Scholars@Duke
Jeffrey Brian Russ

Jeffrey Brian Russ

George W. Brumley, Jr. M.D Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatrics, Neurology
jeffrey.russ@duke.edu
311 Research Drive, Box 2900, Durham, NC 27710
311 Research Drive, Box 2900, Durham, NC 27710

Selected Publications

Two Novel Pediatric Cases of EIF4A2-Related Disorder With Refractory Infantile Spasms.

Journal Article Am J Med Genet A · November 4, 2025 With the rapid adoption and increasing use of genetic testing in pediatric neurology, the discovery and characterization of novel pathogenic variants resulting in neurodevelopmental and seizure disorders are becoming more common. One such disorder is EIF4A ... Full text Link to item Cite

Communicating neurological prognosis in the prenatal period: a narrative review and practice guidelines.

Journal Article Pediatr Res · November 2025 Clinicians may face an array of challenges in conducting fetal neurological consultations including prognostic uncertainty, a lack of training in fetal counseling, and limited opportunity to build rapport with families. In this setting, it is critical to e ... Full text Link to item Cite

RNA-programmable cell-type monitoring and manipulation in the human cortex with CellREADR.

Journal Article Cell Rep · August 26, 2025 Reliable and systematic access to diverse cell types is necessary for understanding the organization, function, and pathophysiology of human neural circuits. Methods for targeting human neural populations are scarce and currently center on identifying tran ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cell-specific expression biases in human cortex of genes associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

Journal Article Sci Rep · July 2, 2025 Up to one third of congenital brain malformations and neurodevelopmental disorders are attributable to single-gene pathogenic variants, and yet we have little understanding of the cellular pathophysiology in the nervous system that arises from these varian ... Full text Link to item Cite

Fetal malformations of cortical development: review and clinical guidance.

Journal Article Brain · June 3, 2025 Malformations of cortical development (MCDs) are a heterogeneous family of congenital brain malformations that originate from disturbed development of the cerebral cortex. MCDs can arise from primary genetic disorders that lead to dysfunction of the molecu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Electroclinical Syndromes: Neonatal Onset

Chapter · January 1, 2025 Theneonatal-onset electroclinical syndromes can be categorized as selflimiteddisorders or Early Infantile Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathies(EIDEE). Self-limited syndromes include Self-Limited Neonatal Epilepsy (SeLNE)and Self-Limited Familial Ne ... Full text Cite

Maternal Prenatal Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illicit Drugs and Associations with Childhood Cancer Subtypes.

Journal Article Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev · March 1, 2024 BACKGROUND: The association between childhood cancer risk and maternal prenatal substance use/abuse remains uncertain due to modest sample sizes and heterogeneous study designs. METHODS: We surveyed parents of children with cancer regarding maternal gestat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Supplementary Table S1 from Maternal Prenatal Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illicit Drugs and Associations with Childhood Cancer Subtypes

Other · March 1, 2024 <p>Comparison of demographic characteristics of respondents reporting any maternal substance use during pregnancy vs. those reporting no substance use</p> ... Full text Cite

Supplementary Table S1 from Maternal Prenatal Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illicit Drugs and Associations with Childhood Cancer Subtypes

Other · March 1, 2024 <p>Comparison of demographic characteristics of respondents reporting any maternal substance use during pregnancy vs. those reporting no substance use</p> ... Full text Cite

Supplementary Table S3 from Maternal Prenatal Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illicit Drugs and Associations with Childhood Cancer Subtypes

Other · March 1, 2024 <p>Associations between prenatal substance use and childhood cancer subtype in subset of biological mother respondents</p> ... Full text Cite

Data from Maternal Prenatal Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illicit Drugs and Associations with Childhood Cancer Subtypes

Other · March 1, 2024 <div>AbstractBackground:<p>The association between childhood cancer risk and maternal prenatal substance use/abuse remains uncertain due to modest sample sizes and heterogeneous study designs.</p>Methods:<p>We surveyed paren ... Full text Cite

Supplementary Table S2 from Maternal Prenatal Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illicit Drugs and Associations with Childhood Cancer Subtypes

Other · March 1, 2024 <p>Univariate associations between prenatal substance use and childhood cancer subtype</p> ... Full text Cite

Supplementary Table S2 from Maternal Prenatal Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illicit Drugs and Associations with Childhood Cancer Subtypes

Other · March 1, 2024 <p>Univariate associations between prenatal substance use and childhood cancer subtype</p> ... Full text Cite

Supplementary Table S3 from Maternal Prenatal Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illicit Drugs and Associations with Childhood Cancer Subtypes

Other · March 1, 2024 <p>Associations between prenatal substance use and childhood cancer subtype in subset of biological mother respondents</p> ... Full text Cite

Data from Maternal Prenatal Use of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Illicit Drugs and Associations with Childhood Cancer Subtypes

Other · March 1, 2024 <div>AbstractBackground:<p>The association between childhood cancer risk and maternal prenatal substance use/abuse remains uncertain due to modest sample sizes and heterogeneous study designs.</p>Methods:<p>We surveyed paren ... Full text Cite

Clinical and Imaging Findings in Children with Myelin Oligodendrocyte Glycoprotein Antibody Associated Disease (MOGAD): From Presentation to Relapse.

