Dr Michel Goedert is a world-renowned neuroscientist whose pioneering work has fundamentally reshaped our understanding of neurodegenerative disorders. Born in Luxembourg in 1954, he earned his MD from the University of Basel in 1980 and completed his PhD in pharmacology at the University of Cambridge in 1984. He joined the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge as a postdoctoral fellow in 1984 and has served as a Programme Leader there since 1988. Between 2003 and 2016, Dr Goedert held the prestigious position of Head of the Laboratory's Neurobiology Division, and since 2014, he has been an Honorary Professor in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge.
Dr Goedert's groundbreaking research has been instrumental in establishing the critical role of protein misfolding and aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases. He was the first to identify tau protein as the major component of the paired helical filaments characteristic of Alzheimer's disease and discovered the six tau isoforms expressed in the human brain. His work demonstrated that abnormal assembly of tau protein is central to the pathogenesis of tauopathies, and he identified alpha-synuclein as the primary constituent of Lewy bodies in Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy. These paradigm-shifting discoveries revealed how pathological protein aggregates form and spread through the brain, providing the molecular foundation for understanding disease progression.
For his transformative contributions, Dr Goedert has received numerous prestigious awards including the Brain Prize from the Lundbeck Foundation in 2018, the Royal Medal from the Royal Society in 2019, and the Rainwater Prize for Outstanding Innovation in Neurodegenerative Research. His research has provided essential insights for developing novel therapeutic approaches targeting protein aggregation mechanisms. As a respected leader in the field, he continues to advance structural studies of pathological protein filaments using cutting-edge cryo-EM techniques. Dr Goedert's ongoing work at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology remains at the forefront of neurodegeneration research, offering critical pathways toward future treatments for millions affected by these devastating conditions.
