Emily Rogalski
Professor
Department of Neurology
Emily Rogalski is a clinical and cognitive neuroscientist researching aging, Alzheimer’s, and related dementias. Her investigations use a multimodal approach focused on two aging perspectives: primary progressive aphasia (PPA), in which neurodegenerative disease invades the language network, and SuperAging, in which 80+-year-olds are resistant to memory decline associated with typical cognitive aging. Her PPA research helped to characterize its clinical and anatomical features, drivers of disease progression, identification of risk factors, and refinement of cognitive neuroscience of language. She leads a global randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of Communication Bridge, a novel nonpharmacologic intervention delivered by expert clinicians via telemedicine for individuals with PPA and their communication partners. She operationalized the SuperAging phenotype, and helped establish its unique biologic, molecular, genetic, and psychosocial features. She leads the international SuperAging Research Initiative, which holds promise for identifying protective factors for avoiding Alzheimer’s disease, optimizing health span, and reducing stigma associated with aging. She directs the new University of Chicago Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Research Care Center.
Rogalski received a BA in biology cum laude from Wittenberg University in Ohio, and a PhD in neuroscience from Northwestern University. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in the Division of Neuroscience at Rush University Medical Center. Most recently, she was the Ann Adelmann Perkins and John S. Perkins Professor of Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.