Nicholas Maragakis MD

Dr. Maragakis is the Medical Director of the Johns Hopkins ALS Clinical Trials Unit and Director of the ALS Center for Cell Therapy and Regeneration Research and Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University. The Center for ALS Specialty Care at John Hopkins is a world recognized leader in providing medical care and offering the latest in clinical trials and therapies to ALS patients.

A common theme to his research has been in the study of the astrocyte biology and its role in disease pathogenesis with a particular emphasis in how astrocytes may contribute to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

His laboratory in collaboration with others, has been interested in the development of induced pluripotent stem cells from ALS patients. His laboratory has created numerous iPS cell lines from familial and sporadic ALS patients as well as controls. His current efforts have been to characterize iPSC-derived motor neurons and astrocytes both in vitro and in vivo with an effort towards understanding disease mechanisms; in particular modeling ALS disease heterogeneity with regard to disease progression.

Dr. Maragakis has also been heavily involved in clinical research as the principal investigator, site principal investigator, or co-investigator of numerous clinical trials in ALS, many coordinated by the Northeast ALS Consortium on which he has served as an Executive Board member and currently a member of the Scientific Advisory Board. 

Dr. Maragakis has received several awards for his outstanding research efforts and received the Certification of Meaningful Use Stage 1 EHR from the Centers for Medicare& Medicaid Services (CMS) in 2013. He is member of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS).

Dr. Maragakis received his bachelors of science degree and medical degree from the University of Utah and he completed his residency and fellowship in neurology at John Hopkins University.