Bart De Strooper

Bart De Strooper is professor of molecular medicine at the KU Leuven and VIB, Belgium and professor in dementia research at the University College London, UK. He has been director of the VIB Center for Brain and Disease research (2007-2016) and founding director of the UK Dementia Research institute (2016-2023). His scientific work focuses on the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that underlie Alzheimer’s disease. His major findings are the role of ADAM10 and presenilin/gamma-secretase in the proteolysis of the amyloid precursor protein and Notch and the generation of amyloid plaque pathology that characterizes the disease. More recently he has demonstrated the crucial role of the glia cells in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease. He received his M.D. in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1991 from KU Leuven. He worked as postdoctoral researcher in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, in the laboratory of Carlos Dotti. In 2018, Bart De Strooper, together with John Hardy, Christian Haas and Michel Goedert, was awarded the Brain Prize for their groundbreaking research on the genetic and molecular basis of Alzheimer disease. Other awards include the Potamkin Award of the American Academy of Neurology in 2002 (USA). the 2003 Alois Alzheimer Award of the Deutscher Gesellschaft für Gerontopsychiatrie und psychotherapie (Germany), the Joseph Maisin Prize in 2005 for fundamental biomedical sciences, (FWO Flanders, Belgium), the 2008 Metlife Foundation Award for medical research (USA) and the 2018 European Grand Prix for Research (France). He is elected EMBO member (2004), fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences UK (2019) and fellow of the U.S. National academy of Medicine (2022).