Malik Nassan

Malik Nassan, MD is an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine with dual appointments in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Neurology, specializing in Behavioral Neurology and dementia care. His clinical work focuses on cognitive disorders including dementia, memory loss, aphasia, and neurodegenerative diseases.

His educational background includes:

• Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Genomics: Mayo Clinic School of Medicine (2016)
• Clinical Residency: Mayo Clinic, Rochester (2020)
• Clinical Fellowship in Sleep Medicine: Harvard Combined Program (MGH, BIDMC, BCH) (2021)
• Clinical Fellowship in Behavioral Neurology: Northwestern University, Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease (2023)

Nassan's research integrates neurogenetics, genomics, and Mendelian randomization to investigate causal pathways in neurodegenerative diseases. His work explores vascular contributions to dementia, sleep-cognition interactions, and genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's pathology, with emphasis on translating genomic findings into clinical insights for cognitive disorders.

His 2025 publications reveal strong trends in causal inference methodologies, particularly using Mendelian randomization to examine vascular factors (blood pressure), body composition (height/lean mass), and brain network dynamics in neurodegeneration. These studies bridge population genetics with clinical neurology to identify modifiable risk factors for dementia.

Key scientific recognitions include:

• Florane and Jerome Rosenstone Fellow in Behavioral Neurology (2023)
• REC scholar research grant for Genomics and Cognition (2022)
• Karolinska Institutet/Mayo Clinic collaborative grant for Epigenetics (2016)
• Mayo Clinic Departmental Research Grant for genomic research (2015)

He maintains active research grants focused on genomic mechanisms in cognitive decline and collaborates extensively through institutional partnerships. Nassan is embedded within the Mesulam Center for Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease and the Stephen M. Stahl Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, participating in multidisciplinary teams developing diagnostic frameworks and therapeutic approaches for neurodegenerative conditions.