Ole IsacsonProfessor

Dr. Ole Isacson is Professor of Neurology (Neuroscience) at Harvard Medical School. He is the Director of the Neuroregeneration Research Institute at McLean Hospital and an NIH Udall Parkinson's Disease Research Center of Excellence grant awardee. Dr. Isacson is also a co-chair of Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair and Principal Faculty of Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He received his Medical Bachelor (1984) and Doctor of Medicine (a research doctoral degree in Medical Neurobiology, 1987) from the University of Lund in Sweden. In 1989, after a 2 year postdoctoral position at Cambridge University, England, Dr. Isacson was recruited to Harvard as an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and there established a small independent research laboratory for his work on neuroregeneration. Over the last 2 decades his original laboratory has grown to an internationally recognized academic research center for Parkinson's disease and related disorders, funded by the NIH, DOD and private foundations. Dr. Isacson's scientific models and studies of conceptually new therapies for neurodegenerative diseases have resulted in many new findings and clinical trials for Parkinson's and Huntington's disease. He is Editor In Chief of the journal Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience and on the board of numerous other scientific journals. He is a founding member and past President of the American Society for Neural Transplantation and Repair, and past President of the international Cell Transplantation Society (branch of the American Transplantation Society – AST). He serves as a scientific reviewer and advisor to the NIH, DOD and many Parkinson community groups. Dr. Isacson has received international prizes, research awards and lectureships. He is author or co-author of over 250 scientific research publications in neuroscience and neurology, and 3 books in his field.