Dr. Li Gan is the Director of the Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Resnick Distinguished Professor in Neurodegenerative Diseases. She earned her Ph.D. from Yale University and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and the Gladstone Institutes at UCSF. Prior to joining Weill Cornell in 2018, she was a Senior Investigator and Associate Director at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and a Professor of Neurology at UCSF.

A renowned neuroscientist, Dr. Gan’s research has redefined key mechanisms linking proteostasis failure and innate immune dysfunction in neurodegeneration. She discovered that tau acetylation impairs clearance and disrupts synaptic function, marking a conceptual shift in our understanding of tauopathies. In human neurons, she mapped the tau interactome and developed a robust propagation model for CRISPRi screening, uncovering novel drivers of tau spread. Her work revealed how maladaptive immune signaling drives microglial senescence and cognitive decline, shaped by Alzheimer’s disease risk and resilience alleles. By identifying sex-specific immune mechanisms, including microglial microRNAs and X-linked regulators, she opened new avenues for precision-based interventions.

With over 110 publications and multiple NIH-funded projects, Dr. Gan has received numerous accolades, including the Helis Prize for Parkinson’s Research, the Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for Alzheimer’s Research. She also serves on editorial boards and global grant review panels.