Department of Neurology

Research Team

A. Gordon Smith, M.D.
Dr. Smith is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and Salt Lake Veterans Administration Hospital.  He completed neuromuscular and clinical neurophysiology training at the University of Michigan and was trained in the use of skin biopsy at Johns Hopkins University.  His primary area of interest is peripheral nerve disease, and he is the Director of the University of Utah Peripheral Neuropathy Clinic and Cutaneous Innervation Laboratory.  Dr. Smith is currently the Principal Investigator of an NIDDK funded R01 “Cutaneous Measures of Diabetic Neuropathy” (DK064814).  He is the recipient of a University of Utah Seed Grant, “Nerve regeneration capacity and the Metabolic Syndrome.”  He has served as an investigator or co-investigator on 8 multi-center clinical trials. He has trained 13 neuromuscular fellows, and has mentored both neurology resident and medical student research projects.  In collaboration with Dr. Singleton, he has established an association between painful sensory neuropathy and impaired glucose tolerance.  He has demonstrated the reproducibility of quantitative skin biopsy measurements, and shown that skin biopsy is a sensitive measure of small fiber injury in subjects with impaired glucose tolerance and early diabetic neuropathy. In collaboration with Dr. Singleton, he has demonstrated an association between aspects of Metabolic Syndrome and Peripheral Neuropathy.  Dr. Smith has published 23 peer-reviewed articles, 15 review articles, 10 book chapters, 50 abstracts and is Editor of the Handbook of Peripheral Neuropathy (Marcel Dekker).

J. Robinson Singleton, M.D.
Dr. Singleton is an Associate Professor of Neurology, and Director of the Neurophysiology Laboratory at the Salt Lake City Veterans’ Administration Hospital. Dr. Singleton is a neuroscientist whose work combines a clinical interest in neuromuscular disease with his basic science inquiries into neuronal injury due to metabolic stress. He completed a clinical neuromuscular disease fellowship at the University of Michigan, followed by a basic science fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Eva Feldman. Based on these studies, Dr. Singleton completed a 5 year NIH Clinical Scientist Development Award “IGF-I Receptor Prevents Apoptosis in Human Neuroblasts”, and received technical and supply assistance from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through its Fellowship to Faculty Transition Program. He was the Principal Investigator on a 3 year NINDS funded clinical Pilot study “IGT Causes Neuropathy” that has characterized IGT neuropathy and demonstrated individualized diet and exercise counseling improves metabolic function and small fiber measures of neuropathy in these patients.  His prospective studies established an association between painful sensory neuropathy and impaired glucose tolerance have changed the way in which idiopathic neuropathy is evaluated. He has participated as a co-investigator in four previous or ongoing clinical trials, and is a co-Investigator with Dr. Smith in the NIDDK-funded Cutaneous Measures of Diabetic Neuropathy study.

Clinical Study Coordinators

Charles Latner
Charlie has worked as an administrative assistant in the Department of Neurology for 3 years and has served as the Project Manager for the Peripheral Neuropathy Research Group for 6 months.  His responsibilities include oversight of the study coordinators and their interactions with the different entities involved in our research efforts including the Cutaneous Innervation Laboratory, General Clinical Research Center, Institutional Review Board, and Utah Neurophysiology Core Laboratory.  He is also responsible for interactions with collaborators from within and outside the University of Utah.   He cooperates with administrators in the University of Utah Health Care Network and Diabetes Clinic in order to facilitate subject recruitment.

Ashley Burch

Collin Arsenault

Research Laboratory Technicians

Erin Bragg
Erin has been employed as a technician in the lab for one year.  She has expertise in the immunohistochemistry and processing of skin biopsies for assessment of cutaneous innervation. She will be responsible for coordinating the collection and management of skin biopsy data. After the biopsy slides have been prepared, she will be responsible for counting nerve fibers and measuring epidermal length to calculate IENFD, and measuring dermal plexus density. She will perform data entry and management and will be responsible for coordinating ongoing multicenter quality control efforts. She is responsible for coordinating scheduled quality control procedures in collaboration with labs at Johns Hopkins University, University of Rochester and the Cleveland Clinic.