Veronica Galvan Hart, PhD

Biography

Dr. Galvan’s research focuses on the molecular and biochemical processes that lead to dementia in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurological disorders of aging. She has generated models of Alzheimer's and used them to identify novel mechanisms of neurodegeneration. Dr. Galvan also pioneered the study of mechanisms that link brain aging to the pathogenesis of AD and other dementias. Her laboratory identified the mammalian-target of rapamycin (mTOR) as a central driver of disease in surrogate models of AD and vascular cognitive impairment, providing the first evidence for a role of a molecular mediator of aging in the etiology of AD and related dementias. Dr. Galvan’s laboratory also provided the first description of pathogenic forms of tau in brain microvasculature of Alzheimer's and other tauopathies.

Dr. Galvan is Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, holds the Donald W. Reynolds Endowed Chair of Aging Research, and is Co-Director of the Oklahoma Geroscience and Healthy Brain Aging at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She is a Fellow of the American Aging Association and has received prestigious awards including the Lucille P. Markey Scholarship in Biomedical Sciences, the NIA Sumer Institute on Aging Research Scholarship, the Young Investigator Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation and the John D. French Alzheimer’s Foundation Fellowship. Dr. Galvan has contributed 77 scientific publications, some cited over 900 times, with h-index=48 and 7,117 total citations. Dr. Galvan is currently President of the American Aging Association and serves as Co-Editor in Chief of Geroscience, the Journal of the American Aging Association.

Email

Veronica-GalvanHart@ouhsc.edu