The Carol and Gene Ludwig Center for Research on Neurodegeneration

Ludwig Scholars

An immunofluorescence image displaying the zebrafish forebrain section with active microglial cells in green, neuronal cell bodies in red and cell nuclei in blue. From Kizil Lab, CUIMC.

Image from Kizil Lab, CUIMC:
An immunofluorescence image displaying the zebrafish forebrain section with active microglial cells in green, neuronal cell bodies in red, and cell nuclei in blue.

2024 Ludwig Scholars

Research Team 1

  • Elizabeth M. Bradshaw, PhD

    • Adler Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences (in Neurology, the Taub Institute, and the Institute for Genomic Medicine)
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  • Wassim Elyaman, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences (in Neurology, the Taub Institute and the Institute for Genomic Medicine)
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  • Abid Hussaini, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology (in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain) at the CUMC

    Dr. Hussaini received his doctoral degree (Ph.D) in Neurobiology at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany where he worked on neurobiology of learning and memory. He did his postdoctoral training in the Department of Neuroscience at Columbia University where he studied the neural correlates of spatial memory in the hippocampus in Dr. Eric Kandel's lab. He was a visiting scientist in the Moser group at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, where he studied the role of entorhinal cortex in spatial memory.

    He joined the Taub Institute and the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology to study the Neurobiology of Aging and Alzheimer's disease.

    Abid Hussaini, PhD

  • Alison Rinderspacher, PhD

    • Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Medicine

Research Team 2

  • Carol M. Troy, MD, PhD

    • Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology and Neurology (in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain) at CUMC
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  • Scott A. Small, MD

    • Boris and Rose Katz Professor of Neurology (in the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and in Radiology)
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2023 Ludwig Scholars

Research Team 1

  • Itamar Kahn, PhD

    • Associate Professor of Neuroscience (in the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute); Director of Small Animal Imaging in the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute

    Working with colleagues, Itamar Kahn, PhD, recently investigated what makes one mouse brain different from another. The researchers found that, like human beings, each animal had specific patterns of activity: a neural fingerprint that could be used to identify it. As in humans, this individual variation appeared in brain networks associated with memory, decision-making and flexible behavior.

    The researchers made this discovery using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which employs a strong magnetic field to indirectly measure brain activity. Their results create a bridge for using precision fMRI in mice to further personalized medicine in humans.

    Itamar Kahn, PhD

  • Vilas Menon, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences (in Neurology and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer Disease and the Aging Brain)
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Research Team 2

  • Annie J. Lee, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Neurological Sciences (in Neurology, in the Sergievsky Center, and in the Taub Institute)
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  • Badri N. Vardarajan, PhD, MS

    • Associate Professor of Neurological Science (in Neurology and the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute) at the Columbia University Medical Center)
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  • Caghan Kizil, PhD, MSc

    • Associate Professor of Neurological Sciences (in Neurology and in the Taub Institute)
    Caghan Kizil, PhD, MSc