Sudha Seshadri (University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio)

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Sudha Seshadri - Founding Director of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s & neurodegenerative diseases and Director of the South Texas Alzheimer Disease Research Center - received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa on the 24th June 2024.

Photo : Sudha Seshadri © UT Health San Antonio
Sudha Seshadri © UT Health San Antonio

Professor Sudha Seshadri is a recognised world leader in the field of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders. After completing her medical education and residency training in internal medicine and neurology at the Christian Medical College (Vellore, India), the Madras Medical College (Chennai, India) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (New Delhi, India) Sudha Seshadri went on to complete a second residency at Boston University (USA), along with fellowship training in the neurobiology of ageing and neuroepidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts (USA).

Founding Director since 2017 of the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of Texas - San Antonio, a national reference centre for Alzheimer’s disease, she is also Professor of Neurology at Boston University Medical School and leads numerous projects on dementia, stroke, neuroimaging and the brain bank at the Framingham Heart Study.

Since 2008, she has also led the neurology working group within the CHARGE consortium (Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology) and is principal investigator of the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Disease Project (IGAP) and the Alzheimer’s Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP).

Research, collaboration, distinctions

Her research has led to major advances in our understanding of the risk factors for dementia and the determinants of brain ageing in general, including major discoveries about the genetic determinants of Alzheimer’s disease. At the Alzheimer’s disease reference centre that she runs, she is developing highly innovative personalised diagnostic and preventive approaches.

Professor Sudha Seshadri has published more than 450 original research articles, serves on the editorial boards of prestigious journals such as Neurology and Stroke, has been invited to give plenary lectures on numerous occasions, including at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, has mentored more than 40 physicians and scientists, and strives to integrate clinical care and research with basic and population neuroscience, education and advocacy.

For several years now, Professor Sudha Seshadri has been working closely with teams at the University of Bordeaux, not only on high-level research projects, with numerous joint publications, but also on teaching and training initiatives, especially the yearly ‘Neurepiomics’ summer school.

The DHC for Prof. Sudha Seshadri was proposed by Stéphanie Debette, MD PhD, Professor of Epidemiology and Neurologist at the University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux University Hospital, and Bordeaux Population Health research centre Inserm U1219, Director of the Precision and Global Vascular Brain Health Institute (VBHI) and Carole Dufouil, epidemiologist, Director of the PHARes research team - Population Health trAnslational Research, Bordeaux Population Health Research Centre (University of Bordeaux - Inserm unit), Deputy Director in charge of international relations at the Bordeaux School of Public Health, University of Bordeaux.