Dr. Merit Cudkowicz is Chief of the Massachusetts General Hospital Neurology Service, Director of the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. 

Dr. Cudkowicz’s research and clinical activities are dedicated to the study and treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Dr. Cudkowicz is one of the founders and former co-directors of the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS), a group of over 140 clinical sites in the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East dedicated to performing collaborative academic-led clinical trials and research studies in ALS.

She is leading the first Platform Trial initiative in ALS and serves as the Principal Investigator of the Clinical Coordination Center for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke’s Neurology Network of Excellence in Clinical Trials (NeuroNEXT). She is currently leading efforts at 25 different centers that conduct high-impact Phase 2 trials in neurology, hoping to speed trials by seven months to a year. The NeuroNEXT network established an academic central internal review board led by Massachusetts General and serves as a system for efficient study start-ups. 

A dedicated educator, Dr. Cudkowicz mentors many young neurologists in clinical investigation of ALS and related neurodegenerative disorders. She also serves on the medical advisory board for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Massachusetts Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association. 

Dr. Cudkowicz completed her medical degree in the Health Science and Technology program of Harvard Medical School. She served her internship at Beth Israel Hospital in New York and her neurology residency and fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. She also obtained a master’s degree in Clinical Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. She is fluent in Italian.