Overview

The research of Neill R. Graff-Radford, M.D., involves discovering genes that cause different degenerative dementias and in an effort to help people age without cognitive decline. Findings associated with healthy cognitive aging or dementia may lead to interventions that can mimic the gene effects and allow people to age with less chance of dementia. Overall, knowing genes that place patients at risk of a disease may lead to specific therapies for that disease. Dr. Graff-Radford works on different biomarkers that can be used to diagnose specific causes of dementia and monitor the effects of treatment intervention.

Dr. Graff-Radford's lab is actively engaged in clinical and translational research and is affiliated with the Administrative Core, Clinical Core, Imaging Core and Neuropathology Core of the Alzheimer's Disease Center at Mayo Clinic.

About Dr. Graff-Radford

Dr. Graff-Radford is a neurologist at Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in 1973, obtained his U.K. board certification in internal medicine (MRCP) in 1977 and moved to the United States in 1978.

After completing a neurology residency at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Dr. Graff-Radford completed a fellowship in behavioral neurology with Antonio Damasio, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. He joined the University of Iowa faculty after his fellowship and remained there for seven years.

Dr. Graff-Radford joined Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1989 as an associate professor of neurology. In 1994, he was promoted to professor. From 1994 to 2004, he served as chair of the Department of Neurology at Mayo Clinic's campus in Jacksonville, Florida.

Dr. Graff-Radford was named the David Eisenberg Professor at Mayo Clinic in 2018.