Benjamin Wolozin, MD, PhD

Dr. Wolozin’s research focuses on how the evolution of stress and the translational stress response contributes ot the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases. The translational stress response regulates RNA metabolism via phase separation to form membraneless organelles. These processes contribute to generation of the protein aggregates that cause neurodegenerative diseases. The Wolozin laboratory has developed methods to analyze how complexes of proteins and RNA evolve from biology to pathology in the context of brain diseases. His work has demonstrated an important role for RNA binding proteins, such as TIA1 and HNRNPA2B1, in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease. Most recently, the Wolozin laboratory has focused on post-transcriptional modifications of RNA, delineating how mRNA and tRNA epi-transcriptomics change with aging and disease. Dr. Wolozin is also co-founder and CSO of Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is developing small molecule therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.