Awardees

Translational Research Grant

Promoting cross-institutional collaboration, the Translational Research Grant offers two-year awards to co-PIs from different Harvard-affiliated institutions or departments who propose extraordinary translational research ventures.

AY04

Weiming Xia, PhD (BWH) & Jarema Malicki, PhD (MEEI) — The Zebrafish Model of Parkinson's Disease

Timothy Mitchison, PhD (HMS) & Zhigang He, PhD (CH) — Understanding the Molecular Mechanism of Wallerian Degeneration

AY03

Xandra Breakefield, PhD (MGH) and Ole Isacson, Dr. Med Sci. (McL) — Recruitment of endogenous neural precursor cells for neural replacement/therapy

Joseph El Khoury, MD (MGH) and Changiz Geula, PhD (BIDMC) — Mechanism of Microglial Recruitment in Alzheimer's Disease

Paul Rosenberg, MD, PhD (CH) and Davide Trotti, PhD (MGH) — Impairment of glutamate transporter EAAT2/GLT1 expression and function in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Michael Schlossmacher, MD (BWH) and Rajiv Ratan, MD, PhD (BIDMC) — Activating the unfolded protein stress response: a novel approach for Parkinson's disease

AY02

John Assad, PhD (HMS) and Emad Eskandar, MD (MGH) — Basal Ganglia in Movement Control

Bradley Hyman, MD, PhD (MGH) and Junying Yuan, PhD (HMS) — Neurotoxic Activation of Caspace 12 by Fibullar Amyloid-Beta

Igor Koralnik, MD ( BIDMC - Neurology) and Richard Junghans, MD (BIDMC - Medicine) — Adoptive T Cell Therapy for Treatment of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy

William Rebeck, PhD (MGH) and Anne Cataldo, PhD (McLean) — Cholesterol Alterations of the Endosomal-Lysosomal System: Effects on Ab Generation in AD

Susan Slaugenhaupt, PhD (MGH) and Robin Reed, PhD (HMS) — Investigation of the mRNA Splicing Defect that Causes Familial Dysautonomia

Training Program For Translational Research Fellows

These post-doctoral fellowships provide support for young scientists who are at the beginning of their careers and are interested in translational neurology research. Each fellowship has salary support and a research allowance for three years of post-graduate work and has mentors in both basic and clinical research.

AY04

Adrian Isaacs, PhD (CH) — Studies on the Role of Transthyretin in Modulating Amyloid Deposition and Toxicity in Alzheimer's Disease, Mentors Bruce Yankner, MD, PhD (CH) and Brad Hyman, MD, PhD (MGH)

Charles Lin, PhD (HMS) — Regulation and Protein Associations of the Kinesin Motor KIF1B-beta, a Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease, Mentors Li-Huei Tsai, PhD (HMS) and Ken Kosik, MD (BWH)

Pembe Hande Ozdinler, PhD (MGH) — Characterization of cellular and molecular controls over cortico-spinal motor neuron survival and differentiation: Toward a potential therapeutic application in ALS, Mentors Jeffrey Macklis, (MGH) and Robert Brown, (MGH)

AY03

Wendy Galpern, MD, PhD (MGH/BWH) — Mechanisms and Modifiers of Neuronal Degeneration in Parkinson's Disease: Genetic, Neuropathologic, and Animal Studies, Mentors Mel Feany, MD, PhD (BWH) and David Standaert, MD, PhD (MGH)

Marta Lipinski, PhD (HMS) — Role of the Caspace Family Proteases in Alzheimer's Disease, Mentors Junying Yuan, PhD (HMS) and Dennis Selkoe, MD (BWH)

Lianna Orlando, PhD, MMSc (MGH) — Huntingin at the Post-Synaptic Density: Regulation of Protein Associations by Phosphorylation, Mentors Anne Young, MD, PhD (MGH) and Li-Huei Tsai, PhD (HMS)

Wen-Qi Zeng, MD, PhD (MGH) — Molecular Genetics of Biotin-Responsive basal Ganglia Disease and SLC19A3, Mentors James Gusella, PhD (MGH) and Mia Maccollin, MD (MGH)

