Frank Laferla

Professor Frank LaFerla is the Dr. Lionel and Fay Ng Dean of Biological Sciences and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior. He has not only served as dean of the school since 2014, but is also the Co-Director of NIH-funded MODEL-AD. He previously served as the department chair from 2011-2014, Director of the NIH-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC) from 2014-2025, and Director of Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND) from 2008-2018.Throughout his tenure at UCI, he has maintained a successful research program and has been continuously funded by NIH. He has also received considerable funding from many foundations, pharmaceutical companies, and biotech startups. Professor LaFerla’s research focuses on understanding the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s Disease, the most common form of dementia. His scholarly work has had a global influence on the field, as some of the models he has generated have been distributed t