Maya Koronyo-Hamaoui, PhD

Maya Koronyo-Hamaoui, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, is head of the Neuroimmunology and Retinal Imaging Laboratory in the Department of Neurosurgery. She has held research positions at the Danek Gertner Institute of Human Genetics at The Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer and was a faculty adjunct lecturer at The Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, in Israel. She earned her bachelor’s degree cum laude and her master’s magna cum laude at Tel Aviv University before receiving her Ph.D. in human molecular genetics and psychiatric genetics at the university’s Sackler School of Medicine. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship in neuroimmunology at one of the world’s leading neuroimmunology laboratories at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot. Dr. Koronyo-Hamaoui’s laboratory focuses on various models of acute and chronic CNS-degeneration, with a great emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease: retinal pathology, retinal imaging and immune-based therapies. Her pioneering work on imaging of beta-amyloid retinal pathology created the basis for translating this novel approach to the clinic for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease through a non-invasive eye scanning; her team is committed to developing a definitive diagnosis early, when the disease is most likely to be treatable. Her other main focus is on immune-based mechanisms of repair and regeneration in the brain and developing immune-modulation therapies for Alzheimer's disease. In addition to the BrightFocus award, she has received the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences recognition, the Wolf Fund and Sackler School of Medicine Faculty Dean's Honor & Prize for Best Achievements, a Pioneer in Medicine Award from the Brain Mapping Foundation, and the primary research award from the Coins for Alzheimer’s Research Trust (CART) Fund.