Meet our staff
James P. Bennett Jr.
Director, VCU Parkinson’s Disease Center, and Bemiss Professor and Chair, VCU Department of Neurology
Location
Clinical Office - (804) 662-9185
Billy Reynolds Jr. Building, First Floor
6605 W. Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23230
Academic Office
Old City Hall, Suite 222
1001 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0539
“The center has a unique group of clinicians, clinical investigators and scientists, all cohabitating in the same space and talking to each other. With the state-of-the-art translational research, we’re working on developing therapies that we hope will slow down or stop Parkinson’s disease.”
Education
- Chief Resident in Neurology, University of Virginia School of Medicine
- Resident in Neurology, University of Virginia School of Medicine
- Intern and Resident, Department of Medicine, Greater Baltimore Medical Center
- NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellowship and Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- B.S., Chemistry with Honors, University of Florida
Professional certifications and licenses
- Virginia state medical license
- American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Research
- Focuses on translational research, specifically in the area of molecular neurobiology of adult neurodegenerative diseases and developing new therapies to alter the degenerative processes.
- Clinical focus has been on Parkinson's disease,
- Lab efforts have involved studying cell models and postmortem tissues of ALS (Lou Gherig's disease), Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease; developed and placed into clinical testing a novel neuroprotective drug and participate in the development of novel mitochondrial gene therapies
Professional affiliations
- Ad hoc reviewer for multiple NIH study panels
- American Parkinson Disease Association, Scientific Advisory Board, Member
Recent achievements
- Appointed Margaret and Fitzgerald Bemiss Professor of Neurology, VCU
- Director, "Center for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases", NIH-NINDS Program Project NS30024 (1990-1993); NIA Program Project AG14373 (1998-2001); Morris Udall Parkinson’s Research Center of Excellence (1999-present)
- Ad Hoc Reviewer for multiple NIH Study Sections (1984-present)
Recent publications
- Thomas RR, Khan SM, Portell FR, Smigrodzki RM, Bennett JP Jr (2010) Recombinant human mitochondrial transcription factor A stimulates mitochondrial biogenesis and ATP synthesis, improves motor function after MPTP, reduces oxidative stress and increases survival after endotoxin. Mitochondrion. 2010 Aug 18. [Epub ahead of print].
- Young KJ, Bennett JP. (2010) The mitochondrial secret(ase) of Alzheimer's disease.
- J Alzheimers Dis. 20 Suppl 2:S381-400.
- Onyango IG, Ahn JY, Tuttle JB, Bennett JP Jr, Swerdlow RH. (2010) Nerve growth factor attenuates oxidant-induced beta-amyloid neurotoxicity in sporadic Alzheimer's disease cybrids. J Neurochem. Jun 18. [Epub ahead of print]
- Keeney PM, Bennett JP Jr. (2010) ALS spinal neurons show varied and reduced mtDNA gene copy numbers and increased mtDNA gene deletions. Mol Neurodegener. 26:21.
- Keeney PM, Dunham LD, Quigley CK, Morton SL, Bergquist KE, Bennett JP Jr. (2009) Cybrid models of Parkinson's disease show variable mitochondrial biogenesis and genotype-respiration relationships. Exp Neurol. 220:374-82.
