Physician Investigator (Cl) Neurology, Mass General Research Institute

Associate Professor of Neurology Harvard Medical School

Associate Neurologist Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital

MD Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons 2001

MPH 2009

als; antiparkinson agents; body mass index; caffeine; clinical trials as topic; corticobasal ganglionic degeneration; dyslipidemias; environmental risk factors; levodopa; multiple system atrophy; neurodegenerative disease; organophosphates; parkinson's disease; progressive supranuclear palsy; psp; tauopathies; tremor Dr. Wills' research focuses on environmental risk factors and determinants of neurodegenerative disease progression, including nutrition, caffeine and pesticides. Her multi-center clinical trial of nutrition in ALS (funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Association) showed that a calorically-dense diet was better tolerated and led to fewer adverse events, including deaths, than a standard diet (Wills et al. The Lancet, 2014).  This study was prompted by human and animal data which showed an increase in ALS survival from obesity and weight gain. She is also the M.G.H. Investigator on several Parkinson's Disease clinical trials testing therapeutic interventions in P.D.