William R. Kennedy, M.D.

Professor, Department of Neurology

E-MAIL: [email protected]

Web Page: http://kennedylab.med.umn.edu/


Research Interests:

Medical devices to quantify touch sensation and sweating in diabetic, cancer chemotherapy indudced and other neuropathies.

Immunostaining, confocal microscopy to quantify nerves in skin and gastrointestinal mucosa, epidermal nerve fibers and other nerves in various diseases.


Selected Publications:

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

  • Provitera V, Gibbons CH, Wendelschafer-Crabb G, Donadio V, Vitale DF, Loavenbruck A, Stancanelli A, Caporaso G, Liguori R, Wang N, Santoro L, Kennedy WR, Nolano M.   The role of skin biopsy in differentiating small fiber neuropathy from ganglionopathy.  Eur J Neurol. 2018;25(6):848-853.
  • Loavenbruck AJ, Hodges JS, Provitera V, Nolano M, Wendelshafer-Crabb G, Kennedy WR. A device to measure secretion of individual sweat glands for diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy. J Peripher Nerv Syst. 2017;22(2):139-148.
  • Park SB, Davare M, Falla M, Kennedy WR, Selim MM, Wendelschafer-Crabb G, Koltzenburg M. Fast-adapting mechanoreceptors are important for force control in precision grip but not for sensorimotor memory. J Neurophysiol. 2016;115(6):3156-3161.
  • Provitera V, Gibbons CH, Wendelschafer-Crabb G, Donadio V, Vitale DF, Stancanelli A, Caporaso G, Liguori R, Wang N, Santoro L, Kennedy WR, Nolano M. A multi-center, multinational age- and gender-adjusted normative dataset for immunofluorescent intraepidermal nerve fiber density at the distal leg. Eur J Neurol. 2016;23(2):333-8.
  • Mack MR, Wendelschafer-Crabb G, McAdams BD, Hordinsky MK, Kennedy WR, Tolar J. Peripheral neuro-immune pathology in recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa. J Invest Dermatol. 2015;135:1193-7.
  • Panoutsopoulou IG, Luciano CA, Wendelschafer-Crabb G, Hodges JS, Kennedy WR. Epidermal innervation in healthy children and adolescents. Muscle Nerve. 2015;51(3):378-84.
  • de Carvalho Barbosa M, Kosturakis AK, Eng C, Wendelschafer-Crabb G, Kennedy WR, Simone DA, Wang XS, Cleeland CS, Dougherty PM. A quantitative sensory analysis of peripheral neuropathy in colorectal cancer and its exacerbation by oxaliplatin chemotherapy. Cancer Res. 2014;74(21):5955-5962.
  • Loavenbruck A, Wendelschaefer-Crabbe G, Sandroni P, Kennedy WR. Quantification of sweat gland volume and innervation in neuropathy: Correlation with thermoregulatory sweat testing. Muscle Nerve. 2014;50(4):528-34.
  • Kosturakis AK, He Z, Li Y, Boyette-Davis JA, Shah N, Thomas SK, Zhang H, Vichaya EG, Wang XS, Wendelschafer-Crabb G, Kennedy WR, Simone DA, Cleeland CS, Dougherty PM. Subclinical peripheral neuropathy in patients with multiple myeloma before chemotherapy is correlated with decreased fingertip innervation density. J Clin Oncol. 2014;32(28):3156-62.
  • Boyette-Davis JA, Eng C, Wang XS, Cleeland CS, Weldeschafer-Crabb G, Kennedy WR, Simone CS5, Zhang H6, and Dougherty PM6* Subclinical peripheral neuropathy is a common finding in colorectal cancer patients prior to chemotherapy. Clin Cancer Res. 2012 ;18(11):3180-3187.

Former Graduate Students:

Nidal Khalili M.D. 1998-1999

Mona Selim M.D., Ph.D. 1999-2000

William R. Kennedy