Jean-Pierre Roussarie

The Roussarie lab is interested in deciphering the molecular events leading to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease. Like most neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s affects only very specific sets of neurons in its earliest stages. These neurons are located in the entorhinal cortex, a brain region indispensable for new memory formation. Dr. Roussarie thinks that understanding the particularities of these entorhinal cortex neurons will yield novel insights into the Alzheimer’s pathological processes. Eventually, this will lead to the identification of new therapeutic targets to prevent neurodegeneration. In order to elucidate the properties of entorhinal neurons at single-cell resolution, the Roussarie lab uses a combination of mouse models, human postmortem tissue, novel in vitro culture protocols, and in silico modeling.

Dr. Roussarie earned his BS from the Ecole Polytechnique (France), and his PhD from the Pasteur Institute where he studied Theiler’s Virus with Dr. Michel Brahic. He completed his training at Rockefeller University where he started to work on Alzheimer’s disease under the supervision of the late Nobel Prize winner Dr. Paul Greengard.