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Dennis Selkoe earned his B.A. from Columbia University
(1965) and an M.D. from the University of Virginia School of Medicine
(1969). Since 1975, he has been affiliated with the Harvard Medical School,
where he became a professor of neurology in 1990. In 2000 he was named
the Vincent and Stella Coates Professor of Neurologic Diseases at the
medical school. He also serves as a senior neurologist at Brigham and
Women's Hospital and a clinical associate in neurology at Massachusetts
General Hospital. Dr. Selkoe co-founded and serves as co-chair of the
Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair. He has served on the
Neuroscience Advisory Committee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The focus of Dr. Selkoe's research has been Alzheimer's disease and related
basic biological questions. In 1982, he and his colleagues found a method
for isolating abnormal neurofibrillary tangles that are a hallmark of
Alzheimer's disease and developed the first antibodies to them. Subsequently,
he carried out extensive experiments on the "amyloid beta" protein
(Aß) deposits found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. In 1992,
his lab discovered that Aß is produced in normal cells throughout
an individual's lifetime and can be detected through cultured cells. In
1999, he and his coworkers discovered that the presenilin protein was
the long-sought protease that generates Aß. Such discoveries have
led to progress towards understanding the formation of Aß and identifying
amyloid-blocking drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease.
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