Michael Carnes Levin MD, FAAN, FANA

Michael C. Levin, M.D. is the Saskatchewan Multiple Sclerosis Clinical Research Chair and Professor of Neurology and Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Dr. Levin received his Bachelor’ of Science degree in chemistry with special honors at George Washington University in Washington D.C. It was at ‘GW’ where Dr. Levin began his research career studying the role of thymic peptides in nervous system infections. He completed his medical degree at the Pennsylvania State University. To acquire greater depth into neuroscience research, Dr. Levin took a year sabbatical from medical school to study central nervous system control of hypertension at The Salk Institute under the direction of Drs. Max Cowan and Paul Sawchenko. Understanding that clinical expertise was equally important as experience at the bench, Dr. Levin completed his residency training in neurology at The New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center – Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Drs. Fred Plum and Jerry Posner mentored him during his residency including while he was chief neurology resident during his final year of training. In order to apply both his basic science and clinical skills to a neurological disease, Dr. Levin spent four years working in the Neuroimmunology Branch – the translational research group specifically focused on MS - at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Subsequently, Dr. Levin was recruited by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Memphis, Tennessee, to create both a clinical and research program in MS. Being fortunate to be mentored by some of the greatest leaders in neurology and neuroscience, afforded Dr. Levin the foundational skills required to develop a vision for translational research in MS. Clinically, Dr. Levin followed more than 500 MS patients, his work has been recognized by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society for the first-ever clinical trial in MS in Memphis, has been elected into the Best Doctors in America database from 2005-18.

Professor Levin has received more than 30 awards for academic excellence. Professor Levin’s research into the pathogenesis of MS includes work in molecular mimicry and neurodegeneration. His focus on neurodegeneration led to the seminal discovery that there are stress granules in neurons in persons with MS, first reported in the Journal of Neuroimmunology. This is important because, under pathologic conditions like those present in the brains of MS patients, stress granules can contribute to nerve cell death. Dr. Levin’s lab is testing medications designed to inhibit the pathologic features of stress granules.

His work has also been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, Annals of Neurology, Neurology, and the Journal of Comparative Neurology. His research has received national recognition from the American Academy of Neurology & the Society for Neuroscience. Dr. Levin teaches residents, graduates,s and medical students and was awarded the University of Tennessee Golden Apple Teaching Award.

Most recently, Dr. Levin was recruited to the University of Saskatchewan as the inaugural Saskatchewan Multiple Sclerosis Clinical Research Chair. He joins a team of scientists and physicians including Drs. Val Verge, Katherine Knox, Bogdan Popescu, Ilia Poliakov, and Charity Evans with the ultimate goal of creating a world-class MS center in Saskatchewan with an international reputation for clinical research excellence.

Dr. Levin is married to his lovely wife for more than 25 years, Dr. Audrey Zucker-Levin, an academic physical therapist. He has two strappingly handsome sons and is an avid sailor and scuba diver.