Dr. Patricia Coyle is known internationally for her expertise in Multiple Sclerosis, neuroimmunology, and neurological infectious diseases like Lyme disease.

In addition to lecturing around the country on MS and other neurological topics, Patricia has a busy clinical practice and also maintains a research laboratory. She is a professor and vice chair of neurology and the director of the Multiple Sclerosis Comprehensive Care Center at the Stony Brook University Medical Center in New York. Currently, she is involved in many therapeutic trials testing new immunotherapies for MS and is optimistic for the future of treatment. “This is such a hopeful era for MS,” she says. “We’ve seen this disease become a treatable disease in the last decade.  But clearly the current therapies need to be started as soon as possible to minimize the ongoing damage, to really control it, to keep people intact.”

With a B.S. from Fordham University and her medical training done at Johns Hopkins, Patricia is the oldest of six children and grew up in a lively Irish household (lots of parties and cousins she says) in the Bronx. All four of her grandparents emigrated from Ireland and she has roots in Counties Donegal, Leitrim, and Clare. A particularly influential presence was Patricia’s grandmother Kate Tuohy, who she remembers as “a strong, dominant force.”