Manisha Balwani, MD, MS

Prior to joining Weill Cornell and NewYork-Presbyterian, Dr. Pascual was the inaugural holder of The Once Upon a Time Foundation Professorship in Pediatric Neurologic Diseases and the holder of the Ed and Sue Rose Distinguished Professorship in Neurology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he remains an adjunct professor of Neurology. He is also adjunct professor of Bioengineering at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science at The University of Texas at Dallas.Dr. Pascual received his MD degree with distinction from the Universidad de Granada, Spain, one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in 1349. He received his PhD degree in Molecular Physiology and Biophysics from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, under Arthur M. Brown, MD, PhD (1932 - 2021), McCollum Professor and Chair. His postdoctoral research was conducted in the laboratory of Arthur Karlin, PhD (1936 - 2024), Higgins Professor and Director of the Center for Molecular Recognition, College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University and, later, at the Colleen Giblin Research Laboratories for Pediatric Neurology at the same institution under a Neurological Sciences Academic Development Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). He also received residency training in Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine - St. Louis Children’s Hospital and in Neurology and Pediatric Neurology at the Neurological Institute of New York - Columbia University Medical Center.His laboratory research, mostly funded by NINDS, spans virtually the entire field of neuroscience, including medical neuroscience, from molecular structure and function (including drug action) to neural physiology and metabolism at the cellular, circuit and whole-brain level and neurogenetics, all of which is complemented with human studies and clinical trials. Research greatly influences his clinical activities and patient observations guide his research. His laboratory is home to scientists from very diverse backgrounds and levels of training who have joined efforts to endow both neurology and developmental medicine with a strong scientific basis. Dr. Pascual has co-authored several dozen scientific and medical textbooks. He is the editor, together with Dr. Roger Rosenberg, of the leading text Rosenberg's Molecular and Genetic Basis of Neurological and Psychiatric Disease (from the 2015 5th edition to the present one, which comprises over 2,000 pages). He is also the author of the textbook Progressive Brain Disorders in Childhood (Cambridge University Press). He is now working on a new philosophy book, provisionally entitled Sense & Nonsense in Medical Neuroscience: Inference & Fallacy, to be published also by Cambridge University Press.As a clinician, Dr. Pascual specializes in genetic and metabolic diseases of the nervous and neuromuscular systems of infants, children and adults with emphasis on complex diagnostic problems, second opinions for patients visiting from the rest of the nation and abroad, and clinical trials.Following study with Dr. Peter Hacker, he also joined the department of philosophy at Cornell University as affiliate faculty member.Links:Recent clinical research studies Recent NIH-funded research projects Publications

Dr. Kenny Castro is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine and an Assistant Attending Pediatrician at New York-Presbyterian/Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. She is board certified in Pediatrics. Dr. Castro obtained her medical degree (M.D.) from the Central University of Venezuela. After receiving her M.D., she worked as a community doctor in her home country, Venezuela, providing medical care to low-income and minority populations. Seeking further expertise, she immigrated to the United States and pursued her medical training at Lincoln Medical Center, completing a three-year residency in pediatrics. Following that, she accomplished a three-year fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, where she was also inducted as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. During her fellowship training, Dr. Castro actively engaged in various research projects, focusing on clinical research and quality improvement. She contributed to studies exploring the public health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Inflammatory Bowel Disease presentation in pediatric patients in the New York City area and enhancing patient experience during colonoscopy procedures. Dr. Castro is fluent in English and Spanish, and her clinical interests include abdominal pain, constipation, inflammatory bowel disease, gastroesophageal reflux, eosinophilic esophagitis, eosinophilic gastrointestinal disease, celiac disease, poor weight gain, obesity, nausea, and vomiting.

I am privileged to have achieved my lifelong goal of becoming a pediatric gastroenterologist, more specifically a pediatric neurogastroenterologist. I have a special interest and expertise in disorders of the gut-brain interaction, including motility disorders, which involve the movement of food through the GI tract, and functional disorders, which involve interactions between the brain and GI tract that affect motility. These conditions can be debilitating and yet they remain challenging to treat effectively. My team and I evaluate and treat children and adolescents using advanced, state-of-the-art diagnostic and therapeutic techniques with multidisciplinary approach. Some of the conditions we treat are dysphagia, achalasia, gastroesophageal reflux disease, chronic nausea, gastroparesis, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic abdominal pain, severe constipation, fecal incontinence, and anorectal disorders. We think of our patients and their problems holistically and take pride in developing personal connections with patients and their families. My goal is to deliver compassionate, respectful, evidence-based, and humanistic care to children with gastrointestinal diseases. I co-direct many multidisciplinary clinics, including the Gastrointestinal Motility Center, Esophageal Atresia Clinic, Aerodigestive Program, and Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Program, and I work closely with pediatric surgeons, pulmonologists, cardiologists, ear nose throat (ENT) specialists, psychologists, and language pathologists to provide the most comprehensive care to children with complex GI medical conditions. I also take great pride in educating medical students, residents, fellows, and other providers. I have mentored several GI fellows who have joined other institutions across the county and are currently working to establish multidisciplinary clinics and expand access to care for functional and motility disorders. In addition to my clinical and education roles, my team and I conduct multiple clinical research projects focusing on functional and motility disorders. I work on clinical trials which allow our patients to have access to therapeutics that are not otherwise offered to children. This work has led to numerous presentations at national meetings and publications in high impact gastroenterology journals—all with the mission of improving children’s health and advancing the science of gastrointestinal motility and functional gastrointestinal diseases.