Skip to Main Content
Yale School of Medicine
YSM Home

INFORMATION FOR

John Booss, MD

Professor Emeritus of Neurology
DownloadHi-Res Photo

Additional Titles

Retired National Director of Neurology for the Department of Veterans Affairs

About

Titles

Professor Emeritus of Neurology

Retired National Director of Neurology for the Department of Veterans Affairs

Biography

My laboratory work had been in the virology of the nervous system and in viral immunology with emphasis on the cytomegaloviruses. Clinically my interests had been in viral encephalitis, multiple sclerosis, and HIV of the nervous system. From 1993 until my retirement in 2005, I was the National Program Director for Neurology for the Department of Veterans Affairs. Our goal was to have neurological services coordinated nationally. During that time we were able to establish national centers of excellence for Parkinson's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Just after my retirement, a coalition of organizations led by the American Academy of Neurology convinced the Congress to establish national VA centers of excellence in epilepsy. On retiring I established a voluntary Neurological Clinic at the Hill Health Center in New Haven, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center. Following retirement I have investigated topics in historical virology: see for example To Catch a Virus, Booss and Landry (with August), 2nd edition, ASM Press, 2023; and Booss and Tselis, A History of Viral Infections of the Central Nervous System in Neurovirology, vol. 123 in the series Handbook of Clinical Neurology, eds, Tselis and Booss, 2014. Presently I am working on subjects dealing with how epidemics have altered Native American history: see Booss, 2019, Survival of the Pilgrims: A re-evaluation of the Lethal Epidemic Among the Wampanoag, Hist. J. Mass, 47: 109-133; Norton and Booss, 2019, Missionaries, Measles and Manuscripts: Revisiting the Whitman Tragedy, J. Med. Library Assoc., 107: 108-113; Booss, 2022-2023, Fear and Betrayal: Smallpox and the Turning Point of the French and Indian War, New York History, winter 2022-2023.

Education & Training

Sabbatical fellow [xenogenic CNS transplantation with C Jacque]
Hopital Salpetriere, Paris (1990)
Sabbatical fellow [immunopathology with MM Esiri]
Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford University (1983)
Post doctoral fellow [with EF Wheelock]
Jefferson Medical College (1975)
Post doctoral fellow [with GD Hsiung]
VA Medical Center and Yale University (1971)
Resident
New York University-Bellevue Hospital (1969)
Intern
Cleveland Clinic (1966)
MD
Albany Medical College (1965)

Board Certifications

  • Neurology

    Certification Organization
    AB of Psychiatry & Neurology
    Original Certification Date
    1972

Research

Overview

Now retired (emeritus), my research and clinical work focused on viral infections, immune responses, and host viral interactions in the nervous system. Work from our laboratory has focused on the immune response in the nervous system in multiple sclerosis, a rodent model for cytomegalovirus encephalitis, and the host defense response in the brain to xenogenic allograft. Previous clinical work focused on viral encephalitis, multiple sclerosis, and HIV neurology.

Research also centered on the evaluation and treatment of neurological complications of HIV infection and the evaluation of immunotherapy in multiple sclerosis. We were part of a multi- institutional national consortium for neuro-AIDS research and were part of a VHA HSR&D study of the therapy of multiple sclerosis.

In retirement, I have focused on topics in historical virology, see To Catch A Virus, 1st ed. Booss and August, ASM Press, 2013; 2nd ed. Booss and Landry (with August), ASM Press, 2023. I am presently examining how epidemics have altered Native American History. These investigations have included the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians; Measles and the Whitman Tragedy; and Smallpox and the Turning Point of the French and Indian War. See Biography section for the citations.

Health Systems: As National Director for Neurology for the Department of Veterans Affairs, I was interested in the development of national systems of subspecialty care. Six Parkinson's Disease Centers (PADRECC's) and two MS Centers of Excellence (MS-CEs) were organized to provide clinical care, education and to encourage research in the VA on a national scale. I proposed VA Epilepsy Centers of Excellence, which the Congress passed soon after my retirement. An ALS Registry in VHA was developed as a vehicle to facilitate cooperation between the VA, the NIH, and the ALS Association to advance the understanding, treatment and research into this lethal neurodegenerative disease.

Get In Touch

Contacts

Email