Department of Neurology

Assistant Professor of Neurology

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Dr. Fang earned a B.S. degree, with Distinction, from Pennsylvania State University in 1989 and received his M.D. from Jefferson Medical College in 1991. He completed an internship in Internal Medicine at Bryn Mawr Hospital in Bryn Mawr, PA. (1991-92) and performed his residency in Neurology at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. (1992-95), where he was Chief Resident.

From 1995-98, Dr. Fang served in the Public Health Service, working in the Clinical Pharmacology Section of the Experimental Therapeutics Branch of the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke. At Vanderbilt since 1998, Dr. Fang has continued to focus on the treatment of early Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders. He is also a staff physician at the Nashville Veterans Administration Medical Center.

RESEARCH SUMMARY

My research interest is in the treatment of Parkinson's disease (and other movement disorders) and in particular determining the pathophysiology of disease progression through clinical markers. Present clinical scales utilize transitions such as the development of dyskinesias or of the requirement for symptomatic therapy as milestones of disease worsening. These are very likely oversimplifications of a very complex disease process. By analyzing patients with relatively mild versus more severe disease symptoms, it may be possible to establish treatments that target specific modalities of disease progression.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Hedera, P, Fang, JY, Phibbs, F, Cooper, MK, Charles, PD, Davis, TL.  Positive family history of essential tremor influences the motor phenotype of Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord. 2009;24:2285-8.

Wider, C, Uitti, RJ, Wszolek, ZK, Fang, JY, Josephs, KA, Baker, MC, Rademakers, R, Hutton, ML, Dickson, DW.  Progranulin gene mutation with an unusual clinical and neuropathologic presentation. Mov Disord. 2008;23(8):1168-73.

The NINDS NET-PD Investigators.
A randomized clinical trial of coenzyme Q10 and GPI-1485 in early Parkinson
disease. Neurology. 2007 Jan 2;68(1):20-8.
 

Ma S, Davis TL, Blair MA, Fang JY, Bradford Y, Haines JL, Hedera P.
Familial essential tremor with apparent autosomal dominant inheritance: should we
also consider other inheritance modes?
Mov Disord. 2006 Sep;21(9):1368-74.

NINDS NET-PD Investigators.
A randomized, double-blind, futility clinical trial of creatine and minocycline
in early Parkinson disease.
Neurology. 2006 Mar 14;66(5):664-71. Epub 2006 Feb 15.

Blanchet P, Fang JY, Hyland K, Arnold L. Mouradian MM, Chase TN. Short-term Effects of High-Dose 17ß-Estradiol in Postmenopausal Parkinsonian Patients. Neurology 53:91-95, 1999.