Juan Toledo Atucha, MD, PhD
Dr. Toledo’s focus of interest is the study of neurodegenerative diseases, mainly Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body disease, encompassing Parkinson’s disease -with and without dementia- and dementia with Lewy bodies, and the overlap of different neurodegenerative and non-neurodegenerative diseases in subjects with dementia. In his studies he combines cerebrospinal fluid, neuroimaging, neuropathological and clinical measures to model disease progression and biomarker changes and predict clinical outcomes. His main focus of interest is the characterization of Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers, the study of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease stages and the characterization of prevalence and biomarker correlates of coincident diseases in demented patients. Dr. Toledo graduated from University of Navarra medical school in 2004 and completed his residency with Clinica Universidad de Navarra in 2009. He then moved to the USA, where he worked as a researcher in the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Toledo then completed his neurology residency at Houston Methodist Hospital, followed by a movement disorders fellowship at the University of Florida. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Houston Methodist Hospital.
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Shannon Chiu, MD, MSc
Dr. Shannon Chiu received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Williams College, after which she studied at the University of Cambridge, U.K., where she obtained a M.Sc. degree in Experimental Psychology. She subsequently obtained her M.D. degree from New York University in 2014, where she also completed her Internal Medicine internship. She completed her Neurology residency at Mayo Clinic Rochester in 2018, and most recently her Movement Disorders Fellowship at the University of Florida in 2020. During fellowship, she was selected as a Smallwood Foundation fellow. Dr. Chiu’s research interests include Lewy Body Dementia, Parkinson’s disease, deep brain stimulation, and tremor.
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Tracy Tholanikunnel, MD
Dr. Tracy Tholanikunnel graduated from College of Charleston in 2010 with a major in Molecular Biology and a minor in Chemistry. She graduated medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina. Following medical school, she completed her neurology residency at Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Tholanikunnel then completed her fellowship in Movement Disorders at University of Florida where she was the Parkinson Foundation Institutional Fellow. She was also the recipient of the Mangurian Fixel McKnight Collaboration for Pilot Studies in Lewy Body Dementias. Dr. Tholanikunnel’s research focuses on gaining a better understanding of cognitive fluctuations in people with Parkinson Disease and Dementia with Lewy Body.
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Kelly Curtis, MD
Kelly Curtis is a recent graduate of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth in Hanover, NH where she completed an MD in May of 2023. Initially, her decision to pursue medicine began through exposure to neuroscience and behavior as an undergraduate, where she studied psychology and pursued a thesis on the neural correlates of speech perception. Throughout medical school, while interested in several specialties, she would always revert back to neurology, not just because of her fascination by all things related to the brain, but also because of the large breadth of patient populations she has gotten to work with while on neurology service. Her goal is to pursue a Neurology Residency position through the 2024 Match cycle, ideally a program located in the Southeast. She sees herself balancing clinical work with research and is currently working on the 1Florida ADRC study regarding patients with dementia and their caregivers. This study is well-matched to her pre-existing interests, for it contains elements of behavioral neurology and allows her to work directly with patients. Her passion for medicine is equally matched by that for the arts, and she has held many roles related to theater and performing arts over the years. She has thoroughly enjoyed her relocation to Gainesville, and is honored to join an incredible team.