2019 SADII-SCORE Pilot Grant Program Awardee, Johns Hopkins
Kathryn Fitzgerald, Sc.D., is an assistant professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on identifying diagnostic and prognostic factors related to multiple sclerosis (MS) and other neurologic diseases. She performs epidemiologic research integrating patient- and population-level data from people with MS.
Dr. Fitzgerald earned her Doctor of Science in epidemiology at Harvard University, followed by a postdoctoral research fellowship in neuroimmunology and neurological infections at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Her research interests include how genetics, metabolic changes, hormones, diet, environmental factors and comorbid conditions affect the severity of MS symptoms.
Awarded: $50,000
What is Dr. Kathryn C. Fitzgerald studying?
Dr. Fitzgerald is studying the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a chronic disease of the nervous system. She investigates how a wide range of factors—including genetic predisposition, metabolic alterations, hormonal fluctuations, dietary influences, environmental exposures, and the presence of other health conditions—interact to influence the progression and severity of MS symptoms.
Why study Multiple Sclerosis?
Almost 3 million people worldwide have the disease, with a prevalence of 36 per 100,000 people. In some regions of the world, the incidence has doubled, suggesting that environmental factors play a significant role in the development of this disease. The highest prevalence is in Europe and the lowest is in Africa. Women are twice as likely to develop the disease as men.
What did Doctor Kathryn Fitzgerald find?
Dr. Fitzgerald is interested in the impact of diet on the severity of this illness; she has found that salt intake does not impact the severity of the disease but that there is a benefit to calorie restriction. She has also enhanced AI imaging techniques for MS, enabling the integration of long-term data with recent studies. In other work, she showed that the presence of other diseases negatively impacts multiple sclerosis, and these co-existing conditions should be vigorously treated in MS patients.
What is Dr. Fitzgerald’s current status?
She has published four papers summarizing her data in peer-reviewed journals. Her most recent publication was in 2021 on the topic A lymphocyte–microglia–astrocyte axis in chronic active multiple sclerosis. You can find all Dr. Fitzgerald’s published papers on Google Scholar.