The Ruth Wagner Van Meter & J. Ray Van Meter Professorship of Neurology
The Professorship was established in 1983 through a bequest from the estate of J. Ray Van Meter, MD, a prominent neurologist and distinguished alumnus of the Perelman School of Medicine Class of 1928, and through contributions from Ruth Wagner Van Meter, PhD, an alumna of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. J. Ray Van Meter conducted a highly successful practice of neurology in the San Francisco Bay area and served for many years on the clinical faculty of the University of California at San Francisco. The Van Meter Professorship provides the Department of Neurology at the Perelman School of Medicine with the opportunity to enhance its already superior research programs.
Current Chairholder
James J. Dowling MD, PhD
Dr. James Dowling is a clinician-scientist focused on gene discovery and therapy development for childhood and adult neurogenetic and neuromuscular diseases. He is currently a Professor of Genetics and Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Penn Neurogenetics Therapy Center. He is also a staff clinician and scientist at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He continues to hold adjunct positions at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children, where he was a staff clinician, senior scientist, and Mogford Campbell Family Chair of Paediatric Neuroscience for 12 years before joining the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Dowling received his BSc and MSc from Yale University and his MD/PhD from the University of Chicago. His PhD work was performed in the laboratory of Elaine Fuchs. He did his residency in child neurology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and completed postdoctoral research with Jeff Golden (UPenn) and Eva Feldman (University of Michigan). Before coming to Penn, he was an assistant professor at the University of Michigan from 2009-2013 and an associate and then full professor at the University of Toronto from 2013-2025.
Dr. Dowling’s clinical expertise is in childhood and adult neuromuscular and neurogenetic disorders. His research, which spans both pre-clinical and clinical aspects of translational medicine, examines questions of disease pathomechanisms and therapy development for neurogenetic conditions across the lifespan. His research program has been fortunate to have sustained funding from several sources, including NIH, and he has author/co-authored more than 200 manuscripts.
In addition to his research program, he has held several leadership positions, including serving as chair of the TREAT NMD Board of Trustees, as an executive board member of the World Muscle Society, as the chair of the Canadian Pediatric Neuromuscular Group, and as the neurogenetics lead of the Ontario Provincial Genetics Program. He continues to serve on several advisory boards in academia, non-for-profit groups, and industry sponsors, including the US Muscular Dystrophy Association and the RYR1 Foundation. He was recently honored to receive the Researcher of the Year Award from Muscular Dystrophy Canada in recognition of his work in the neuromuscular field.
Previous Chairholders
- Arthur K. Asbury, MD 1983–1997
- Steven L. Galetta, MD 1997–2007; 2009–2012
- Steven S. Scherer, MD, PhD 2013-2024