Dr. Neil Shneider is the Claire Tow Associate Professor of Motor Neuron Disorders and the Director of the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig ALS Center at Columbia University.  Dr. Shneider is a graduate of Harvard College and earned his MD and PhD degrees at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his residency in the Harvard Longwood Neurology Training Program.  Dr. Shneider completed his graduate work in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Axel and his postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Thomas Jessell. After several years in the Intramural Program of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Dr. Shneider returned to Columbia University in the Department of Neurology. He is an investigator in the Center for Motor Neuron Biology and Disease and of the H. Houston Merritt Clinical Research Center where his lab focuses on the study of models and mechanisms of ALS and the discovery and development of novel therapeutics for ALS and related disorders. Dr. Shneider is co-chair of the Translating Fundamental Research into Potential ALS Therapies Working Group for the NIH ALS Strategic Planning Workshop.