Dr. Reisa Sperling is a neurologist focused on the detection and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) at the preclinical stage of disease prior to clinically evident symptoms. Dr. Sperling is a Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, and Director of the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Sperling is the co-Principal Investigator of the Harvard Aging Brain Study, a decade long study of aging and early Alzheimer’s disease in 350 individuals. She is also one of the multi-PIs of the NIH funded Alzheimer’s Clinical Trial Consortium (ACTC). Dr. Sperling chaired the 2011 NIA-Alzheimer’s Association workgroup to develop guidelines for the study of “Preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.” She co-leads the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease (A4) Study and the AHEAD 3-45 Study, two landmark clinical trials in normal older individuals with evidence of amyloid pathology aiming to prevent the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Sperling has received the 2011 Derek Denny-Brown Award, the 2015 Potamkin Prize from the American Academy of Neurology, and the 2018 Raymond Adams Lectureship Award from the American Neurological Association. She was named one of the Most Disruptive Women to Watch in Healthcare in 2017, and was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2021.

Dr. Sperling is an internationally renowned clinical investigator and a highly respected thought leader in the field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Her work has fundamentally changed the way the scientific community thinks about AD, generating compelling evidence that there is a long preclinical (presymptomatic) phase of the disease, marked by the accumulation of early AD pathology, that begins more than a decade prior to clinically evident symptoms. Her early studies utilized functional MRI to elucidate the earliest changes in synaptic function and neural networks that underlie memory impairment in aging and early AD. Her foundational work in the Harvard Aging Brain Study combines molecular PET imaging of amyloid and tau pathology and innovative neuropsychological measures to predict and track cognitive decline in the preclinical stages of AD. She has made seminal contributions to the design of disease-modifying trials across the spectrum of AD, including the recognition of amyloid related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) and the importance of treating much earlier in the pathophysiological process of AD. In addition to being one of a very small number of women at the top of her field, Dr. Sperling is one of a very rare breed who has translated the cutting-edge findings from her observational studies into pioneering prevention trials that are likely to revolutionize the future treatment of AD.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1POicNt2vuYQA/bibliography/40942782/public/?sort=date&directio n= ascending