Sung Ji Ahn, PhD

Sung Ji Ahn, PhD, is an instructor in neuroscience at the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine. She completed her PhD in biomedical engineering at Cornell University, where she worked with Dr. Chris B. Schaffer, using multi-photon optics, a method of microscopy using different waves of light to highlight features in a sample, to precisely manipulate and picture the health and function of the brain. The work left her fascinated by how neurovascular interactions shape brain function and their contribution to brain diseases. Dr. Ahn then moved to Weill Cornell Medicine and joined Dr. Costantino Iadecola’s lab, where she is studying how hyperphosphorylated tau, a major pathogenic factor in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, contributes to the vascular and neuronal dysfunction underlying cognitive impairment.