Jerome Mertens, PhD

Dr. Jerome Mertens is an Associate Professor and Riford Chair for Neurodegenerative Disease and Dementia at the University of California San Diego. He leads a research program focused on understanding the biology of cellular aging and its relationship to Alzheimer's Disease (AD) using innovative human patient-derived culture models. He earned his PhD in iPSC models of Alzheimer's Disease from the University of Bonn, Germany, and completed his postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute, focusing on induced neurons and aging. Prior to joining UCSD, Dr. Mertens established his independent research group at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, where he was awarded by prestigious awards including a BrightFocus Foundation AD Research Grant and an ERC Starting Grant. Dr. Mertens' research investigates the biology of cellular aging and its connection to Alzheimer's Disease and other related neurological disorders using human patient-derived culture models. His lab combines advanced cell reprogramming technologies with next-generation sequencing and functional neuroscience to explore age-related changes in human neurons.