Elinor Levine Endowed Professor in Neurology

Deputy Director of The Interventions Testing Program (ITP), Institute of Gerontology

Director of Basic Science Mentorship in the Department of Neurology

Co-Chair of the Steering Committee on the Data Management Coordinating Center for the Exceptional Longevity Projects at NIA

Email: kaczoro@umich.edu

Twitter: @KaczorowskiLab

Catherine Kaczorowski, PhD, is a Professor at The University of Michigan and the Elinor Levine Endowed Chair for Dementia Research. Dr. Kaczorowski is a neurophysiologist, an expert in the systems genetics of ‘normal’ nonpathological Aging and pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). She has been a driving force in uncovering and describing the phenomenon of cognitive resilience in the context of ‘normal’ nonpathological aging, AD and more recently Huntington’s (HD) and Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD). She is a recognized authority in the development and application of mouse models for studies on aging and age-related neurodegenerative disorders, having pioneered the generation of the first translationally relevant polygenic model of human AD (AD-BXDs) published in Neuron. Her research program entails several collaborative, multisite projects and leverages the innovative, translational integration of multi-scale data (genetics, omics, imaging, behavior) from genetically diverse mouse strains and human patients to identify genetic mechanisms that promote cognitive resilience to normal brain aging, AD, and other age-related neurodegenerative diseases. Her team builds tools that permit dissection of aging specific genetic mechanisms from those controlling the clinical manifestations resulting from disease-specific neuropathologies, which is impossible in human populations. Her recent publications demonstrate the strength of her lab’s mouse-to-human research translational workflow that continues to transform the field’s ability to model resilience to normal age-related cognitive decline and AD.

Taken together, these collaborative works set the foundation of the mouse genetic reference panel, the behavioral and electrophysiological assays for cognitive resilience, the systems genetics and cross-species computational analysis pipeline, and cell type-specific and regional signatures of resilience that are integral to the development of resilience-based therapies to delay or prevent cognitive aging and neurodegenerative dementias.