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Professor Tanzi, co-founding scientist of Prana Biotechnology, is the Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases; Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital; as well as a co-founding scientist of Prana.
In 1980, Professor Tanzi was on the team with Dr. James Gusella that found the Huntington‘s disease gene and subsequently has found four genes that are implicated in familial Alzheimer‘s disease. Over the past eight years, much of Professor Tanzi‘s research has centered around two genes known as the presenilins, mutations which account for up to half of early-onset familial Alzheimer‘s disease. Most recently, Professor Tanzi has been investigating the biochemical mechanisms by which defects in these genes cause neurodegeneration in Alzheimer‘s, including their roles in apoptotic cell death. Also ongoing are genetic linkage studies to localize and isolate novel genes causing the remaining 70% of Alzheimer‘s disease for which the gene defects have not yet been identified. | 