Fanny Elahi, MD, PhD is a physician-scientist and Associate Professor in the Departments of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Pathology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. She serves as Director of Fluid Biomarker Research at the Barbara and Maurice Deane Center for Wellness and Cognitive Health and is one of the leaders at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, where she co-directs the Genetics and Genomics Core and oversees the development of novel blood biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases. She also has an appointment at the James J. Peters Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Elahi’s research is pushing the boundaries of methods and approaches and breaking down silos to move the needle on therapeutic discoveries for dementia with a focus on genetic diseases, such as CADASIL. By combining molecular techniques with clinical data, and advanced data analytics, her multidisciplinary research program is studying the link between blood vessel disease and neurodegeneration. A major focus is the development of blood biomarkers and the combination of markers with in vitro models of disease to advance understanding of disease mechanisms and identification of novel drug targets. She is passionate about translating laboratory findings into clinical applications, and drug discovery for dementia-causing diseases. Elahi has received numerous awards and recognitions for her research but the best reward is yet to come; Elahi is looking forward to the day she will administer disease-modifying treatments to her patients and stop dementia in its tracks. New blood-based biomarkers are rapidly advancing the field—and the therapeutic era in dementia care has begun. There has never been a more exciting time to be a behavioral neurologist-neuroscientist! Elahi continues to evaluate and treat patients in the clinic at Mount Sinai and the VA.