Michael S. Okun (born July 5, 1971) is an American neurologist, neuroscientist and author. He is the co-founder and director of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases at University of Florida Health and is also the chair of the Department of Neurology at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

and the Medical Director/Advisor for the

Parkinson's Foundation The Parkinson's Foundation is a national organization that funds research and provides educational resources to Parkinson’s disease patients and caregivers. The Parkinson's Foundation was established in 2016 through the merger of the National P ...

. He is the fifth person at the University's College of Medicine to hold the rank of Distinguished Professor.

Career

Tourette syndrome

Okun opened his laboratory in 2002 at the McKnight Brain Institute on the University of Florida Campus. The laboratory focused on uncovering the underpinnings of human tic in Tourette syndrome, exploring non-motor basal ganglia circuitry in Parkinson’s disease, Tourette, dystonia, OCD and tremor and the aim of the laboratory was to innovate neuromodulation and circuit-based treatments for multiple neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Okun recognized that some diseases lacked animal models which would recapitulate the human condition(s). He advocated and implemented a neuroethics-based approach to utilize the

operating room Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

and the outpatient clinic setting for research into these neurological conditions. The Okun laboratory originally focused on Tourette syndrome because of the paroxysmal nature of human tic, which made it ideal to explore the physiological underpinnings of the movement disorder. His work has been important in understanding the biological changes underpinning the

neural network A neural network is a network or circuit of biological neurons, or, in a modern sense, an artificial neural network, composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus, a neural network is either a biological neural network, made up of biological ...

changes which underpin the symptomatic benefits of deep brain stimulation and for moving toward symptom and circuit based treatments rather than disease based treatments. Okun has trained over 70 clinical MD fellows and many researchers in

basal ganglia The basal ganglia (BG), or basal nuclei, are a group of subcortical nuclei, of varied origin, in the brains of vertebrates. In humans, and some primates, there are some differences, mainly in the division of the globus pallidus into an extern ...

and related disorders. Okun, Foote and Gunduz were featured on an episode of Vital Signs with CNN's Sanjay Gupta, who scrubbed in to the operating room with the team and explored their approach to innovating new therapies for Tourette syndrome. Okun and the University of Florida based group performed a series of

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

, foundation and philanthropically funded experiments between 2002 and 2022 that resulted in the successful characterization of human tic physiology.

Parkinson’s Disease Deep Brain Stimulation

Okun designed and carried out one of the first large prospective randomized Parkinson’s disease trials comparing the two most common DBS brain targets. The study, known as the NIH COMPARE trial, revealed unilateral STN or GPi DBS resulted in similar motor benefits, however there were important advantages and disadvantages for using each brain target.

Awards

Okun has been recognized as the top clinical-researcher at the University of Florida College of Medicine (2021) and he was also recognized in a 2015

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

ceremony by the

Obama administration Barack Obama's tenure as the 44th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2009, and ended on January 20, 2017. A Democrat from Illinois, Obama took office following a decisive victory over Republican ...

as a Champion of Change for

Parkinson's Disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

Writings

Okun's first book as an author was ''Lessons from the Bedside'' which this was published in 1995 as a book of prose and poetry which chronicled the medical school experience. He was interviewed for the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

series Healing Words (2008) which focused on poetry in medicine. Okun has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, and

the Journal of the American Medical Association ''The Journal of the American Medical Association'' (''JAMA'') is a peer-reviewed medical journal published 48 times a year by the American Medical Association. It publishes original research, reviews, and editorials covering all aspects of biom ...

. He has authored or co-authored 14 books and hundreds of research articles.

Selected publications

*Okun, Michael S. (2013). Parkinson's treatment : the 10 secrets to a happier life (English ed.).

nited States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

reateSpace ISBN 978-1-4818-5499-3. OCLC 842155662 was translated into over 20 languages and it was the first to propose the idea of a coming "

Parkinson's Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

pandemic." *Dorsey, Ray (2020). Ending Parkinson's disease : a prescription for action. Todd Sherer, Michael S. Okun, Bastiaan R. Bloem (First ed.). New York. ISBN 978-1-5417-2452-5. OCLC 1108524282. which was co-authored by Ray Dorsey, Todd Scherer and Bastiaan Bloem, Okun introduced the idea of a PACT to end

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

(Prevent, Advocate, Care, develop Treatments). *