin C in the Cerebrospinal Fluid of Patients with Multiple Sclerosis. Annals of Neurology; 59: 237-247.
• Deepa Deshpande, Yun-Sook Kim, Tara Martinez, Jessica Carmen, Sonny Dike, Irina Shats, Lee L. Rubin, Jennifer Drummond, Chitra Krishnan, Ahmet Hoke, Nicholas Maragakis, Jeremy M. Shefner, Jeffrey D. Rothstein, Douglas KERR. 2006. Recovery from Paralysis in Adult Rats Using Embryonic Stem Cells. Annals of Neurology; 60(1):32-44.
• Krishnan C, Kaplin AI, Pardo C, KERR DA and Keswani SC. 2006. Demyelinating Disorders - Update on Transverse Myelitis. Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports; 6 (3):236-243.
• Jessica Carmen, Genevieve Gowing, Jean-Pierre Julien, and Douglas KERR*. 2006. Altered Immune Response to CNS Viral Infection in Mice with a Conditional Knock-Down of Macrophage-Lineage Cells. GLIA ; 54: (71-80).
• Mamatha S Nayak, Yun-Sook Kim, Michelle Goldman, Hans S Keirstead, Douglas Anthony KERR*. 2006. Cellular Therapies in Motor Neuron Diseases. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, special issue Molecular Basis of Disease. 1762 (2006) 1128–1138
• Anita Venkataramana, Carlos A. Pardo, Justin C. McArthur, Douglas A. KERR, David N. Irani, John W. Griffin, Peter Burger, Daniel S. Reich, Peter Calabresi, Avindra Nath. 2006. Immune Reconstitution Inflammatory Syndrome in the CNS of HIV infected patients. Neurology. 67(3): 383-388.
• Kim YS, Martinez T, Deshpande DM, Drummond J, Provost-Javier K, Williams A, McGurk J, Maragakis N, Song H, Ming G, KERR DA. 2006. Correction of Humoral Derangements from TgSOD1G93A Spinal Cord. Annals of Neurology. 60: (716-728).
• Greenberg BM, Thomas KP, Krishnan C, Calabresi PA, Kaplin AI, KERR DA. 2006. Management of Transverse Myelitis: A study of steroids, plasma exchange and cyclophosphamide. Neurology. In press.