Michael Dowling, M.D., Ph.D.

Biography

Michael Dowling, M.D., Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in pediatric stroke and neurovascular disorders, as well as the neurologic complications of sickle cell disease.

Dr. Dowling earned his medical degree and a doctoral degree in biochemistry at Columbia University, where he studied with future Nobel Laureates Martin Chalfie and Eric Kandel and completed his dissertation with future Nobel Laureates Richard Axel and Linda Buck. He completed residencies in pediatrics and pediatric neurology at UT Southwestern. He gained additional training in clinical research as a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded Sickle Cell Scholar and then as a member of the UT Southwestern Clinical Scholars Program, obtaining a master’s degree in Clinical Sciences with distinction in 2009.

Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in neurology and child neurology, he joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2000.

At UT Southwestern, Dr. Dowling created one of the largest and most productive clinical and research programs for pediatric stroke in the country. He established a Pediatric Stroke Clinic in 2003, the Pediatric Acute Stroke team in 2004, and an ACGME-accredited postgraduate fellowship program in pediatric stroke in 2019. He also co-authored clinical guidelines for the evaluation and management of children with stroke for Children’s Medical Center. In 2016, he became a founding member of the Center for Cerebrovascular Disorders in Children at Children’s Health, a collaborative group of neurologists, neurosurgeons, hematologists, and neuroradiologists formed to improve the clinical care of children with stroke and other cerebrovascular disorders.

He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Heart Association, and he is a member of the Child Neurology Society and the American Academy of Neurology. In 2019, he became a founding member of the International Pediatric Stroke Organization.

Dr. Dowling serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Pediatric Stroke (founded in 2020) as well as Section Editor for the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke. He is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Child Neurology and Pediatric Neurology.

His research focuses on stroke in children and the neurologic complications of sickle cell disease. Dr. Dowling is an active member and lead enroller in the International Pediatric Stroke Study, responsible for more than 450 of the 5,000+ total patients enrolled at 65 centers around the world. He was the first author of one of the primary analyses of the dataset. He currently serves on the study’s publication committee and participates in many other multicenter studies.

He also has a long-standing interest in ethical issues in neurology. He has served on the Ethics Committee of the Child Neurology Society, on the Children’s Ethics Committee, and as Topic Chair for the American Academy of Neurology annual meeting sessions on ethics. He has developed and presented continuing medical education lectures at multiple venues on topics of ethical concerns in pediatric gene therapy, brain death, and the care of neurologically devastated children.

Dr. Dowling has delivered scores of presentations, contributed to several books, and published numerous academic articles related to his areas of expertise.