Dr Evans is a clinical and research neurologist devoted to the study of epilepsy and neurological disorders associated with ion channel dysfunction. He is a graduate of the University of Kentucky in Psychology in 1978 and of the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1982. He did his postgraduate medical training in St. Louis, at Barnes Hospital/Washington University for his Internal Medicine internship and at Washington University for his Neurology residency and Neuropharmacology fellowship. From 1989 to 2011 he was on the faculty of the Department of Neurology at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield, Illinois. In 2011 he joined the faculty of the University of Louisville, School of Medicine as Professor of Neurology and Director of the Epilepsy Division of Neurology.

Dr. Evans’ primary clinical interest is in the diagnosis and management of epilepsy and clinical electrophysiology. His research interest is in the role of ion channels in producing the symptoms of neurological disease, especially epilepsy and pain.

Education

Undergrad: University of Kentucky (1978)
Med school: University of Louisville (1982)

Training

Internal Medicine internship: Barnes Hospital (St. Louis, 1982-3)

Neurology residency: Washington University (St. Louis, 1984-1987)

Neuropharmacology fellowship: Washington University (St. Louis, 1987-1989)

Board Certifications

Neurology (American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology)

Clinical Neurophysiology (American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology)

Clinical Interests

Epilepsy, seizures, EEG, electrophysiology, neurophysiological intraoperative monitoring, evoked potentials, surgery for epilepsy

Research Interests

Dr. Evans’ research laboratory is devoted to research on neuronal ion channels, especially as it relates to epilepsy and pain. The primary research techniques used in his lab are patch clamp, sharp electrode and in vitro extracellular recording. Ion channels of current special interest are transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1), transient receptor potential ankyrin 1 (TRPA1), and voltage-sensitive sodium channels, which are important in pain, and gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA) receptors, which are important in epilepsy.

Selected Publications

Evans MS, Verma-Ahuja S, Naritoku DK, Espinosa JA: Intraoperative human vagus nerve compound action potentials. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica 110(4):232-8, 2004.

Sun LY, Evans MS, Hsieh J, Panici J, Bartke A: Increased neurogenesis in dentate gyrus of long-lived Ames dwarf mice. Endocrinology 146: 1138-1144, 2005.

Long C, Chen M-F, Sarwinski S, Chen P-Y, Si M, Hoffer, BJ, Evans MS, Lee TJF: Monoamine oxidase inhibitors block alpha7-nACHR-mediated cerebral nitrergic neurogenic vasodilation. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 291(1):H202-9, 2006.

Evans MS, Cady CJ, Disney KE, Yang L, LaGuardia JJ: Three brief epileptic seizures reduce inhibitory synaptic currents, GABAA currents, and GABAA receptor subunits. Epilepsia 47: 1655-64, 2006.

Long C, Yang L, Faingold CL, Steven Evans M: Excitatory amino acid receptor-mediated responses in periaqueductal gray neurons are increased during ethanol withdrawal. Neuropharmacology 52(3):802-11, 2007.

Evans MS. The ionic mechanism of GABA and GABAA receptor regulation of stem cell proliferation and differentiation. Cellscience Reviews 5(1), 2008.

Jeffry JA, Yu SQ, Sikand P, Parihar A, Evans MS, Premkumar LS: Selective targeting of TRPV1 expressing sensory nerve terminals in the spinal cord for long lasting analgesia. PLoS One 4(9): e7021, 2009.

Johnson SR, Copello JA, Evans MS, Suarez AV: A biochemical characterization of the major peptides from the Venom of the giant Neotropical hunting ant Dinoponera australis. Toxicon: Toxicon 55(4):702-10, 2010.

Faingold CL, Evans MS: Pathophysiology of Generalized Tonic-Clonic Seizures. In: Atlas of the Epilepsies (Tomis Panayiotopouilos, Ed.), Springer, Heidelberg, 2010.

Raisinghani M, Jeffry JA, Evans MS and Premkumar LS: Activation Characteristics of Transient Receptor Potential Ankyrin 1 and its Role in Nociception. American Journal of Physiology 301(3):C587-600, 2011.

Evans MS, Cheng X, Jeffry JA, Disney KE and Premkumar LS. Sumatriptan Inhibits TRPV1 Channels in Trigeminal Neurons. Headache (in press) 2011.