Martin Hallbeck, MD, PhD

Professor Martin Hallbeck is a senior neuropathologist who aims to increase the understanding of why cells in the brain become sick and why disease spreads throughout the brain in people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). His ultimate goal is to use this knowledge to develop novel therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Dr. Hallbeck’s group has laid important foundations for our current understanding of disease progression in PD and AD. Work by Hallbeck’s laboratory has included a recent breakthrough on how toxic protein aggregates piggyback on normal cellular machinery to spread pathology associated with PD. Targeting these pathways will open new possibilities for diagnosis and treatment.