Gerald Ballough, Ph.D.

Dr. Ballough earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Millersville University of Pennsylvania in 1981, and master’s and doctorate (Ph.D.) degrees in Physiology from The Pennsylvania State University in 1986 and 1990, respectively.  He was then selected to be the first international postdoctoral research fellow from Eli Lilly Pharmaceuticals and was assigned to l’Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France, where he solved the paradox of the GABA Toxicity Hypothesis. Motivated by a desire to serve his country after the first Gulf War, he returned to work at the U.S. Army Medical Institute of Chemical Defense with a National Research Council (NRC) Research Associateship. In the mid ’90s, Dr. Ballough co-spearheaded the team—in collaboration with Dr. Margaret Filbert of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense—that provided the first evidence of an entirely novel mechanism of protecting against brain damage from nerve agent (“nerve gas”) induced seizures called “Neuroprotection.” Related to this work, Dr. Ballough was featured in July 2007’s Neurology Today and was invited, by the National Institutes of Health to serve as one of 13 expert panelists to identify the most viable neuroprotectants against seizure-related brain damage resulting from nerve agent exposure.  He is the primary author of the Neuroprotection chapter appearing in the most recent Textbooks of Military Medicine: Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare (2008).  In addition, he has more than 20 combined publications (open and limited access) and has delivered more than 40 presentations around the world.

At La Salle, Dr. Ballough received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2001, became a member of the Lasaillian Leadership Institute in 2006, and received the Roland Holroyd Award for teaching and contributions to the LaSalle community, presented by Sigma Phi Lambda fraternity in 2007. In 2008 he received the Milton Hershey School Alumnus of the Year Award.  Thanks to a generous endowment—from the family of Dr. Frank P. Palopoli (inventor of the fertility drug, Clomid)—Dr. Ballough has a fully equipped research laboratory, in the new Holroyd Science Center, and an unprecedented opportunity to train undergraduate research students at La Salle.  In addition, Dr. Ballough is honored to be a member of the Faculty Senate, the faculty advisor to, and an “Honorary Sister” in, Delta Phi Epsilon (DPhiE) Sorority, and a member of and faculty advisor to La Salle’s Karate Club.

Areas of Expertise
Neurobiology/Neurotoxicity
Physiology/Anatomy

Education
Post-Doctoral Associateship, 1994, National
Research Council
Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 1992, Eli Lilly/ l’Université
Louis Pasteur
Ph.D. Biology 1990, The
Pennsylvania State University
M.S., Physiology, 1986, The Pennsylvania State
University
B.S. Physiology, 1981, Millersville University of
Pennsylvania

Teaching
BIO161&162 (i.e., Anatomy & Physiology I
& II), BIO220 (i.e., Structures and Functions of Organisms)
BIO306
(i.e., Neurobiology)
SLH202 (i.e., Head and Neck Anatomy and
Physiology for Speech Pathology students).