Satyakam Bhagavati, MD

Dr Bhagavati is a clinical neurologist with a broad interest in the molecular basis of various neurological disorders, especially neuromuscular and autoimmune disorders of the nervous system. His research was among the very first to show, in findings published in the New England J of Medicine, the causal linkage of the retrovirus HTLV-1 with tropical spastic paraparesis, a condition now recognized worldwide as HTLV-1 associated myelopathy. Subsequently Dr Bhagavati was funded by the NIH as Principal Investigator for over a decade. His work has involved elucidating the molecular basis of neuromuscular disorders like myotonic dystrophy and investigating novel methods for treating such disorders by regenerating normal muscle in animal models of muscular dystrophies.

Dr Bhagavati earned his medical degree and then completed post-graduate training in Medicine from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; Neurology resident, Chief resident and Fellowship training in Neuromuscular Disorders/EMG at  SUNY Downstate Medical Center, New York and molecular biology training and research as Expert/Fellow at the NCI, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda.

Dr Bhagavati also has a special interest in investigating the quality, integrity and reproducibility of published research and in measures to improve the reliability of scientific findings. His publications have identified and detailed conceptual and methodological weaknesses in widely promulgated gene therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy and therapies for other neurovascular disorders and suggested ways to better confirm efficacy.

Dr Bhagavati is an avid clinician and student/teacher with an abiding interest in all facets of clinical Neurology and translational research.