Karen Duff, PhD

Dr. Duff is professor of pathology and cell biology at Columbia University. After receiving her PhD from Sydney Brenner’s department at the University of Cambridge in 1991, she undertook postdoc positions in London with Alison Goate (1991-92) and with John Hardy at the University of South Florida (1992-94). She joined the faculty at the University of South Florida, then became an associate professor at Mayo Clinic in Florida. She joined the Nathan Kline Institute in New York in 1998, serving on the NYU faculty until joining Columbia in 2006. In her translational research program, Dr. Duff has created several transgenic mouse models for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) to explore disease mechanisms and test therapeutic approaches.  Her current interests are in exploring the role of the risk factor ApoE4 in AD pathogenesis, exploring the mechanisms and circuitry involved in spread of disease within the brain, and identifying the role and therapeutic potential of autophagy and proteasome-mediated clearance to remove pathological proteins. Dr. Duff has published more than 120 peer-reviewed research articles and received a number of prizes, including the Potemkin Prize in 2005.