James Galvin is the Director of the Memory Diagnostic Center, and a member of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.

Dr. Galvin joined the faculty of Washington University in July 2000. He is Director of the Memory Diagnostic Center and Alzheimer Treatment Unit at Washington University, and serves in the roles of Associate Clinical Core Leader and Director of Education and Community Outreach for the Alzheimer Disease Research Center. Dr Galvin is a member of the Steering Committee for the Alzheimer Disease Cooperative Study. He is on the Board of Directors for the Lewy Body Dementia Association and is on the Scientific Advisory Council for the American Federation for Aging Research. He has been recognized for his research efforts and excellence in Geriatric Neurology and Psychiatry by his home institution and the American Academy of Neurology. He has served as an ad hoc reviewer for the NIH and numerous clinical and scientific journals. He is on the editorial board for 3 journals and serves as an Associate Editor for Neuroscience Letters. He has published over 50 scientific papers in the area of dementia and cognitive aging, is the editor of 2 textbooks on dementia and leads numerous clinical trials investigating new therapeutics for Alzheimer disease and related disorders. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, American Federation for Aging Research, Longer Life Foundation, and the Alzheimer Association.

My research focuses on the following projects:

Clinical and pathological correlates of neurodegenerative disease. This research focuses on the understanding of the earliest clinical, psychometric and imaging changes that occur in degenerative disease and establishing the pathological substrates (via light, confocal and electron microscopy) for the clinical symptomatology. That is, are there selective areas of vulnerability in different neurodegenerative disorders and do these areas correlate with the onset and progression of clinical symptoms?

Improving diagnosis of dementia in the community. This research focuses on understanding what older adults know about their risk of dementia and how we can improve the clinician's ability to detect dementia. We have developed a brief screening tool called the AD8 that reliably discriminates nondemented older adults from those with the mildest forms of cognitive impairment. For a copy of the AD8 table and instructions, click on http://alzheimer.wustl.edu/About_Us/PDFs/AD8form2005.pdf.

Pharmacotherapy for dementing illnesses. This research focuses on the design and implementation of novel therapeutic strategies in randomized clinical trials. These studies are done through the Alzheimer Treatment Unit and include both industry and NIH-funded trials.

Medical Training

Dr Galvin received his bachelor's degree in Chemistry from New York University in 1986, his Masters of Science in Nutrition (Biochemistry) from Rutgers University in 1988, his MD from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 1992 and his Masters of Public Health from St Louis University in 2004.

Following his medical internship, he trained in Neurology at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia (1993-1995) and served as Chief Neurology Resident at Medical College of Pennsylvania/Hahnemann University (1995-1996). After completing his residency, Dr Galvin served as an NINDS fellow in Neurologic Rehabilitation at the University of Pennsylvania (1996-1997) and completed post-doctoral training at the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine under the direction of John Q. Trojanowski MD, PhD and Virginia M-Y Lee, PhD. During this time he joined the faculty of MCP Hahnemann as an Assistant Professor and was the Director of Ambulatory Neurology and a member of the Dementia and Memory Disorders center.

Selected Publications

Galvin JE, Malcom H, Johnson DK, Morris JC. Personality traits distinguishing dementia with Lewy bodies from Alzheimer disease. Neurology 68:1895-1901, 2007.

Galvin JE, Roe CM, Morris JC. Evaluation of cognitive impairment in the older adult: combining brief informant and performance measures. Arch Neurol 64:718-724, 2007

Galvin JE. Cognitive Change in Parkinson's Disease. Alz Dis Assoc Disord, 20:302-310, 2006

Galvin JE, Scharff D, Glasheen C, Fu JQ. Development of a Behavioral Model to Study the Intention of Older Adults to Undergo Cognitive Screening For Dementia Diagnosis, Alz Dis Assoc Disord, 20:182-191, 2006

Galvin JE, Palamand D, Milone M, Pestronk A. The muscle protein dysferlin accumulates in the Alzheimer brain. Acta Neuropathologica, 112:665-671, 2006

Galvin JE. Interaction of Alpha-synuclein and Dopamine Metabolites in the Pathogenesis of Parkinson's Disease: A Case for the Selective Vulnerability of the Substantia Nigra. Acta Neuropathol, 112:115-126,2006