Grace E. Stutzmann

Dr. Grace E. Stutzmann is a Professor and Discipline Chair of Neuroscience at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, where she also serves as Director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease and Therapeutics. She is affiliated with the Department of Foundational Sciences & Humanities in the Chicago Medical School and the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Dr. Stutzmann is also the Founder and CSO of NeuroLucent, Inc., and participates in several university research initiatives including the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine and the TBI-PTSD Working Group.

Dr. Stutzmann's educational background includes a BS in Biology/Psychology from Washington and Lee University, an MA in BioPsychology from Stony Brook University, and a PhD from New York University's Center for Neural Science where she worked with Dr. Joseph LeDoux. She completed postdoctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine with Dr. George Aghajanian and at the University of California, Irvine with Drs. Frank LaFerla and Ian Parker.

Her research focuses on studying early neuronal pathology in Alzheimer's disease, particularly calcium-mediated signaling pathway dysregulation that occurs before plaque and tangle deposition. Dr. Stutzmann uses transgenic mice engineered to express human AD gene mutations and human neurons derived from AD patients to examine how these mutations impair neuronal functioning and synaptic plasticity. Her lab has identified aberrant calcium channels, particularly the ryanodine receptor, as key drivers of pathogenic cycles in Alzheimer's disease, and has developed novel drug strategies targeting these channels.

Dr. Stutzmann's recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on calcium dysregulation in Alzheimer's disease, with emerging work on human induced neurons, protein mishandling, mitochondrial calcium signaling, and therapeutic interventions like lithium. Her research consistently explores the connection between calcium channel dysfunction and neurodegeneration across multiple models and systems.

• 2020 Morris L. Parker Award for Research, RFUMS
• 2018 "Researchers to Know: Advancing Medicine" IL Science and Technology Coalition
• 2011, 2012, 2018 Dorothy Dillon Eweson Lecturer on the Advances in Aging Research (AFAR)
• 2009 Outstanding Contributor Award/The Alzheimer's Research Forum
• 2006 AFAR-NYAS-GE Healthcare NeuroImaging Prize for Junior Investigators
• 2008 Board of Trustees Award, RFUMS

Dr. Stutzmann has secured significant NIH funding for her research, including multiple R01 and RF1 grants as PI and Co-PI. She currently advises several graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in her lab, which utilizes electrophysiological, multi-photon imaging, and molecular approaches to examine early mechanisms of neurodegenerative processes. Her lab members include senior research fellows Daniel Steinbrenner and Renuka Ramachandra, research fellow Sarah Mustaly-Kalimi, and graduate students Nikki Barrington, Elise Webber, and Wacey Gallegos.