Dr. Michael Strong has been re-appointed to a second term as Dean of Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, beginning July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2021.
“Dean Strong provides extraordinary leadership and has invoked substantive positive change over the past four years within the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry,” says Janice Deakin, Western’s Provost & Vice-President (Academic). “I am confident that he will continue to provide creative and effective leadership for the School.”
A Distinguished University Professor at Western, Dr. Strong holds the Arthur J. Hudson Chair in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Research. He undertook his undergraduate training in biochemistry and medicine at Queens University in Kingston (1976-1982), neurology training at Western (1982-87), and postgraduate training at the Laboratory of Central Nervous System Studies at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland under the supervision of Ralph M. Garruto, PhD (1987-1990).
Dr. Strong is also a scientist at Robarts Research Institute, and served from 2000 to 2010 as the Chief of Neurology and co-chair of the Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences at London Health Sciences Centre and Western. He has also served as co-chair of the Canadian ALS Research Consortium and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the ALS Society of Canada.
His research has focused on understanding the cellular biology of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and has led to an understanding of the mechanisms by which intracellular deposits of protein (composed primarily of neurofilament) are formed, and how these aggregates contribute to the disease process of ALS. This has led to Dr Strong’s laboratory defining novel mRNA binding proteins that contribute to alterations in the stability of neurofilament mRNA in ALS.
Dr. Strong was awarded the Sheila Essay Award in 2005 and the Forbes Norris Award in 2008, and is the only Canadian to have received both international awards for ALS research. He was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology in 2008. In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.
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