Benjamin Segal, MD

As of July 1, 2019 Benjamin M. Segal, MD, assumed the roles of chair of the Department of Neurology and Director of the Neurological Research Institute at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. He is also co-director of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s Neurological Institute. He earned his medical degree Brown University, completed his internship in medicine at University of Chicago and conducted his residency in neurology at New York Hospital/Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Dr. Segal began his academic career at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where he conducted innovative research in multiple sclerosis and immunology. In 2000, he was recruited to the Department of Neurology at the University of Rochester. That year he was awarded the prestigious Harry Weaver Neuroscience Scholar award by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The University of Michigan—home to one of our nation’s top neurology programs—recruited Dr. Segal to lead its Division of Multiple Sclerosis in 2007. Under Dr. Segal’s leadership, the University of Michigan became a national referral center for the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis. The MS clinic population expanded in size from approximately 400 to 4,000 patients during his tenure.

Dr. Segal is internationally recognized for his work in multiple sclerosis (MS) and neuroimmunology. With annual NIH funding for his ongoing research programs in excess of 1.3 million dollars, his discoveries have contributed to the basic understanding of the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS) and similar diseases. He has shown that the type of inflammation that causes damage to the nervous system during MS can vary among individuals, suggesting that pharmaceutical regimens must be personalized for each patient. Dr. Segal has directed a number of industry- and government-sponsored clinical trials and biomarker studies that focus on individuals with relapsing and progressive forms of the disease. More recently, his laboratory is investigating how destructive immune responses in the nervous system can be skewed and redirected to initiate repair. He publishes in high impact academic journals, including the Journal of Clinical Investigation,Annals of Neurology, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, and Lancet Neurology.

Dr. Segal has received innumerable awards, lectured nationally and internationally and served on multiple NIH study sections, including co-chairing the major review panel in his field. He holds several patents and is a member of every major organization in neurology. Dr. Segal served as Program Chair for the annual meeting of the Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ACTRIMS) between 2016 and 2018, and he currently serves as a Director at ACTRIMS. Through ACTRIMS, he has developed an annual national symposium to educate neurology residents and young research investigators about the diagnosis, pathogenesis, and treatment of MS. Dr. Segal was inducted into the University of Michigan League of Research Excellence in 2014. He was a Senior Scholar of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute and has been named among the Best Doctors in America for the past eight years.