Norman R. Relkin, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology and Neuroscience at the Weill Cornell Medical College and Associate Attending Neurologist at The New York Presbyterian Hospital. He has been Director of the Cornell Memory Disorders Program since 1992.

Dr Relkin's work focuses on methods to improve the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's Disease and other causes of dementia. He and his colleagues at Cornell were the first to show an association between the Punch Drunk Syndrome (dementia pugilistica) in professional boxers and possession of a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's (APOE-?4). In 1995, Dr Relkin organized a consortium under the auspices of the National Institute on Aging and the National Alzheimer's Association that developed guidelines for the use of genetic testing for diagnosis and prediction of Alzheimer's Disease.

Dr Relkin ran a pilot genetic testing program based on these guidelines that was featured on the 1998 PBS documentary, A Question of Genes. He later became a principal investigator in the REVEAL project, sponsored by the Ethics, Legal and Social Issues Branch of the Human Genome Project. This program seeks to establish the safety and effectiveness of predictive genetic testing in the adult offspring of Alzheimer patients.

Dr Relkin is currently involved in several research programs, including an NIH-sponsored initiative to develop new diagnostic markers for Alzheimer's using Proteomic technology, a brain imaging project using quantitative diffusion tensor imaging for differential diagnosis of adult hydrocephalus, an Alzheimer prevention trial and studies of a novel surgical interventions for treatment of Alzheimer's.

Dr Relkin serves as a member of a National Institute of Health Study Section, an examiner for the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and a member of the Cornell Committee on Human Rights in Research (IRB). He is on the Editorial Boards of Neurology Alert, Alzheimer's Disease and Associated Disorders, and the Alzheimer's Disease Research Forum. In addition, he is a reviewer for the National Alzheimer Association, the Canadian Alzheimer's Association and the American Federation of Aging Research.

Dr Relkin disclosed the following relationships:

• Grants/Research Support: Codman & Shurtleff, Inc., Eisai Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Pfizer Inc

• Consultant: Codman & Shurtleff, Inc., Eisai Inc., Pfizer Inc

• Speakers' Bureau: Eisai Inc., Pfizer Inc