Caroline Zeiss

Caroline Zeiss is a Professor of Comparative Medicine and Ophthalmology and Visual Science at Yale School of Medicine, where she also serves as Chief of Pathology in the Department of Comparative Medicine. She co-directs the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Yale and previously led the Pathology Research Core from 2005 to 2019. Her work bridges veterinary pathology, neuroscience, and translational medicine.

• University: Yale University
• School: Yale School of Medicine
• Department: Department of Comparative Medicine
• Joint Appointment: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science
• Leadership: Chief of Pathology, Co-Director, Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

Dr. Zeiss earned her veterinary degree from the University of Pretoria, completed an internship at the University of Pennsylvania, and earned her PhD and completed residency training at Cornell University. She is board certified in Veterinary Anatomic Pathology and Laboratory Animal Medicine.

• BVSc, University of Pretoria, 1990
• Internship in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, 1991
• Residency in Anatomic Pathology, Cornell University, 1995
• PhD, Cornell University, 1999
• Fellowship, National Institutes of Health, 2015

Her research centers on improving the translation of animal studies to human therapies, particularly in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. She utilizes non-human primate and rodent models, integrating neuropathology, ophthalmic pathology, and biomedical informatics. Her recent work includes modeling the endemic transition of SARS-CoV-2 and studying cross-protection between influenza and COVID-19 in hamsters. She has published extensively on ocular diseases in animals and mechanisms of retinal degeneration.

The 15 most recent publications reflect a strong trajectory in Alzheimer’s disease research, with increasing use of informatics, primate models, and network analysis. Themes include biomarker discovery, chemical entity normalization for drug development, and modeling infectious disease dynamics. There is a clear interdisciplinary trend combining pathology, neuroscience, genomics, and computational methods.

Dr. Zeiss has received several honors for her contributions:

• Master of Arts Privatum (honorary), Yale University, 2012
• Charles Louis Davis Award, 2006
• Arnold Theiler Award, 1990

She has been actively involved in academic governance and education, serving as Chair of the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education and as a member of the Institute for Laboratory Animal Research at the National Academy of Sciences. She teaches a graduate course in comparative neuroanatomy and mentors students and postdocs. Her grants include funding for Alzheimer’s research, COVID-19 modeling, and ophthalmic pathology studies, often in collaboration with industry and academic partners. She has led NIH-funded projects and contributed to major center grants such as the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

Dr. Zeiss leads or is a key member of several research teams, including the Pathology Research Core (2005–2019), the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, and interdisciplinary teams focusing on neurodegeneration, infectious disease modeling, and ophthalmic therapeutics. Her lab has specialized in comparative pathology, particularly of the nervous system and eyes, using advanced techniques in histopathology, molecular analysis, and informatics.