JONI K. DOHERTY
EAR, NOSE & THROAT
Associate Professor of Otolaryngology; Division Chief of Otology & Neurotology
Keck Medicine of USC
In 2010, Joni Doherty, MD, PhD, FACS transitioned from laboratory to clinical research on the familial disorder called Neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2). This disorder causes tumors on the critical nerves in the brain, including those for balance and hearing; therefore, patients suffer inevitable deafness of both ears and chronic imbalance. There is no cure and patients usually die of the disease in the third or fourth decade of life. Working with Dr. Marco Giovannini, MD, PhD, Dr. Doherty started the first FDA-regulated clinical drug trial in 2012 using the drug everolimus (RAD001) to treat NF2 patients. They found that the drug significantly slowed tumor growth in most NF2 patients with growing tumors.
