Mount Sinai Health System Names Director of Newly Established Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer's Disease

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Newswise (NEW YORK February 19) Renowned neuropsychiatric researcher Alison Goate, PhD, has joined the Mount Sinai Health System as the founding Director of the Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimers Disease. Established by a recent $15 million gift from Daniel S. Loeb, CEO and Founder of Third Point, LLC and his wife, Margaret Munzer Loeb, in memory of Daniels father, Ronald M. Loeb, the center will provide a focus for a network of research programs closely tied to research and clinical initiatives across the Health System.

As a molecular geneticist, Dr. Goate has established an international reputation for her research to elucidate the genetic, molecular and cellular basis of Alzheimers disease (AD) and related neurodegenerative disorders.

Alison brings to Mount Sinai a research history distinguished by its translational and interdisciplinary focus, integrating molecular and genetic studies, says Eric Nestler, MD, PhD, Nash Family Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Director of the Friedman Brain Institute in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Her research team will help Mount Sinai play a global leading role in finding new and better treatments for Alzheimers disease and other disorders.

She has identified key gene mutations linked to the heritable risk for Alzheimers disease, including her finding that a rare mutation of the PLD3 gene doubles the risk of developing late onset AD. Prior to joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Goate led a team of researchers at Washington University, St. Louis, that performed the largest ever genome-wide association study of protein markers found in cerebrospinal fluid, resulting in the discovery of three genetic variants that may come with an increased risk of developing AD.

Alison Goate is truly one of the chief architects of the genomics revolution happening in Alzheimers disease research, says Mount Sinai President and Chief Executive Officer Kenneth L. Davis, MD. Under her leadership, we will bring together Mount Sinais core competencies in genomics, bioinformatics, imaging and clinical trials to vigorously pursue major breakthroughs for a disease that touches so many lives.

As Director of the Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimers Disease at Mount Sinai, Dr. Goate will recruit new talent in areas such as induced pluripotent stem cells or IPSCs. In this line of research, researchers take a patients skin cells, for instance and coax them back along the differentiation pathway to become stem cells. These induced cells can then be differentiated into any kind of cell in the body, including neurons. Because the resulting cells are genetically identical to those found in the donor, researchers can use them to model disease and safely investigate the efficacy of new drug treatments at the cellular level in a way not previously possible.

Alison is a transformative recruit to Mount Sinai, says Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and President for Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Health System. Our mission is nothing less than discovering the causes and better treatments for Alzheimers disease and related conditions. Through Dr. Goates leadership of the Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimers Disease, Mount Sinai is one of the nations few centers capable of achieving these ambitious goals.

Dr. Goate will also establish ties between the Center and the many basic and clinical researchers across the Mount Sinai Health System focused on neurodegenerative disorders. In particular, she will work closely with: the Alzheimers Disease Research Center, funded by the National Health Institutes National Institute on Aging and directed by Mary Sano, PhD, one of the nations leaders in clinical trials of Alzheimers disease; the Center for Cognitive Health, directed by Sam Gandy, MD, PhD, an expert on the amyloid plaque protein linked to Alzheimers disease; and faculty of the Icahn Institute for Genomics & Multiscale Biology, directed by Eric Schadt, PhD, who have an NIA-funded program that applies multi-scale biology to Alzheimers disease. In addition, Dr. Goate has an established research program on the genetics of alcoholism and so will broaden Mount Sinais portfolio in this disorder as well.

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Mount Sinai Health System Names Director of Newly Established Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer's Disease