SUMMARY
Nilufer Ertekin-Taner, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist who cares for patients with dementia and whose research focuses on Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative conditions. Her innovative, groundbreaking research, which combines complex genomics and deep endophenotypes, is essential for the discovery of molecular disease mechanisms, new treatments and biomarkers for these devastating and incurable conditions. She has pioneered the endophenotype approach in genetic studies of Alzheimer's disease and related diseases.
Dr. Ertekin-Taner directs the Precision Medicine in Neurodegeneration Laboratory. The lab aims to:
- Discover and characterize the genetic factors that influence the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
- Apply leading-edge analytic approaches to integrate biological traits with multi-omics data to discover precision medicine therapies and biomarkers in Alzheimer's disease and related disorders.
The lab leads many large-scale national initiatives as part of these efforts.
Dr. Ertekin-Taner has been continually funded by the National Institutes of Health and foundations. She has served as a principal investigator for over 40 grants with total extramural grant support of over $80 million since 2008.
Dr. Ertekin-Taner is a leader in education, having mentored many trainees from various career stages.
Focus areas
- Comparative gene expression studies in Alzheimer's disease and other conditions. Dr. Ertekin-Taner's lab measures gene expression in brain samples of people who had Alzheimer's disease or other neurodegenerative diseases to find new genes and pathways implicated in the pathophysiology of these conditions. Her lab also studies genetics of gene expression in blood samples from prospective cohorts to identify gene expression signatures that may predict cognitive decline and the development of Alzheimer's disease.
- Gene expression studies in progressive supranuclear palsy. In collaboration with the Mayo Clinic Brain Bank, Dr. Ertekin-Taner's lab analyzes gene expression levels from brains of people with progressive supranuclear palsy. The goal is to identify genetic variants that influence disease risk and pathology via regulating transcription.
- Methylome analysis. Dr. Ertekin-Taner uses CpG methylation levels to study the influence of epigenetic factors on gene expression in Alzheimer's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy.
- Functional studies in Alzheimer's disease candidate genes. Dr. Ertekin-Taner's lab aims to understand the functional consequences of coding variants and modifications in expression levels of genes and specific isoforms implicated in Alzheimer's disease. The lab uses gene expression, immunohistochemistry and animal behavior approaches to understand the functional consequences of these genetic modifications in candidate genes, such as CTNNA3 and LRRTM3.
- Late-onset Alzheimer's disease risk variants in memory decline, incident mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Ertekin-Taner's lab uses cognitive and disease status data to determine the influence of Alzheimer's disease genetic risk variants on cognitive decline and incident disease.
Significance to patient care
Dr. Ertekin-Taner wants to learn how Alzheimer's and other brain diseases work and find ways to treat them. By studying the genes related to Alzheimer's disease, she hopes to find out more about the disease. She also seeks to find new pathways that affect this common, complex disease.
Professional highlights
- Mayo Clinic:
- Roy E. & Merle Meyer Professor of Neuroscience, 2025-present.
- Chair, Department of Neuroscience, 2023-present.
- Chair, RNA Therapeutics Discovery and Translation Program, 2023-present.
- Director and principal investigator, KL2 Mentored Career Development Program, Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, 2023-present.
- Mid-Career Alumni Award, Mayo Clinic Alumni Association, 2025.
- Investigator of the Year Award, 2018.
- Scholar, KL2 Mentored Career Development Program, Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences, 2008-2011.
- Contact principal investigator, Centrally-Linked Longitudinal Peripheral Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease (CLEAR-AD) in Multi-Ethnic Populations, National Institutes of Health, 2023-present.
- National Institute on Aging:
- Principal investigator, Molecular Mechanisms of the Vascular Etiology of Alzheimer's Disease Consortium, 2015-present.
- Principal investigator, Accelerating Medicines Partnership Program for Alzheimer's Disease (AMP-AD), 2013-present.
- Health Care Hero, Jacksonville Business Journal, 2008, 2018.