Andrew West, PhD

Dr. West serves as the Lead Investigator for the team proposal “Decoding α-Synuclein Conformational Diversity to Enable Advanced Predictive Amplification Assays.” He is the Director of the Duke Center for Neurodegeneration and Neurotherapeutics and leads a multidisciplinary laboratory focused on mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease, biomarker discovery, and disease-modifying therapeutic strategies. Dr. West is a founding member of the NINDS Parkinson’s Disease Biomarker Program (PDBP) Steering Committee, a former member of the Michael J. Fox Foundation Executive Scientific Advisory Board, and a reviewing editor for neurodegeneration research at eLife. Over the past decade, he has led multiple large, successful multidisciplinary initiatives supported by NINDS, MJFF, Udall Centers, and ASAP, with a focus on α-synuclein and LRRK2 biology, assay development, and biomarker discovery. He has over 25 years of experience in α-synuclein research and has authored more than 100 largely open-access publications.