Exploring Aging Biology to Discover New Therapeutic Targets for Neurodegenerative Diseases

Prof. Le is a Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Sir Run-Run Shaw Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine. He also works as a life-time Tenured Professor of Dalian Medical University, Director of Key Laboratory of Liaoning Province on Major Neurological Diseases. Additionally, Prof. Le is an adjunctive Professor and Director for the Clinical and Translational Research Center at Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences. From 2006-2013, Dr. Le served as a Professor of Neurology and Director of the Parkinson's Disease Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine, where he was rewarded 3 NIH RO-1. He once worked as the Director of the Institute of Neurology at Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine and the Executive Chair of the Biomedical Institute of Shanghai Ruijin Hospital, and 100-talent professor of Neurogenomic Laboratory, Institute of Health Science, Chinese Academy of Science, and Chair of Academic Committee of Medical School of UESTC and Distinguished Professor & Director of Institute of Neurology, Sichuan Provincial Hospital.
Prof. Le interests in the research on pathogenesis, biomarkers and the targeted therapy of neurodegenerative diseases. He has published more than 350 papers in internationally academic journals, such as Nature Genetics, Science, PNAS, Autophagy, Brain, JAMA, Lancet Neurology, etc. His papers were cited over 38,000 times and he has been chosen into the list of Highly Cited Chinese Researchers in the field of Neuroscience by Elsevier for 10 years (H-index 89). Prof. Le held 3 Key Programs and 7 General Programs of National Natural Science Foundation of China, held/participated in 4 Key Projects of Chinese National Programs for Fundamental Research and Development (973 program) and Chinese National Programs for High Technology Research and Development (863 program).

Dr. Van Raamsdonk focused his PhD research on the treatment of Huntington's disease using mouse models. During his postdoctoral fellowship with Siegfried Hekimi at McGill University, he utilized C. elegans models to investigate the biology and genetics of aging. In 2012, he established a laboratory at the Van Andel Research Institute in Michigan, concentrating on aging and neurodegenerative diseases. In 2018, he relocated to Montreal and founded a lab at McGill University dedicated to studying aging, biological resilience, and neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Van Raamsdonk's research employs a genetic approach to explore the biology of aging and the factors contributing to neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease. He is particularly interested in the role of biological resilience in aging and neurodegeneration. His work seeks to uncover the molecular mechanisms underlying aging, aiming to promote healthy aging and develop novel treatments for neurodegenerative disorders. His lab follows a translational approach, conducting initial experiments in C. elegans to inform and prioritize further studies in mammalian models.

National University of Singapore (Ph.D), Registered Neurologist (SG), Stanford University (Postdoctor, PI), Australia NHMRC Fellow (PI), 13th CPPCC Provincial Committee Member, Membership of SFN and APSN.
Winner of the “Tenth Outstanding Young Neurologist of Chinese Medical Association”, the “New Century Talents of Ministry of Education” in 2010, the “Leading Talent in Talents Project Guangdong High-level Personnel of Special Support Program” in 2016, and the “Outstanding Young Medical Talents of Guangdong” in 2018. Reviewer of National Natural Science Foundation of China. Vice-Chairman of the Neurology Branch of Guangdong Medical Association and the leader of the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Group.
Associate Editor of Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience (IF: 5.7), Editor of Experimental Neurology (IF: 5.6), Editorial Board Member of Aging and Disease (IF: 9.97), Experimental Neurology (5.6), and Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience (6.1).
He has obtained more than 40 grant supports, including the 973 Project, National Key R&D Program of China, and 7 National Natural Science Foundations of China (6 general projects, 1 key project). He has published over 90 SCI papers, with 10 published as corresponding author in journals with IF>10. Papers were cited more than 4500 citations, with H-index of 33.