Aimee Kao, MD, PhD

Associate Professor

Department of Neurology

University of California, San Francisco

Aimee Kao, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neurology and the John Douglas French Foundation Endowed Professor at the University of California, San Francisco. She directs the UCSF Tau Consortium Human Fibroblast and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) Bank and leads the UCSF Alzheimer Disease Research Center (ADRC) Neurodegenerative Disease Biomarker Core. Dr. Kao’s clinical expertise includes the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Her basic science laboratory studies how age, stress and pH changes affect protein homeostasis and contribute to sporadic and familial neurodegenerative disorders. She received the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation Distinguished Investigator Award in Neurodegenerative Diseases and the Glenn Award for Research in the Biological Mechanisms of Aging.

Research Description

The Kao Lab seeks to understand the basic pathophysiological mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases. The goal of her research is to use C. elegans and patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to better understand and ultimately cure neurodegenerative disease. She focuses on progranulin, tau and other newly discovered disease-associated genes in the regulation of cellular stress responses, protein homeostasis, pH dynamics and other processes.