Craig S. Atwood, Ph.D.
Dr. Atwood is renowned for his research utilizing human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) as a model for identifying the physiological hormonal signals that drive cell proliferation and differentiation during early human embryogenesis. Additionally, his laboratory has utilized hESC as a model system for understanding the neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Atwood received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Western Australia in Perth, Australia prior to post-doctoral fellowships at the National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, and Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown. He has held faculty positions at Harvard Medical School and Case Western Reserve University prior to his current appointment where he directs the research program of the Laboratory for Endocrinology, Aging and Disease in the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds the position of Research Director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute, and of the Wisconsin Comprehensive Memory Program, and is a Health Science Specialist with the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Administration Hospital, Madison.
Dr. Atwood has broad research interests related to the endocrinology of embryogenesis, adulthood and senescence as elaborated upon in ‘The Reproductive-Cell Cycle Theory of Aging’. He has published over 200 scientific articles, has served on numerous review boards and is an Editor of more than 30 scientific journals including the Journal of Biological Chemistry. In 2006 he received the Zenith Fellows Award from the Alzheimer’s Association in recognition of his research.
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