Linda Van Eldik, PhD

Linda Jo Van Eldik, PhD, is Director of the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging and the NIA-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Co-Director of the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute and the University Neuroscience Research Priority Area, and Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Kentucky in Lexington KY. Her background includes a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from Duke University, postdoc in Virology and Cell Biology at Rockefeller University in NY, and faculty positions at Vanderbilt University and at Northwestern University in Chicago. Dr. Van Eldik has received a number of honors during her career, including a Zenith Award from the Alzheimer’s Association and an NIA MERIT award. She is a fellow of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a member of the National Advisory Council on Aging. Her research focuses on dysregulated neuroinflammation, identifying potential points of intervention, and developing new small molecule drug candidates to slow the progression of cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration. In collaborative translational efforts, she has shepherded a set of small molecule compounds from design and synthesis; to preclinical animal model testing for pharmacodynamics, efficacy and selectivity; through IND-enabling preclinical development, with three in phase Ib/2a human clinical trials for CNS disorders.