Journal Article AJNR Am J Neuroradiol · February 7, 2024 BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-antibody associated disease (MOGAD) is an increasingly recognized cause of demyelinating disease in children. The purpose of this study is to characterize the CNS imaging manifestations of pediatr ... Full text Link to item Cite

The association of placental pathology and neurodevelopmental outcomes in patients with neonatal encephalopathy.

Journal Article Pediatr Res · November 2023 Featured Publication BACKGROUND: Studies conflict on how acute versus chronic placental pathology impacts outcomes after neonatal encephalopathy from presumed hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). We examine how outcomes after presumed HIE vary by placental pathology categori ... Full text Link to item Cite

Acquired Brain Injuries Across the Perinatal Spectrum: Pathophysiology and Emerging Therapies.

Journal Article Pediatr Neurol · November 2023 The development of the central nervous system can be directly disrupted by a variety of acquired factors, including infectious, inflammatory, hypoxic-ischemic, and toxic insults. Influences external to the fetus also impact neurodevelopment, including plac ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Next Frontier in Neurology Is In Utero

Journal Article JAMA Neurology · October 1, 2023 Featured Publication This Viewpoint disusses the importance of prioritizing access, safety, and social inclusion for human trials in the paradigm shift toward fetal therapies. ... Full text Cite

The progenitor basis of cortical projection neuron diversity.

Journal Article Curr Opin Neurobiol · August 2023 Featured Publication Diverse glutamatergic projection neurons (PNs) mediate myriad processing streams and output channels of the cerebral cortex. Yet, how different types of neural progenitors, such as radial glia (RGs) and intermediate progenitors (IPs), produce PN diversity, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Child Neurology: Infantile Biotin Thiamine Responsive Basal Ganglia Disease: Case Report and Brief Review.

Journal Article Neurology · April 25, 2023 Biotin thiamine responsive basal ganglia disease (BTRBGD) is an inherited autosomal recessive disorder that results from the inability of thiamine to cross the blood-brain barrier. It is considered a treatable condition if vitamin supplementation, most com ... Full text Link to item Cite

Section 2: Videos by Subspecialty

Journal Article Neurology · April 18, 2023 Full text Cite

Neonatal Encephalopathy: Beyond Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy.

Journal Article Neoreviews · March 2021 Neonatal encephalopathy is a clinical syndrome of neurologic dysfunction that encompasses a broad spectrum of symptoms and severity, from mild irritability and feeding difficulties to coma and seizures. It is vital for providers to understand that the term ... Full text Link to item Cite

Management of Pediatric Movement Disorders: Present and Future.

Journal Article Semin Pediatr Neurol · April 2018 Management of movement disorders in children is an evolving field. This article outlines the major categories of treatment options for pediatric movement disorders and general guidelines for their use. We review the evidence for existing therapies, which c ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Arginase Pathway in Neonatal Brain Hypoxia-Ischemia.

Journal Article Dev Neurosci · 2018 Brain damage after hypoxia-ischemia (HI) occurs in an age-dependent manner. Neuroprotective strategies assumed to be effective in adults might have deleterious effects in the immature brain. In order to create effective therapies, the complex pathophysiolo ... Full text Link to item Cite

A Role for Dystonia-Associated Genes in Spinal GABAergic Interneuron Circuitry.

Journal Article Cell Rep · October 17, 2017 Spinal interneurons are critical modulators of motor circuit function. In the dorsal spinal cord, a set of interneurons called GABApre presynaptically inhibits proprioceptive sensory afferent terminals, thus negatively regulating sensory-motor signaling. A ... Full text Link to item Cite

Misexpression of ptf1a in cortical pyramidal cells in vivo promotes an inhibitory peptidergic identity.

Journal Article J Neurosci · April 15, 2015 The intracellular transcriptional milieu wields considerable influence over the induction of neuronal identity. The transcription factor Ptf1a has been proposed to act as an identity "switch" between developmentally related precursors in the spinal cord (G ... Full text Link to item Cite

From induction to conduction: how intrinsic transcriptional priming of extrinsic neuronal connectivity shapes neuronal identity.

Journal Article Open Biol · October 2014 Every behaviour of an organism relies on an intricate and vastly diverse network of neurons whose identity and connectivity must be specified with extreme precision during development. Intrinsically, specification of neuronal identity depends heavily on th ... Full text Link to item Cite

An identity crisis: the need for core competencies in undergraduate medical education.

Journal Article Med Educ Online · April 29, 2013 A medical student perspective on the role of core competencies in undergraduate medical education in light of medical education reform associated with recent Flexner II. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Corticospinal tract insult alters GABAergic circuitry in the mammalian spinal cord.

Journal Article Front Neural Circuits · 2013 During perinatal development, corticospinal tract (CST) projections into the spinal cord help refine spinal circuitry. Although the normal developmental processes that are controlled by the arrival of corticospinal input are becoming clear, little is known ... Full text Link to item Cite

Validation of affective and neutral sentence content for prosodic testing.

Journal Article Behav Res Methods · November 2008 Conducting a study of emotional prosody often requires that one have a valid set of stimuli for assessing perceived emotion in vocal intonation. In this study, we created a list of sentences with both affective and neutral content, and then validated them ... Full text Link to item Cite