Our Officers
Meet our officers
Russ Saneto earned is doctoral degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, in human biochemical genetics. He did a postdoctoral fellowship at UCLA in the lab of Dr. Jean deVellis in developmental neurobiology. He then went to Des Moines University school of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery. After graduating from medical school in three years he did his pediatric, pediatric neurology, and pediatric neurophysiology fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr Saneto then joined the faculty at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital in 2001. Currently he is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Adjunct Associate Professor of Pediatrics at both institutions. Dr. Saneto’s clinical interests are in the diagnosis and treatment of intractable epilepsies, including medical, dietary, and surgical interventions. He also has a very strong interest in neurometabolic and neurogenetics in general and their relationship to mitochondrial disease in particular. His research interests are centered on the diagnosis and treatment of mitochondrial disease and patients with the co-morbidity of epilepsy and mitochondrial disease. He is currently the secretary/treasurer of the Mitochondrial Medicine Society.Secretary Treasurer
Sumit Parikh, MD, is a neurometabolic and neurogenetics Staff Clinician at Cleveland Clinic. He specializes in the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of developmental delay, neuro-degeneration and metabolic disease. Dr. Parikh is the Co-Director of the Cleveland Clinic Neurogenetics, Metabolic & Mitochondrial disease Program and the Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Clinic.His clinical interests include the genetic diagnosis and treatment of patients with mitochondrial cytopathies, inborn errors of metabolism, cognitive and developmental regression, autism and developmental delays.
Dr. Parikh completed his residency in pediatrics and fellowship in child neurology at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. He received additional training in genetics and metabolism at Cleveland Clinic and Centers for Inherited Diseases of Metabolism. Dr. Parikh has had the privilege of having Bruce Cohen, Charles Hoppel and Marvin Natowicz serve as his teachers during that time.
He joined the Cleveland Clinic in 2004. Since 2007, Dr. Parikh has been selected as one of “America’s Best Doctors.”
Dr. Parikh’s research and publications focus on improving the diagnosis and management of mitochondrial disease, identifying genetic etiologies of epilepsy, autism, developmental delays and neurodegenerative diseases and improving patient and physician knowledge of metabolic and genetic diseases. He has been an invited lecturer at national meetings and hospitals.
He serves as a medical advisor to the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation and Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome Association. He is a councilor of the Mitochondrial Medicine Society and serves on their Diagnosis Standards and Outreach Committee. He also serves as the Society’s website administrator. He is on the scientific planning committee of the Child Neurology Society, and serves on both the Cleveland Clinic Child Advocacy Board and Autism Standards Committee. He is a reviewer for the Journal of Child Neurology.
Dr. Copeland, is a senior investigator and head of the Mitochondrial DNA Replication group within the Division of Intramural Research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, NIH. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry/Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin in 1988. He completed his postdoctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Pathology studying the human DNA polymerase alpha/primase complex. In 1993 he joined the NIEHS where he has been studying mitochondrial DNA replication and mitochondrial disorders in human diseases. His group was the first to clone and overproduce both subunits for the human mitochondrial DNA polymerase. His current focus is to understand how mutations in the gene for DNA polymerase gamma cause Alpers syndrome, PEO, and ataxia/neuropathy diseases and how antiviral nucleoside analogs cause mitochondrial toxicity. He has published over 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Copeland has previously served as president of the Mitochondria Research Society from 2005 to 2007 and as co-chair and chair of the grants committee for the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation, 2005-2009. He presently serves on the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board for the UMDF as well as the scientific planning committee.