The following experts drive new and enduring research projects that provide insights into improved diagnostics, more effective treatments, and the neurological processes of healthy aging.
Fanny Elahi, MD, PhD
Fanny Elahi, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor, Neurology, Neuroscience, and Pathology, Molecular and Cell-based Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She serves as Director of Fluid Biomarker Research for the Barbara and Maurice Deane Center for Wellness and Cognitive Health and Co-Director of the Genomics Core of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Icahn Mount Sinai. Dr. Elahi is focused on evaluations of vascular and white matter disease contributions to brain dysfunction and degeneration, leading to psychiatric, behavioral, cognitive, motoric, and sensorial changes. These pathologies can manifest as recognized clinical syndromes, such as CADASIL syndrome, typical or atypical Alzheimer’s disease syndromes, frontotemporal dementia syndromes, or Lewy body disorders. Elahi’s research program focuses on the dysfunction of the brain’s vasculature in aging and neurodegenerative disorders, examining the link between small vessel disease, white matter disease, and neurodegeneration. For more information, visit Elahi Lab.
Samuel E. Gandy, MD, PhD
Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, is Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He serves as Associate Director, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and Past Chairman of the National Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the Alzheimer's Association. Dr. Gandy is an international expert in the metabolism of amyloid, a protein that clogs the brain in patients with Alzheimer's. In 1989, Gandy and his team discovered the first model drugs that could decrease formation of amyloid. Dr. Gandy has written more than 300 original papers, book chapters, and reviews on this topic.
Alison M. Goate, DPhil
Alison M. Goate, DPhil, is the Jean C. and James W. Crystal Professor of Genomics; Chair of the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences; and Professor, Neuroscience, and Neurology, Icahn Mount Sinai. She has worked on the genetics of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia, since 1987, and is the founding director of The Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer’s Disease at the Mount Sinai Health System. Over the last three decades, she has been part of many gene-finding teams that have successfully identified disease-causing variants for both Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. Dr. Goate is a leader in the study of late onset Alzheimer's disease genetics using integrative genomic approaches to identify novel genetic risk factors. Her lab collaborated with John Hardy, PhD, Chair, Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease, Neurodegenerative Diseases, University, College London, Queen Square Institute of Neurology, to identify Trem2 as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and has highlighted the enrichment of Alzheimer's disease risk variants in microglial enhancers, regulatory elements in DNA that control gene expression in immune cells of the brain. She is now building upon these insights using genome-editing in induced pluripotent stem cells to understand the molecular mechanisms of disease and to develop novel therapeutics.
Trey Hedden III, PhD
Trey Hedden III, PhD, Director, Neuroimaging and Biomarker Research in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease at Mount Sinai, and Associate Professor, and Neurology, and Neuroscience, and Diagnostic, Molecular and Interventional Radiology, Icahn Mount Sinai, focuses his research on applying innovative neuroimaging techniques to aging and age-related neurodegenerative disorders. His laboratory integrates multiple brain markers from neuroimaging (structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion imaging, and positron emission tomography biomarkers) to build a comprehensive picture of how aging affects cognition at the individual level. Dr. Hedden’s work seeks to improve diagnosis for neurodegenerative diseases by identifying potential preclinical pathology in otherwise normal older individuals.
Joohi Jimenez-Shahed, MD
Joohi Jimenez-Shahed, MD, Medical Director, Movement Disorders Neuromodulation and Brain Circuit Therapeutics, and Associate Professor, Neurology, Movement Disorders, and Neurosurgery, Icahn Mount Sinai, is a movement disorders neurologist whose clinical interest focuses on cognitive changes across a variety of neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Jimenez-Shahed uses advanced imaging techniques, coupled with an individual’s cognitive performance, to obtain state-of-the-art measures of several domains of cognitive function. Her research interests include the development and use of wearable sensors to measure disease manifestations and investigating the intraoperative neurophysiology of patients undergoing deep brain stimulation for movement disorders.
Ana Pereira, MD
Ana Pereira, MD, Associate Professor, Neurology, and Neuroscience, Icahn Mount Sinai, focuses on furthering understanding of the neurobiology of aging and Alzheimer's disease by investigating the molecular selective vulnerability of neural circuits to synaptic changes and neuronal loss. She seeks to explore the mechanisms underlying these susceptibilities along with effective therapeutic interventions. Under her leadership, the Pereira Lab also investigates risk factors for neurodegenerative disorders, such as intermittent hypoxia that occurs in sleep-disordered breathing. These studies aim to develop novel preventive measures and therapeutic targets for age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease. As a physician-scientist, Dr. Pereira conducts translational and clinical studies using state-of-the-art neuroimaging and neuropsychological measures, including a clinical trial for a potential novel therapeutic intervention for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
Towfique Raj, PhD
Research in the laboratory of Towfique Raj, PhD, Associate Professor, Neuroscience, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, and Neurology, and Artificial Intelligence and Human Health, and Immunology and Immunotherapy, Icahn Mount Sinai, focuses on the mechanisms underlying the regulation of gene expression and how neurodegenerative diseases disrupt these mechanisms. Dr. Raj uses genetic association studies to identify regions of the genome with functional effects on tissues and cells of the brain. Dr. Raj applies methods from statistical and population genetics to large-scale genotyping and sequencing studies to discover novel susceptibility alleles for age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. He collaborates extensively with colleagues to develop and apply methods for constructing causal regulatory networks to understand the mechanisms driving complex diseases such as dementia. The lab’s translational work is primarily computational, with an emphasis on integrative data analysis and the development of statistical and computational approaches.
Erin L. Rich, MD, PhD
The laboratory of Erin L. Rich, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Neuroscience, combines hypothesis-driven behavioral tasks, large-scale neurophysiological recordings, and computational approaches to unravel the relationships between neural dynamics and cognition, in particular, learning and memory. Her studies aim to provide insights into basic principles of neural encoding and dynamics that organize function in cognitive and emotional centers of the brain. Dr. Rich is interested in the biological basis of behavior and memory and believes that understanding how these processes arise from neural activity can give us novel insights into the origin and treatment diseases such as dementia.
Mary Sano, PhD
Mary Sano, PhD, is Director, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center; Associate Dean for Clinical Research; and Professor, Psychiatry, Icahn Mount Sinai. She is also Director of Research and Development at the James J. Peters Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Sano is a neuropsychologist by training and has been involved in designing and conducting clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and mild cognitive impairment of aging. Her research interests are in clinical trial design and the impact of pharmacological treatments on the functional abilities of individuals with cognitive impairment. She pioneered remote assessment of cognitive and behavioral problems maximizing the opportunity to detect, treat, and manage patients with Alzheimer's disease related dementias. Other areas of interest include the role of depression in cognitive impairment and dementia, women’s attitudes about prevention of memory loss, and measuring quality of life in diseases of aging.