Kels Perry

Undergraduate research assistant

Kelsey joined us in 2020 right before the COVID-19 pandemic began. She is working on CSF biomarkers for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) on which we collaborate with Dr. Sumit Verma at Children's Hospital of Atlanta.

Kelly Watts, MS (In memoriam)

Research Specialist, Senior

Kelly joined the laboratory in 2011 and serves as the lab manager. She is involved in all aspects of the lab operation.

Whitney Wharton, PhD

Associate Professor

Dr. Wharton is a cognitive neuroscientist who studies the effects of aging and exercise on cognition using MRI and CSF biomarkers. She received her BA at the University of Texas at Austin and went on to complete her doctoral training at The George Washington University in Washington DC. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Her research focuses on the influence of vascular risk factors on Alzheimer’s biomarkers in individuals who are at risk for the disease due a parental history. She conducts both observational and clinical trials that investigate the extent to which blood pressure and blood pressure medications act on brain systems known to be involved in AD neuropathology. Dr. Wharton is currently conducting an NIH/NIA funded study investigating the influence of peripheral arterial function on AD biomarkers by measuring beta amyloid levels and blood flow in the brain in individuals at risk for AD. Her secondary area of research involves the influence of sex hormones and hormone therapy on cognition and AD neuropathology.

Jonathan Glass, MD

Director, Emory ALS Center

Dr. Glass is Professor of Neurology and Pathology, and the Director of the Emory ALS Center. He is widely known for his research on the pathogenesis and prevention of nerve degeneration in neurological diseases, and for his work in human and experimental neuropathology. His laboratory currently focuses on the causes of nerve degeneration in animal models of neurological diseases, including the development of novel therapeutic interventions to prevent the death of nerve fibers. Dr. Glass is a passionate advocate for bringing science to the clinic, and involving patients in the study of their own disease. He is the principle investigator for the current first-in-human, phase 1 study of spinal cord injection of neural stem cells for patients with ALS. Dr. Glass received his undergraduate degree from Middlebury College (Vermont) and his MD from the University of Vermont. He trained in Neurology and Neuropathology at Johns Hopkins, where he was a faculty member until moving to Emory in 1996

Tom Kukar, PhD

Associate Professor, Pharmacology

The goal of my laboratory is to develop effective therapeutics to treat neurodegenerative diseases.

Our strategy is to understand disease pathogenesis using a combination of chemical and cellular biology, proteomics, and novel animal models using Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV). Our aim is to use this knowledge to identify new drug targets and ultimately translate these findings into clinically viable treatments.

Monica Parker, MD

Assistant Professor, Neurology

Since 2010, Dr. Parker and her team have developed community forums to inform the Emory Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and ongoing clinical studies. These studies have included an African-American Caregiver study, a study about normal women’s aging, and a cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker study comparing CSF of Caucasians and African Americans with family histories of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Parker and the Emory Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) have established these educational forums as one strategy that serves as an excellent mechanism for recruitment of volunteers for clinical studies.