Michael Mullan

Michael Mullan is an English-American researcher in Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. Mullan was a co-discoverer of genetic causes of Alzheimer's disease. Subsequently, he was a co-inventor on the original patents that covered three mutations in the amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene, a gene which is linked to familial Alzheimer's disease. He also co-authored articles in ''Nature'' and ''Nature Genetics'', describing these three genetic errors; he was the senior author on two of those articles. Dr. Mullan co-discovered a specific genetic mutation, which became known as "the Swedish Mutation," because it was originally identified in DNA samples from two Swedish families whose members often developed early-onset Alzheimer's disease. These human genetic mutations were integrated into mouse DNA to create strains of mice (transgenic animal models) that are being used worldwide to develop new drug treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

Mullan was trained as a physician in England receiving his medical degree from the Royal Free Hospital, London University. As a physician, he won a clinical research fellowship in the UK and subsequently gained a PhD in molecular genetics, also from London University. In the UK and US he specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. He has co-authored over 200 papers on Alzheimer's disease and related disorders—on many of which he served as senior author. He has held positions as Professorial Chair and positions as professor of psychiatry, Neurology, and Pathology. He cofounded the Roskamp Institute, a not-for-profit, stand-alone biomedical research Institute and was its Director and CEO. Mullan was the CEO and chairman of Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals. Mullan is the CEO of Archer Pharmaceuticals, a for-profit spin-off of the Roskamp Institute. His work has focused on the development of new treatments for inflammatory disorders, particularly of the brain, with the ultimate goal of "reducing the burden of human suffering" associated with these diseases. Provided by Wikipedia