NINDS’s Goldstein Wins AAN Award

Dr. David S. Goldstein, chief of NINDS’s clinical neurocardiology section, will soon receive the Irwin Schatz Award for Autonomic Disorders from the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).

The award is named for Dr. Irwin Schatz, a founding member of the American Autonomic Society. It recognizes young investigators who have advanced the field of autonomic disorders and senior investigators who have made major contributions to the field. Goldstein will receive the award at the annual AAN meeting on Apr. 23 in Los Angeles.

Goldstein is being honored for his significant contributions to research on autonomic and catecholamine-related disorders.

During his nearly 40-year career in the NIH intramural research community, Goldstein has introduced many new technologies and made numerous discoveries that have advanced these fields. He has helped pioneer and continues to be a leader in clinical catecholamine neurochemistry and sympathetic neuroimaging.

“I feel thankful for the extraordinarily devoted people who have worked with me in NIH’s intramural program, for my family who have tolerated my spending so much time on NIH ‘stuff’ and for the patients who have entrusted themselves to me and provided me so many precious sparkles of insight,” said Goldstein.

He earned his undergraduate degree from Yale College and his M.D.-Ph.D. in behavioral science from Johns Hopkins. He furthered his medical training in internal medicine at the University of Washington.

Goldstein came to NIH in 1978 as a clinical associate at NHLBI and obtained tenure in 1984. He joined NINDS in 1990 as head of the clinical neurochemistry section in the Clinical Neuroscience Branch and then founded the independent clinical neurocardiology section, which he continues to direct. The section conducts patient-oriented research and operates a renowned clinical neurochemistry laboratory for assays of levels of catecholamines and their metabolites.

Goldstein has authored more than 575 research articles and several books, including Adrenaline and the Inner World: An Introduction to Scientific Integrative Medicine; Dysautonomias: A Handbook for Patients; Stress, Catecholamines, and Cardiovascular Disease; The Autonomic Nervous System in Health and Disease; and the e-book Principles of Autonomic Medicine. He directs the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties-accredited clinical fellowship in autonomic disorders at the Clinical Center.

Goldstein’s current research focuses on biomarkers, mechanisms and potential treatments of catecholaminergic neurodegeneration in Parkinson’s disease and related disorders.