Russell Swerdlow, MD, is a Professor in the departments of Neurology and Molecular and Integrative Physiology. He also serves as Director of the Metabolism in Aging and Neurodegeneration Research Program, which he established here at the University of Kansas.
Dr. Swerdlow is a neurologist and neuroscientist who received his undergraduate and doctor of medicine degrees from New York University in New York City. He completed a medical internship and neurology residency at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. This was followed by a Geriatric Neuropsychiatry clinical fellowship and a basic science research fellowship in Neurodegenerative Diseases (both at the University of Virginia). Dr. Swerdlow is a Diplomat of the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry. His memberships include the American Acacemy of Neurology, the Society for Neuroscience, and the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology.
As a clinician-investigator at the University of Virginia Dr. Swerdlow was a founding member of that university’s Memory Disorders Clinic, where he served for 11 years as an attending physician and directed Alzheimer’s disease treatment trials. Prior to joining the Neurology Department at KUMC, Dr. Swerdlow served as Chair of the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Commission of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and also directed the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Telemedicine Memory Disorders Clinic.
For more than twenty years Dr. Swerdlow’s research has focused on the role of energy metabolism in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. His research has been recognized on both national and international levels and he is a past recipient of the S. Weir Mitchell Award from the American Academy of Neurology and a Cotzias Fellowship from the American Parkinson’s Disease Association. He is the Chair of the Research Committee of the Society for Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and serves on that organization’s Board of Directors. Prior to joining KUMC, Dr. Swerdlow served as Director of the Medical Student Summer Research Program at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He has served or currently serves as a permanent member of both NIH and Veteran’s Administration neurodegeneration research study sections. He has authored numerous articles and chapters on Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Swerdlow’s laboratory is currently studying the interaction between genes and cell energy metabolism, the molecular consequences of altered cell energy metabolism, and strategies for repairing defective energy metabolism. This work is largely funded through grants from the National Institutes of Health and from generous contributions from the community.
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