Tanzi has developed several novel therapies for AD including gamma secretase modulators targeting amyloid pathology, ALZT-OP1 targeting neuroinflammation and a neuroprotective drug combination, AMX0035, which was recently successful in a clinical trial of ALS and now seeking FDA approval. The 3-D model also made drug screening for AD faster and more cost-effective. This model was the first to recapitulate all three key AD pathological hallmarks in vitro, and first to definitively show that amyloid plaques directly cause neurofibrillary tangles. Tanzi’s team was the first to use human stem cells to create three-dimensional cell culture organoids of AD, dubbed “Alzheimer’s-in-a-Dish”.

He also discovered the Wilson’s disease gene and contributed to the discovery of several other neurological disease genes.ĭr. Tanzi identified several other AD genes, including ADAM10 and CD33, the first AD gene shown to regulate neuroinflammation. As leader of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Alzheimer’s Genome Project, Dr. Tanzi discovered the first Alzheimer’s disease (AD) gene, the amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene, and co-discovered the two other early-onset familial AD genes, presenilin 1 and 2. (neurobiology) at Harvard Medical School in 1990.ĭr. (history) at the University of Rochester in 1980 and his Ph.D. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Rudolph Tanzi is the vice-chair of Neurology, director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit, Co-Director of the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health, and co-director of the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr rudolph tanzi super brain