Craig Garner

Prof. Craig Garner studied Biochemistry at Purdue University in the USA and worked as postdoctoral fellow at the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel. In 1988 he became a group leader at the Center for Molecular Neurobiology in Hamburg (ZMNH) and continued his career at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. In 2002, he became Nancy Pritzker Professor at Stanford University in California and since 2003 he has co-directed the Down syndrome Center at Stanford University. Craig Garner is a well known expert in translational research and received several prices for his work, among those are the „Coulter Foundation Award for Translational Neuroscience“, the „Fidelity Foundation Award for Neurodegenerative Research“ and the „Stanford Neuro-Innovation Award for Translational Neuroscience“. Moreover, Craig Garner has co-founded two small biotech companies: „Stealth Bioscience Inc.“ and “Balance Therapeutics Inc.“ The primary objective of the Stealth program is to develop new nanotechnologies that support intracellular recordings of neuronal cells using solid-state devices. The goal of the Balance program is to develop rational pharmacotherapies to normalize cognition in individuals with Down syndrome. The “Compose21” clinical trial is current evaluating a first set of candidate drugs. Within the DZNE Craig Garner will continue his research on the pathophysiology of synaptic dysfunction as it relates to neurodegenerative disorder with the goal of translating concepts developed from basic research into viable clinical treatment.