January 28, 2004, ST. LOUIS -- The Barnes-Jewish Hospital Foundation board of directors has approved two new Barnes-Jewish Hospital endowed chairs in the field of neurology.

Anne H. Cross, MD, has been named the first holder of the Manny and Rosalyn Rosenthal and Dr. John L. Trotter MS Center Chair in Neuroimmunology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. A professor of neurology and section head of neuroimmunology, she serves as the director of The John L. Trotter MS Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine.

This new chair was established to fund equipment and research at the MS Center. The chair is named to recognize the generous donation from Rosalyn Rosenthal of Fort Worth, Texas, and her family. It also honors the multiple sclerosis research and exceptional patient care of the late Dr. John L. Trotter, who founded the MS Center in 1978. Many of Dr. Trotter''s former patients, family members and friends also donated to the endowment.

"Being the first recipient of this chair is meaningful to me in a very personal way, John Trotter was my mentor and close friend for 10 years," says Cross. "I am especially happy to know his name will live on at Barnes-Jewish Hospital with this chair. John worked here for most of his career, and dearly loved both the hospital and university. He devoted his career to research into the cause and treatment of MS. This new chair will greatly aid the MS research at this center. The Trotter family and I are grateful to the Rosenthal family for making this possible."

The Foundation Board also named Joel S. Perlmutter, MD, as the new holder of the Elliot H. Stein Family Chair in Neurology. Dr. Perlmutter is a professor of neurology, radiology and physical therapy and associate professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine.

Established in 1994, the chair will help support Dr. Perlmutter''s research, particularly in the area of Parkinson''s disease. Contributions of several donors made this chair possible to honor former Jewish Hospital Board Member, the late Elliot H. Stein.

"It is a great responsibility and honor to be named chair. I appreciate the huge commitment that the Stein family has for Parkinson''s research," says Perlmutter. "I''m very appreciative to the Stein family and the foundation."

Including these two endowed positions there are now 16 chairs established by donors to support clinical research and patient care at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

For more information, please contact Tracee Champa at (314) 286-0670.