Sheng Zhang, PhD (HMS) — The Study of Parkin in Drosophila as a Model for Parkinson's Disease., Mentors Norbert Perrimon, PhD (HMS) and Lewis Sudarsky, MD (BWH)

AY02

Lars Bertram, MD (MGH) — Characterization of Major Alzheimer's Disease Locus on Chromosome 10q, Mentors Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD (MGH) and Dennis J. Selkoe, MD (BWH)

William Campbell, PhD (BWH) — Regulation of Amyloid b Protein Generation by Stabilization of Function, Mentors Weiming Xia, PhD (BWH) and R.J. Kelleher III, MD, PhD (MGH)

James Palacino, PhD (BWH) — Identification of Binding Partners and Substrates for Parkin Using the Parkin Knockout Mouse, Mentor Michael Schlossmacher, MD (BWH) and Lewis Sudarsky, MD (BWH)

Clemens Scherzer, MD (BWH) — From Flies to humans: A New Strategy for Finding therapies for Parkinson's Disease, Mentors Peter T. Lansbury (BWH) and John Growdon, MD (MGH)

Zachary Wills, PhD (CH) — A Screen for Compounds that Promote Regeneration in the Vertebrate CNS, Mentors Zhigang He, PhD (CH) and Daniel H. Lowenstein, MD (BIDMC)

Pre-Doctoral Fellowships

Each year qualified young students with an interest in neuroscience are turned away from the many Harvard Medical School graduate programs due to a lack of available funding. Working with HMS' Division of Medical Science, we identify incoming students who have expressed a desire to study neurodegeneration and to provide support for the first four years of graduate study. Each pre-doctoral fellowship covers tuition, fees and a stipend for the student.

AY07

Soyon Hong — Program in Neuroscience, HMS

Alexandra Smolyanskaya — Program in Neuroscience, HMS

AY06

Danos Christodoulou — Biological and Biomedical Sciences, HMS

Zeev Waks — Program in Neuroscience, HMS

AY05

Dravida Bock — Program in Neuroscience, HMS

Ganesh Shankar — Program in Neuroscience, HMS

AY04

Matthew Hemming — Program in Neuroscience, HMS

Sabrina Hom — Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, HMS

Allison Knoll — Program in Neuroscience, HMS

AY03

Andrew Choi — Program in Biological and Biomedical Sciences, HMS

Eirene Kontopoulos — Program in Neuroscience, HMS

AY02

Eunju Chung — Program in Neuroscience, HMS

Vikram Khurana — Program in Neuroscience, HMS

MD/PhD Fellowships

AY07

Glenn Yiu (Z. He, Children's)

Brian Hafler (D. Rowitch, BWH)

AY06

Junne Kamihara (D. Housman, MIT)

Safa Sadeghpour (G. Liu, MIT)

AY05

Thomas Deuel (C. Walsh Lab, BIDMC)

Jay Chyung (D. Selkoe Lab, BWH)

Clinical Fellowship

AY05

Dan Cohen, PhD (BIDMC)

Molecular Pathology Fellowship

AY05

Karim Ouachi, MD (HMS Moleculary Genetics Pathology (MGP) Training Program)

Innovation Grant

Innovation Grants support molecular pathology-based technology development and application towards the study of the mechanistic basis of neurodegeneration.

AY04

Susan Dymecki (HMS) — Tools to map neuronal circuitry changes in disease states versus health

Dale Larson (HMS), David Standaert, MD, PhD (MGH), and Gavin MacBeath, PhD (FAS) — Surface plasmon enhanced illumination (SPEI) for proteomics: application in Parkinson’s Disease

Robert Brown, MD, PhD, Aleksey Kazantsev, PhD, and Alexander McCampbell, PhD (MGH) — Mammalian RNAi-library based screen for modifiers of a neurodegenerative phenotype

AY03

Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD and Richard Wade-Martins, PhD (MGH) — Validation of the iBAC system to study the neurological significance of alternative spicing

Hidde Ploegh, PhD and Li-Huei Tsai, PhD (HMS) — Proteomics tools for analysis of proteolysis and phosphorylation in neurodegenerative disease

Rudolph Tanzi, PhD and Deborah Blacker, PhD (MGH) — Development of a high-throughput, RNAi-based genetic assay to identify genes involved in APP metabolism