Prof. Shefner is Chair of the Department of Neurology, Professor of Neurology, and Senior Vice-President of the Barrow Neurological Institute, USA. His research focuses on biomarker development and the clinical therapeutics of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy. He co-founded the the Northeast ALS Clinical Trials Consortium (NEALS), the largest and most active consortium in the world dedicated to ALS. He continues to direct the NEALS outcomes and clinical monitoring cores, and is currently the principal investigator for two multicenter clinical trials, as well as a biomarker study evaluating the effectiveness of electrical impedance myography in measuring ALS/MND disease progression.

Professor Shefner has published approximately 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has served on multiple grant review panels.