BIOGRAPHY
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Norman R. Relkin, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology and Neuroscience
Cornell University
Weill College of Medicine
New York, New York
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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 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-E4). In
1995, Dr Relkin organized a consortium under the auspices of the National Institute on Aging
and the 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.
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