Juan Pascual, MD, PhD

Pediatric Neurology

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Personal Statement

Dr. Juan M. Pascual is the inaugural Abe Chutorian MD Professor and Chief of the Division of Child Neurology. Dr. Pascual cares for children, adults and families with unusual or particularly difficult to conceptualize diseases and who have often received several professional opinions. In the process, he aims to share the strenghts of Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital with the patients of New York, the nation and the world.

He devotes significant effort to the training of physicians and scientists who, one day, will replace incomplete knowledge with their own conceptions and discoveries.

Dr. Pascual is also a laboratory scientist studying the nervous system using a broad variety of methods. His philosophical interests are not only related to science and include language, atomism and causation.

Biographical Info

Prior to joining Weill Cornell and NewYork-Presbyterian, Dr. Pascual was the inaugural holder of The Once Upon a Time Foundation Professorship in Pediatric Neurologic Diseases and the holder of the Ed and Sue Rose Distinguished Professorship in Neurology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he remains an adjunct professor of Neurology. He is also adjunct professor of Bioengineering at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas.

Dr. Pascual received his MD degree with distinction from the Universidad de Granada, Spain, one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in 1349. He received his PhD degree in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, under Arthur M. Brown, MD, PhD, McCollum Professor and Chair. His postdoctoral research was conducted in the laboratory of Arthur Karlin, PhD, Higgins Professor and Director of the Center for Molecular Recognition, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and, later, at the Colleen Giblin Research Laboratories for Pediatric Neurology at the same institution under a Neurological Sciences Academic Development Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). He also received residency training in Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine - St. Louis Children’s Hospital and in Neurology and Pediatric Neurology at the Neurological Institute of New York - Columbia University Medical Center.

His laboratory research, mostly funded by NINDS, spans virtually the entire field of neuroscience, including medical neuroscience, from molecular structure and function (including drug action) to neural physiology and metabolism at the cellular, circuit and whole-brain level and neurogenetics, all of which is complemented with human studies and clinical trials. Research greatly influences his clinical activities and patient observations guide his research. His laboratory is home to scientists from very diverse backgrounds and levels of training who have joined efforts to endow both neurology and developmental medicine with a strong scientific basis.

 Dr. Pascual has co-authored several dozen scientific and medical textbooks. He is the editor, together with Dr. Roger Rosenberg, of the leading text Rosenberg's Molecular and Genetic Basis of Neurological and Psychiatric Disease (from the 2015 5th edition to the present one, which  comprises over 2,000 pages). He is also the author of the textbook Progressive Brain Disorders in Childhood (Cambridge University Press). He is now working on a new philosophy book, provisionally entitled Sense & Nonsense in Medical Neuroscience: Inference & Fallacy, to be published also by Cambridge University Press.

As a clinician, Dr. Pascual specializes in genetic and metabolic diseases of the nervous and neuromuscular systems of infants, children and adults with emphasis on complex diagnostic problems, second opinions for patients visiting from the rest of the nation and abroad, and clinical trials.

Following study with Dr. Peter Hacker, he also joined the department of philosophy at Cornell University as affiliate faculty member.

Links:

Recent clinical research studies 

Recent NIH-funded research projects  

Publications

Honors and Awards

2023 Visiting Professor, St. John's College, University of Oxford 

Ed and Sue Rose Distinguished Professorship in Neurology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center 

The Once Upon a Time Foundation Professorship in Pediatric Neurological Disease, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center  

2015 - Miembro de honor, Academia Malagueña de Ciencias

2013 100% Patient satisfaction award, Division of Pediatric Neurology, Children's Medical Center Dallas

2013 - Elected full member, Académie Européenne des Sciences, des Arts et des Lettres

2012 Research Mentor Award, Children's Medical Center Dallas

2010 - Elected corresponding member, Académie Européenne des Sciences, des Arts et des Lettres

2010 - Miembro correspondiente, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Telmo

2009 Young Investigator Award, Neurobiology of Disease in Children

2004 - Miembro correspondiente, Real Academia Española

2004 - Miembro de número, Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española

Board Certifications
American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology (Child Neurology)
Clinical Expertise
Consultations and Second Opinions
Difficult Diagnosis
Neurogenetics
Neurometabolic Disorder
Disorders of Mitochondrial Metabolism
Neurodegenerative Disorder
Education 
  • Ph.D.
    Baylor College of Medicine
    1995
  • M.D.
    University of Granada School of Medicine
    1990
Appointments 
  • Attending Pediatrician
    NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
  • Professor of Pediatrics (Pending Appointment at Rank)
    Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University
  • Professor of Neurology (Pending Appointment at Rank)
    Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University
  • Professor of Neuroscience (Pending Appointment at Rank)
    Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University

Relationships and collaborations with for-profit and not-for profit organizations are of vital importance to our faculty because these exchanges of scientific information foster innovation. As experts in their fields, WCM physicians and scientists are sought after by many organizations to consult and educate. WCM and its faculty make this information available to the public, thus creating a transparent environment.

No External Relationships Reported