Louis M. Kunkel, PhD

Muscular dystrophy.

Dr Louis Kunkel is an internationally recognized geneticist with years of experience and scientific success in the understanding of the basis for muscular dystrophies. He received a BS from Gettysburg College and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University. Over the past three decades Dr Kunkel has devoted his career to understanding the molecular basis, and developing therapy, for neuromuscular disorders. Dr Kunkel is universally recognized for his 1986 identification of dystrophin as the causative gene in Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His current work centers on developing dystrophin independent therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy to complement existing therapies currently in development. He has received numerous awards for his research including membership to the National Academy of Sciences and The American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr Kunkel recently received the 2009 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology for this pioneering work on muscular dystrophy. He leads a long-standing effort to develop novel therapies.

The story of Dr Kunkel’s groundbreaking gene map is featured in “Novel Therapies” on this site’s Research section.

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