Dr. Gelbard is the Director of the Center for Neurotherapeutics Discovery and Professor of Neurology, Pediatrics, Neuroscience, and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. His team has developed new therapies for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND). Additionally, they have extended their studies to post-operative cognitive decline (POCD), multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), sepsis-associated encephalopathy SAE), and now Parkinson's disease (PD) because these conditions share common signaling mechanisms with HAND. Their goal has been to develop neuroprotective approaches by targeting mixed lineage kinase (MLK3) that regulate neuroinflammation in nervous system immune cells as well as neuronal function/fate. They have developed a patented library of >200 novel small molecules that efficaciously inhibit MLK3.