Li Gan, PhD, is the director of the Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Burton P. and Judith B. Resnick Distinguished Professor in Neurodegenerative Diseases. She earned her PhD in cellular and molecular physiology from Yale University School of Medicine, followed by postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and the Gladstone Institutes at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Prior to joining Weill Cornell in 2018, Gan served as a senior investigator and associate director at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and as a professor of neurology at UCSF.

Gan’s research advanced our understanding of neuroimmune mechanisms and proteostasis. Her pioneering work on tau acetylation and microglial dysfunction has provided key insights into disease mechanisms, while her development of human induced pluripotent stem cell-based platforms and functional genomics approaches has revealed critical disease-modifying pathways. She is actively pursuing strategies to develop therapies that halt or reverse disease progression.

A recipient of the Helis Prize for Parkinson’s Research and the Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for Alzheimer’s Research, Gan has authored over 100 publications in leading journals and leads multiple National Institutes of Health-funded projects. She is a dedicated contributor to the scientific community, serving on editorial boards and grant review panels worldwide. Her commitment to mentorship was recognized with the Jessica M. and Natan Bibliowicz Award for Excellence in Mentoring Women Faculty.