Syed Abid Hussaini

Dr. Syed Abid Hussaini serves as Lab Director of the Laboratory for Systems Neuroscience of Cognition and Dementia at Burke Neurological Institute, affiliated with Weill Cornell Medicine. He joined Burke in 2025 after his tenure as Assistant Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University's Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain.

His research program investigates the neurobiological mechanisms of learning and memory with emphasis on Alzheimer's disease pathology. Dr. Hussaini specializes in the entorhinal cortex-hippocampal circuit and locus coeruleus, examining how these neural systems are compromised in dementia. His laboratory employs advanced methodologies including

• In vivo electrophysiology
• Optogenetics and chemogenetics
• Mouse models of Alzheimer's disease
• Virtual reality behavioral assays
• Computational modeling

to identify early pathological changes in neural circuits.

Dr. Hussaini's work focuses on understanding selective neuronal vulnerability in Alzheimer's disease, particularly how tau pathology differentially affects grid cells versus border cells and head-direction cells within the entorhinal-hippocampal network. His research aims to translate basic neuroscience findings into therapeutic strategies for cognitive preservation.

The Hussaini Lab team comprises

• Alyssa Ash (Postdoctoral Fellow)
• Cristina Vargas (Research Technician)
• Andrew Aoun (Part Time Research Data Scientist)

and maintains active collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance understanding of dementia mechanisms and potential interventions.