Dr. Grutzendler obtained his MD at Universidad Javeriana
in Bogota, Colombia where he was born and raised. He completed
a medical internship in Internal Medicine and a residency in Neurology
at Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. This was
followed by a combined clinical and research fellowship in the Alzheimer
Disease Research Center and the Department of Neurobiology at Washington
University. In 2001, Dr. Grutzendler moved to the Skirball Institute
at New York University for further neurobiology research training and
in October 2003, he moved to Chicago and was appointed Assistant Professor
of Neurology and Physiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School
of Medicine. At Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Dr. Grutzendler cares
for general neurology patients and he is also a member of the cognitive
neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease center (CNADC) where he maintains
a Neurobehavior patient clinic, providing bilingual diagnostic evaluations
and patient care to Spanish-speaking patients.
In addition to his clinical activities, Dr. Grutzendler is the principal
investigator in a research laboratory dedicated to understanding Alzheimer’s
and other neurodegenerative diseases. Specifically, his laboratory
investigates how synapses (the connections between nerve cells) are
maintained in the intact brain and how different conditions affecting
other brain cells such as astrocytes and microglia can affect the stability
of synapses. Dr. Grutzendler’s long-term goal is to understand
common mechanisms that lead to synaptic disruption in various neurological
conditions and to use that knowledge to design therapeutic interventions
to reestablish neuronal connectivity.
Dr. Grutzendler has received several prestigious awards including the
Ellison foundation new scholar award in aging, the Schweppe foundation
career development award and the Dana foundation Brain and Immunoimaging
award |
Jaime Grutzendler, MD