
Juan M Pascual, MD
Pediatric Neurologist
Professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center
- Languages Spoken:
- English,

Biography
Juan Pascual, M.D., Ph.D., is a neurologist at Children’s Health℠ who specializes in genetic and metabolic diseases of the nervous and neuromuscular systems.
Dr. Pascual received his medical degree from the Universidad de Granada in Spain and his Ph.D. in molecular physiology and biophysics from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He also received residency training in pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine/St. Louis Children’s Hospital and in neurology and pediatric neurology at the Neurological Institute of New York/Columbia University Medical Center.
As one of few actively practicing pediatric neurologists in the nation who is also a laboratory scientist, Dr. Pascual is interested in the molecular mechanisms that cause inherited metabolic and excitability disorders using electrophysiology and nuclear magnetic resonance (MRI) both in human subjects and in models of human diseases.
His laboratory is located in the newest biomedical research building (NL) at UT Southwestern and is an integral part of the Department of Neurology and Neurotherapeutics. The laboratory is home to scientists from very broad backgrounds and levels of training and expertise who have joined efforts to endow both pediatric neurology and human developmental neuroscience with a strong scientific basis.
As a clinician, Dr. Pascual specializes in genetic and metabolic diseases of the nervous and neuromuscular systems of infants, children and adults, with a particular emphasis on complex diagnostic problems, second opinions for patients visiting from the rest of the U.S. and abroad, and in clinical trials.
Dr. Pascual received certification in neurology with Special Qualification in child neurology from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He has special clinical research expertise in rare diseases, glucose metabolism, mitochondrial, degenerative and multi-organ disorders.
Education and Training
- Medical School
- Universidad de Granada (1990)
- Internship
- Washington University School of Medicine (1999), Pediatrics
- Residency
- Columbia Univ College of Phys & Surgeons (2002), Pediatric Neurology
- Graduate School
- Baylor College of Medicine (1995)
- Board Certification
- American Board of Psy&Neurology/Child Neurology
Conditions
Treatments
Departments and Programs
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Research Interests
- 2-hit, multiple-gene and explanatory validity of complex causation models
- Brain metabolism
- Clinical trials for neurological and genetic disorders
- Complex, rare and undiagnosed diseases
- Final common pathways shared by diseases of neural development
- Functional brain imaging
- Human brain development
- Mitochondrial disorders
- Neural excitability: synaptic transmission
- Neurodegenerative diseases of children
- Neurogenetics
- Sentience, autonomy and sources of truth
- Whole exome and genome analyses in neurological disorders
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Publications
- Glucose Transporter Type I Deficiency (G1D) at 25 (1990-2015): Presumptions, Facts, and the Lives of Persons With This Rare Disease., Pascual JM, Ronen GM Pediatr. Neurol. 2015 Aug
- Triheptanoin for Glucose Transporter Type I Deficiency (G1D): Modulation of Human Ictogenesis, Cerebral Metabolic Rate, and Cognitive Indices by a Food Supplement., Pascual JM, Liu P, Mao D, Kelly DI, Hernandez A, Sheng M, Good LB, Ma Q, Marin-Valencia I, Zhang X, Park JY, Hynan LS, Stavinoha P, Roe CR, Lu H JAMA Neurol 2014 Aug
- Heptanoate as a neural fuel: energetic and neurotransmitter precursors in normal and glucose transporter I-deficient (G1D) brain., Marin-Valencia I, Good LB, Ma Q, Malloy CR, Pascual JM J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 2012 Oct
- Analysis of tumor metabolism reveals mitochondrial glucose oxidation in genetically diverse human glioblastomas in the mouse brain in vivo., Marin-Valencia I, Yang C, Mashimo T, Cho S, Baek H, Yang XL, Rajagopalan KN, Maddie M, Vemireddy V, Zhao Z, Cai L, Good L, Tu BP, Hatanpaa KJ, Mickey BE, Matés JM, Pascual JM, Maher EA, Malloy CR, Deberardinis RJ, Bachoo RM Cell Metab. 2012 Jun 15 6 827-37
- Glut1 deficiency (G1D): Epilepsy and metabolic dysfunction in a mouse model of the most common human phenotype., Marin-Valencia I, Good LB, Ma Q, Duarte J, Bottiglieri T, Sinton CM, Heilig CW, Pascual JM Neurobiology of disease 2012 Apr
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Professional Activities
- Children's Medical Center Dallas (2007)
- Parkland Memorial Hospital (2007)
- UT Southwestern Medical Center Hospitals and Clinics (2007)
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Awards and Honors
- D Magazine Best Pediatric Specialists (2018)
- 100% Patient satisfaction - Division of Pediatric Neurology, Children's Medical Center Dallas (2013)
- Elected full member - Académie Européenne des Sciences, des Arts et des Lettres (2013)
- Research Mentor Award - Children's Medical Center Dallas (2012)
- Elected corresponding member - Académie Européenne des Sciences, des Arts et des Lettres (2010)
- Miembro correspondiente - Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Telmo (2010)
- Young Investigator Award - Neurobiology of Disease in Children (2009)
- Miembro correspondiente - Real Academia Española (2004)
- Miembro de número - Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (2004)