Dr. Stuart Lipton

Biography

Neurologist and neuroscientist Stuart Lipton is a renowned expert in dementia. He trained at Cornell University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University. In addition to running a basic-science laboratory, he is active in clinical neurology, with a focus on dementia and general neurology. Lipton's PhD thesis research was under John Dowling at Harvard, followed by a clinical residency and postdoctoral fellowship with Nobel laureate Torsten Wiesel. He served on the Harvard faculty for 20 years before moving to La Jolla to found a new neuroscience center in 2000. Lipton is known for describing mechanisms of action and contributing to the clinical development of the FDA-approved Alzheimer’s drug, memantine (Namenda®). He discovered posttranslational redox modification and protein S-nitrosylation, combining these to create a new drug called NitroSynapsin, which shows disease-modifying activity in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease. His group has characterized HIV-related pathways of neuronal damage and showed how the transcription factor MEF2C is involved in the regulation of S-nitrosylation and neurogenesis. Dysregulated MEF2C is implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, and vascular dementia. Lipton has received the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine and was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has also received various prestigious awards including the Alzheimer’s Disease Association Award and the NIH Director’s Grant Award.

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