Benjamin Wolozin, MD, PhD

Benjamin Wolozin, M.D., PhD is a Professor of Pharmacology and Neurology, and a member of the Center for Systems Neuroscience and the Neurophotonics Center. He received his M.D. and PhD degree through the medical scientist training program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and his postdoctoral fellowship at NIH. He has won multiple awards through his career, including the Donald B. Lindsley Prize (Society for Neuroscience), the Zenith Award (Alzheimer Association), the Spivack Award (Boston University) and he is a fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Wolozin has extensive research experience in the field of neurodegenerative disease. His research investigates the pathophysiology of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. His research examines molecular and cellular aspects of disease, and he has extensive experience in molecular neuropathology. For the past decade, Dr. Wolozin has been investigating the profound ways in which the biology of RNA binding proteins contributes to the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative disease. This work has prompted concepts that are changing our understanding of protein association and disease processes; terms such as “regulated protein aggregation”, “membraneless organelles” or “liquid-liquid phase separation”, provide a theoretical framework for understanding the biology of neurodegenerative disease, as well as new directions for therapeutic intervention for tauopathies and other neurodegenerative diseases. The current collaboration with the Mo Khalil will extend these ideas to create innovative new methods for nuanced regulation of disease mechanisms using the tools of synthetic biology. Ahmad (Mo) Khalil, PhD is the Dorf-Ebner Distinguished Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering and the Founding Associate Director of the Biological Design Center at Boston University. He is also a Visiting Scholar at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, and Co-Director of a NIH/NIGMS T32 PhD Training Program in synthetic biology. His research is interested in how molecular circuits enable core cellular functions, such as decision-making, computation, and epigenetic memory. His team develops synthetic biology approaches and new laboratory technologies to interrogate the function and evolution of these cellular systems. He is recipient of numerous awards, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), DoD Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, NIH New Innovator Award, NSF CAREER Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award, and Hartwell Foundation Biomedical Research Award, and he has received numerous awards for teaching excellence at both the Department and College levels. Mo was an HHMI Postdoctoral Fellow with Dr. James Collins at Boston University. He obtained his PhD from MIT and his B.S. (Phi Beta Kappa) from Stanford University.