Stuart A. Lipton Scripps Research Institute, and University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Professor Stuart A. Lipton, MD, PhD, is a renowned expert in Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. In addition to heading a basic-science laboratory and acting as Co-Director of the Neuroscience Translational Center at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, he is a practicing clinical neurologist at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. Trained at Harvard, Dr. Lipton completed his PhD thesis research, followed by a clinical neurology residency, and a postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Torsten Wiesel during the time that Wiesel won the Nobel prize. Lipton was then on the Harvard faculty for over 25 years before moving to La Jolla to start a new Neuroscience and Aging Center in early 2000. He is best known for developing the FDA-approved Alzheimer’s drug memantine (trade name Namenda®), co-discovering the ubiquitous posttranslational modification known as protein S-nitrosylation, and cloning/discovering the neurogenic transcription factor MEF2C. MEF2C has recently been shown to be a critical factor in Autism Spectrum Disorder as well as several neurodegenerative diseases. Lipton’s numerous honors include the Ernst Jung Prize in Medicine, considered one of the top 5 or 6 medical prizes worldwide, which is awarded in Germany and only rarely given to an American.