Dr. Rissman is a Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience and the W.M. Keck Endowed Chair in Medicine at the University of Southern California. He is the founding Director of the Neuroscience Translational Research Division (NTRD) of the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) where he leads the ATRI Biomarker Laboratory and Biorepository. Concurrently with work at ATRI, Dr. Rissman leads the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC) Biorepository Unit, and Director of the USC ADRC Biomarker Core. Additionally, Dr. Rissman is a PI at the VA San Diego and a Professor of Neurosciences at the University of California San Diego (UCSD).

Dr. Rissman’s basic science research focusses on novel biomarker discovery and experimental neuropathology in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and preclinical animal models. A major focus of his lab in AD biomarkers is on the utility and mechanistic underpinnings of neuronal exosomes. His group has published manuscripts demonstrating the ability of tau and abeta in neuronal exosomes to predict conversion from MCI to AD. His lab also investigates the contribution of stress and changes in stress signaling intermediates in Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology. Using transgenic mice and in vivo pharmacology, experiments are focused on identifying the role of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) receptors in beta-amyloid deposition, tau phosphorylation and behavioral and synaptic changes.