Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is the Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit, Co-Director of the McCance Center for Brain Health, Co-Director of the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease, and Vice-Chair of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is also the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Tanzi co-discovered the first Alzheimer’s disease (AD) genes including the amyloid gene (APP) and the first AD neuroinflammation gene, CD33. He also discovered the Wilson’s disease gene and helped discover the first ALS gene, SOD1.
Dr. Tanzi’s lab first used human stem cells to create mini-human brain organoid models of AD, which have made drug discovery exponentially faster and cheaper. He has used these models to develop novel AD drugs including gamma secretase modulators that lower amyloid production and are being prepared for clinical trials.
He has published over 675 papers (>160,000 citations), received numerous awards, including the Metropolitan Life Award, Potamkin Prize, and Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award, is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and has been included on the list of the TIME100 Most Influential People in the World. Dr. Tanzi is also a New York Times bestselling author of Decoding Darkness, Super Brain, Super Genes, and The Healing Self, for which he has hosted several television shows on PBS. In his spare time, he plays studio keyboards for Aerosmith and other musicians.