Holtzman Lab

David Holtzman received his BS (1983) and MD (1985) from Northwestern University followed by a Neurology residency at UCSF from 1985-1989. He did post-doctoral research at UCSF from 1989-1994. He moved to Washington University in 1994 as an Assistant Professor and after moving up the faculty ranks and was Professor and Chair of Neurology at Washington University from 2003-2021.  He is currently Professor of Neurology, scientific director of the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, and Associate Director of the Knight ADRC. Some of his lab’s accomplishments include showing in part how APOE contributes to AD, development of biomarkers for AD, demonstration that synaptic activity and sleep affect Aβ and tau levels in vivo, describing the effects of APOE, TREM2, and microglia on tau-mediated neurodegeneration, and development of an anti-Aβ antibody in a phase III secondary prevention trial for AD (A4) and an anti-ApoE antibody being developed for human trials. Several of his honors include being a recipient of the Potamkin prize and MetLife award for research on Alzheimer’s disease, Rainwater Prize for outstanding innovation in neurodegenerative disease research, election to the National Academy of Medicine, election to the National Academy of Inventors, being appointed to the National Advisory council of the NINDS and NIA, the Chancellor’s award for innovation and entrepreneurship and the Carl and Gerty Cori award from Washington University, elected Fellow of the AAAS, and being past president of the American Neurological Association. Holtzman has trained over 70 graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and physician-scientists, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in academia and industry.