Neuroscientist Li Gan, Ph.D., Director of the Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine, is a leading researcher in Alzheimer’s. Her work is fundamentally shifting the exploration of treatments for neurodegenerative diseases. While some scientists spend a lifetime searching for new pathways in tackling diseases, Gan’s research on immune responses and proteins has already transformed the approach to developing new therapies for slowing or stopping cognitive decline.
At a recent talk , Gan, the Burton P. and Judith B Resnick Distinguished Professor in Neurodegenerative Diseases at Weill Cornell, spoke about her mission, which is to “discover biomarkers so we can take on a disease earlier and more accurately.” Her work with the Gan Laboratory illustrates this focus, including their research on toxic proteins, such as tau, which form tangles that are not only the hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease but also a major driver of cognitive decline.
Gan’s findings are opening the door to potential therapies centered around alleles, genetic variants that can increase Alzheimer’s risk or protect against the disease, especially the over-heated antiviral pathways. Some of these findings include a recent paper, co-authored with DOC 2025 Faculty member Dr. Clare Clelland, highlighting a biomarker that could serve as a therapeutic target for treating frontotemporal dementia. She has authored more than 110 additional scientific papers and leads several significant National Institutes of Health-funded research projects.
Gan is also the Burton P and Judith B Resnick Distinguished Professor in Neurodegenerative Diseases at Weill Cornell Medicine, and has earned numerous awards and honors including the Glenn Award for Biological Mechanisms of Aging in 2011, the Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for Alzheimer’s Research in 2015, the Helis Prize for Parkinson’s Disease and Neurodegenerative research in 2022, and the Jessica M. And Natan Bibliowicz Award for Excellence in Mentoring Women Faculty in 2024. She advises global research foundations and scientific journals, including serving on the Science Advisory Board for the Milken Institute. Gan earned her Ph.D. in cellular and molecular physiology from Yale University School of Medicine and completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease at the University of California, San Francisco.
We are delighted to welcome Dr. Gan to our DOC 2025 Faculty.