Rudy Tanzi is the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard University, and Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. Tanzi has been investigating the genetics of neurological disease since a student in the 1980s when he participated in the first study that used genetic markers to find a disease gene. Tanzi co-discovered all three familial early-onset Alzheimer’s disease genes and several other neurological disease genes including that responsible for Wilson’s disease. As the leader of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund Alzheimer’s Genome Project, Tanzi has carried out multiple genome wide association studies of thousands of Alzheimer’s families leading to the identification of novel AD candidate genes, including CD33 and the first two rare mutations causing late-onset AD in the ADAM10 gene. His research on the role of zinc and copper in AD has led to clinical trials at Prana Biotechnology. He is also working on gamma secretase modulators (together with Steve Wagner, UCSD) for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s.