Dr. Joseph Vithayathil is a board-certified pediatric neurologist with the Division of Neurology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. His clinical interests are related to patients with movement disorders or disabilities due to perinatal hypoxic ischemic brain injury and disorders of iron metabolism that result in neurologic symptoms.
He is actively pursuing basic science research projects studying the role of brain iron dysregulation and oxidative stress in perinatal hypoxic ischemic brain injury. In addition, he is interested in exploring pathogenic mechanisms of cellular stress in genetic disorders that exhibit iron dysregulation in the brain to further understand how brain iron metabolism is altered in acquired and genetic neurodevelopmental disorders. He hopes to unravel some of the pathways that regulate the relationship between intracellular iron accumulation and oxidative stress as a way to identify novel therapeutic targets that can offer neuroprotection and prevent neurodegeneration.
MD - Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH
Pediatrics - Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Child Neurology - Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Child Neurology – American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
PhD (Neurosciences) – Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, Cleveland OH
Attending Neurologist
Instructor of Neurology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
Gavazzi, Francesco, Samuel R. Pierce, Joseph Vithayathil, Kristin Cunningham, Kim Anderson, Jacob McCann, Ashley Moll, et al. 2022. “Psychometric Outcome Measures in Beta-Propeller Protein-Associated Neurodegeneration (BPAN).” Molecular Genetics and Metabolism 137 (1–2): 26–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymgme.2022.07.009.
Vithayathil, Joseph, Colbey Freeman, Marin Jacobwitz, Erin Simon Schwartz, and Sonika Agarwal. 2022. “Prolonged Neurologic Deficits with Brain MRI Changes Following ECT in an Adolescent with a CACNA1a-Related Disorder; a Case Report.” BMC Neurology 22 (1): 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1186/S12883-022-02994-7/FIGURES/1.
Vithayathil, Joseph, Laura Adang, and César A.P.F. Alves. 2021. “Widening the MRI Findings of PLA2G6 -Associated Neurodegeneration.” Neuropediatrics. Georg Thieme Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0041-1731804.
Vithayathil, Joseph, Joanna Pucilowska, and Gary E. Landreth. 2018. “ERK/MAPK Signaling and Autism Spectrum Disorders.” In Progress in Brain Research, 241:63–112. Elsevier B.V. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.pbr.2018.09.008.
Pucilowska, Joanna, Joseph Vithayathil, Marco Pagani, Caitlin Kelly, J Colleen Karlo, Camilla Robol, Ilaria Morella, Alessandro Gozzi, Riccardo Brambilla, and Gary E Landreth. 2018.“Pharmacological Inhibition of ERK Signaling Rescues Pathophysiology and Behavioral Phenotype Associated with 16p11.2 Chromosomal Deletion in Mice.” The Journal of Neuroscience : The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience 38 (30): 6640–52. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0515-17.2018.
Vithayathil, Joseph, Joanna Pucilowska, David Friel, and Gary E. Landreth. 2017. “Chronic Impairment of ERK Signaling in Glutamatergic Neurons of the Forebrain Does Not Affect Spatial Memory Retention and LTP in the Same Manner as Acute Blockade of the ERK Pathway.” Hippocampus 27 (12): 1239–49. https://doi.org/10.1002/hipo.22769.
2022 Meg Olivia Barkman Teaching Award
2022 Child Neurology Fellow Award
2022-present, American Academy of Neurology
2022-present, Society for Neuroscience
2019-present, Child Neurology Society