Who is Amirah

Amirah K. Anderson is a research assistant in the Selkoe lab at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, studying how certain protein isoforms interplay within the pathological mechanisms associated with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Her broad background in neuroscience includes specific training in neurodegeneration, prediction modeling, biomarkers, biochemistry, and cellular and molecular models in characterizing mechanisms in AD. As a student, she was awarded four scientific fellowships and scholarships (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stem Launch Germany, Spelman Honor’s College, and Morehouse School of Medicine NIH U54), engaged in three neuroscience research internships and two longer positions, providing exposure to engineering, pharmacology, bioinformatics, molecular, and cellular biology. Each experience broadened her understanding of how to address research questions. Currently as a research assistant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, she helped develop effective measures of toxin accumulation, neuronal cell death, and impaired synaptic plasticity by optimizing new immunoassays, modeling interactions in brain tissue, evaluating clinical trial efficacy, and monitoring excitatory postsynaptic potentials. These projects aid in understanding widely debated mechanisms and therapeutics to determine downstream effects. In addition, she has successfully led projects collaborating with the Neurology clinic, and Pathology department to establish blood and brain banks by recruiting patients and training staff spanning Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana Farber Hospital. Amirah exhibits leadership by increasing access to STEM careers and establishing collaborations between Harvard-affiliated hospitals and historically black colleges. From these experiences, she has built a strong research foundation, enabling her to undertake impactful research with important applications in medicine. Amirah possesses the motivation, dedication, curiosity, collaboration, and leadership skills to make her a premier scientist and leader.