Laura A. Gould

My primary research focuses on improving our understanding of sudden unexplained deaths in childhood (SUDC) and febrile seizure related deaths. My clinical background includes physical therapy, biomechanics and ergonomics to maximize function associated with neurologic disease and injury related disabilities.
My area of research stems from a personal experience. In 1997, my 15-month old daughter, Maria, died suddenly without explanation. The experience led me to recognize the lack of awareness for such deaths within the clinical and medicolegal system, lack of standards in sudden child death investigations, lack of support for those affected and profound lack of research into unexplained child deaths. I initiated the first sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC) research in the U.S. with Dr Henry Krous out of the University of California-San Diego where we published the first definition of SUDC in 2005. In parallel, I cofounded the first organization devoted to SUDC (sudc.org), and advocated for U.S. state and federal legislation that became laws to support SUDC efforts.
In May 2014, I joined NYU as a Research Scientist in the Department of Neurology and launched the SUDC Registry and Research Collaborative (SUDCRRC) with Dr Orrin Devinsky to further the pursuit of discovering the risk factors, cause(s) and ultimate prevention of SUDC tragedies. The SUDCRRC is the largest known repository of SUDC case information worldwide available for research.  
My research efforts with the Medical Examiner, Coroner and Death Investigator professions continue as a means to improve death investigations which translate to improved data quality available for research as well as compassionate family treatment.
In recent years, the SUDCRRC has improved our understanding of SUDC by explaining previously unexplained deaths, identifying genetic mechanisms and modes of inheritance, discovered insights from omics data that differentiate SUDC from explained deaths, provided evidence of underestimation of SUDC by the U.S. death investigation system, identified risk factors and confirmed seizure-related deaths in some cases. 
As Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, I continue as Co-Principal Investigator of the SUDCRRC and collaborate with the wide expertise of our colleagues at NYU Langone Health and external collaborators who further enable SUDC research progress in areas such as artificial intelligence, pathology, epidemiology and clinical research of children living with febrile seizures.