Dr. Michael Ward received his BS from Kenyon College and MD and PhD degrees from Washington University in St. Louis. As a graduate student, he worked in the laboratory of Yi Rao, where he studied the regulation of cell migration during neurodevelopment. Following a neurology residency at the University of California, San Francisco, he pursued a subspecialty in behavioral neurology and conducted postdoctoral studies on the basic mechanisms of frontotemporal dementia in the laboratory of Li Gan. As a postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Ward received an American Brain Foundation CRTF award and an NIH K08 career development award. In 2015, he joined the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke as an assistant clinical investigator. His research focuses on identifying intersecting mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases, with an ultimate goal of developing targeted, disease-modifying therapies for people affected by these disorders.