Laura Helen Jacobson, PhD

Associate Professor Laura Jacobson is Head of the Sleep and Cognition Group at the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health in Melbourne, Australia. She obtained her PhD (Neuropharmacology; Summa Cum Laude) in 2006 with the University of Basel (Switzerland). In 2007 Laura joined the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (Basel, Switzerland) where she headed a preclinical pharmacology laboratory, conducting drug discovery research for neurodegenerative and sleep disorders. She then moved to Australia and established the Sleep and Cognition Group at the Florey in 2016. Her research focuses on the neurobiology and pharmacology of sleep and arousal and their roles in cognitive, decision making and emotional processes in health and in neurodegenerative, proteinopathic disorders. A/Prof Jacobson’s work is supported by the Alzheimer’s Association, Merck, Sharp & Dohme Investigator Studies Program, the NHMRC and MJFF.