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Professor Tanzi, co-founding scientist of Prana Biotechnology, is the Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases; Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General Hospital; as well as a co-founding scientist of Prana.
In 1980, Professor Tanzi was on the team with Dr. James Gusella that found the Huntington�s disease gene and subsequently has found four genes that are implicated in familial Alzheimer�s disease. Over the past eight years, much of Professor Tanzi�s research has centered around two genes known as the presenilins, mutations which account for up to half of early-onset familial Alzheimer�s disease. Most recently, Professor Tanzi has been investigating the biochemical mechanisms by which defects in these genes cause neurodegeneration in Alzheimer�s, including their roles in apoptotic cell death. Also ongoing are genetic linkage studies to localize and isolate novel genes causing the remaining 70% of Alzheimer�s disease for which the gene defects have not yet been identified. | 