BG 10 RM 7D37
10 CENTER DR
BETHESDA MD 20814
Dr. Debra Ehrlich is the Director of the Parkinson’s Disease Clinic. She completed her undergraduate studies at Brandeis University and received an M.S. from Rutgers University in 2006 with master’s thesis work exploring molecular alterations in the cerebellum of PMCA2-null mice. Dr. Ehrlich received her M.D. from Rutgers University-New Jersey Medical School in 2011.
She continued at Rutgers-New Jersey Medical school to complete her medical internship, then completed her residency training in neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine-Montefiore where she served as chief resident. After residency, she completed two years of fellowship training in movement disorders at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She joined the NIH as a Staff Clinician in 2017. She is also serving as the Program Director for the Clinical Movement Disorders Fellowship program at NIH. Dr. Ehrlich is board certified in neurology. Her research focuses on clinical studies of patients with Parkinson’s Disease and other movement disorders with a particular interest in deep brain stimulation as a treatment for various movement disorders.
Dr. Ehrlich and the Parkinson’s Clinic engage in collaborative research to better understand the pathophysiology of Parkinson’s Disease and other movement disorders. A focus of current research is exploring the clinical significance of different genotypes in Parkinson’s Disease. They work with the Neurogenetics branch to identify novel genetic risk loci for Parkinson’s disease as well as establish genotypic cohorts who may qualify for participation in additional studies. In collaboration with other investigators, they use neuroimaging techniques to explore potential new biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease. In close collaboration with the neurosurgical section, another focus of research is deep brain stimulation (DBS).
Their research explores genotypic and clinical predictors of outcome in DBS for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. They also use tractography and other neuroimaging techniques to explore predictors of therapeutic and side effects of DBS. Their group is also studying a novel use of DBS for the treatment of focal hand dystonia.