Rutgers Health

Congratulations to the Rutgers Health professionals recognized on NJBIZ’s 2026 People to Watch in Healthcare list!

This year, five Rutgers Health administrators — including associate deans, program administrators and a marketing director — were included in the list, which identifies professionals on the front lines whose work is helping make New Jersey healthier.

At Rutgers Health, breakthroughs in research, education and patient care depend on more than what happens in labs and clinics. They rely on dedicated professionals whose leadership and expertise often happen behind the scenes. Through their work, these honorees are advancing public health, supporting communities in NJ and beyond.

We are proud to celebrate their achievements and the difference they make every day.

Read about this year’s honorees: go.rutgers.edu/1boq0xdm

A clinical trial at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and RWJBarnabas Health is testing a new gene therapy approach for epilepsy. The investigational treatment, known as AMT-260, is designed to suppress seizure activity in patients whose epilepsy does not respond to medication, potentially offering an alternative to surgeries that remove or destroy brain tissue.

“Many patients decline surgery because they’d rather live with seizures than risk significant memory loss,” said Rutgers neurosurgeon Robert Gross, who is also the site principal investigator for the trial. “I am seeking to show that this gene therapy works as designed. If so, it will reduce or eliminate seizures without damaging brain tissue.”

If the approach works, it will be the first gene therapy ever offered for epilepsy.

“I think this is the dawn of something totally new,” Gross added. “It is an incredibly exciting time to be doing this."

Gene Therapy Trial Targets Seizures That Medicine Can’t Stop A chef named Colton Beschen came to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital one Tuesday in April to see if an experimental gene therapy could restore the life that epilepsy stole from him. Rutgers professor and neurosurgeon Robert Gross drilled a hole the width of a pencil lead into Beschen’s sku...