Education:
Staff Scientist, Buck Institute for Research on Aging, 2006-2008
Postdoctoral Fellow, Buck Institute for Research on Aging, 2000-2005
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1994-1999
M.S., Molecular Biology, Center for Advanced Studies in Exact Sciences University, Buenos Aires, 1994
Clinical/Research Interests:
Dr. Galvan’s lab focuses on the molecular processes of aging that lead to dementia and other neurological disorders associated with aging, with a specific emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The lab pioneered the study of mechanisms that connect brain aging to the pathogenesis of dementia. The Galvan lab provided the first evidence for the involvement of a molecular driver of aging, the mammalian/mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR), in the etiology of age-related cognitive impairment and dementia, a groundbreaking discovery in geroscience. These studies led to the first geroscience-based clinical trial in AD, where Dr. Galvan is a co-investigator. In addition, work from the Galvan lab recently provided the first description of the activation of cellular senescence, a central driver of aging, by pathogenic forms of tau, a causative factor in AD. The lab uses advanced primary cell culture-based models, in vivo optical and MRI-based functional brain imaging, single-cell proteomic and transcriptomic approaches, and neurobehavioral tools to measure the impact of experimental interventions on functional outcomes and define the mechanisms involved. The goal of this work is to determine how molecular mediators including mTOR, pathogenic tau, and cellular senescence can be targeted for therapeutic purposes, to advance the neurodegeneration and geroscience fields.