Michael S. Rafii, MD, PhD
University of Southern California
Profile
About the Speaker: Michael S. Rafii, MD, PhD, is Medical Director of the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) and Professor of Clinical Neurology at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He earned his MD and PhD degrees from Brown University, conducted neurogenetics research at Harvard Medical School, completed his neurology residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and a fellowship in neurodegenerative diseases at the University of California, San Diego. A physician-scientist, Dr. Rafii focuses on developing novel therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, including the genetic form affecting individuals with Down syndrome. He is Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium–Down Syndrome (ACTC-DS), leading several international clinical trials across an extensive network of academic sites. Dr. Rafii also directs the Medical Safety Unit of the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC), overseeing the safety and conduct of its entire portfolio of trials. He serves as Co-Director of the Clinical Core of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and as Co-Principal Investigator of the national Alzheimer’s Network for Treatment and Diagnostics (ALZ-NET).
Dr. Rafii has been a scientific reviewer for the NIH and the Alzheimer’s Association for the past 15 years. He is also the author of two widely used neurology review books: First Aid for the Neurology Boards and First Aid for the Neurology Clerkship. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, The Economist, and NPR. Dr. Rafii served as Medical Advisor to the Netflix documentary Remembering Gene Wilder and the Emmy Award–winning shows Grey’s Anatomy and This Is Us. Previously, he held key leadership roles at the University of California, San Diego, including Medical Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study, Director of the Memory Disorders Clinic, Founding Director of the Adult Down Syndrome Clinic, Director of the Comprehensive Alzheimer’s Program, Director of the Adult Neurology Residency Program, and Associate Professor of Neurology.
For Further Information, Contact: Clark Kellogg at kellogg@waisman.wisc.edu
The seminar series is funded by the John D. Wiley Conference Center Fund, the Friends of the Waisman Center and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) grant P50HD105353.
