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Yakeel T. Quiroz, Ph.D.

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Biography
Boston UniversityMA2006Brain, Behavior and Cognition
Boston UniversityPhD2013Clinical Psychology
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical SchoolPost-Doctoral2015Clinical Neuropsychology and Neuroimaging
2013
Outstanding Dissertation Award, National Academy of Neuropsychology
2013
Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences Prize, Fundacion Alejandro Angel Escobar (Colombia)
2014
Kavita Jain Dissertation Award, Boston University
2014
Early Career Impact Award, Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS)
2014
NIH Director's Early Independence Award
2015
Rising Star in Psychological Science, Association for Psychological Science
2016
Claflin Distinguished Scholar Award, Massachusetts General Hospital
2016
Physician/Scientist Development Award, Massachusetts General Hospital
2017
Tony Wong Diversity Award, National Academy of Neuropsychology
2018
Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring, Massachusetts General Hospital, Psychology Internship Program
2019
Ernesto Gonzalez Award for Outstanding Service to the Latino Community, Mass General Hospital
2020 - 2025
MGH Research Scholar Award
2020
Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for Alzheimer’s Research
2022
NIH Florence Mahoney Lecture on Aging

Overview
Dr. Yakeel T. Quiroz is Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, MA. She is the Director of the MGH Familial Dementia Neuroimaging Lab and the Multicultural Alzheimer’s Prevention Program-MAPP. She earned her master’s degree in cognitive neuroscience and PhD in clinical psychology from Boston University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology and brain imaging of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) at MGH. Her research interests include brain imaging, genomics, early detection and preclinical biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

She is the principal investigator of two NIH NIA R01 grants: 1) The Colombia-Boston (COLBOS) biomarker study of autosomal-dominant Alzheimer’s disease, which follows individuals from the world’s largest extended family with a single, AD-causing mutation (E280A in Presenilin-1); and 2) The Boston Latino Aging Study (BLAST), which seeks to characterize AD-related biomarkers and dementia risk and protective factors in older Latinos living in the US. She is also the PI of an Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant that seeks to identify genetic modifiers of cognitive resilience and Alzheimer’s resistance in individuals with ADAD (2022-2025). She is Co-Investigator of the Harvard Aging Brain Study (HABS, PI: Sperling), a longitudinal biomarker study of cognitively unimpaired older individuals at risk for sporadic AD, and Co-Investigator of the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (ACTC, PIs: Aisen, Sperling, Petersen).

Dr. Quiroz’s research has focused on characterizing biological and physiological changes that may predispose individuals to develop memory loss or dementia later in life. Her work has already provided evidence of brain abnormalities in cognitively-intact individuals at high risk for AD, decades before their clinical onset. Her findings have helped the field to re-conceptualize Alzheimer as a sequence of changes that begins decades before cognitive decline, and which may be targeted by promising disease-slowing treatments at a time in which they might have their most profound effect. Her research work has resulted in several publications that have generated considerable discussion in the field and has achieved recognition by colleagues at the national and international level. Dr. Quiroz’s work has been recognized with several awards, including an NIH Director’s Early Independence Award, the FABBS Foundation Early Career Impact Award, the MGH Research Scholar Award (2020-2025) and the Alzheimer’s Association Inge Grundke-Iqbal Award for Alzheimer’s Research.

Dr. Quiroz also serves as Director of the MGH Multicultural Assessment and Research Center (MARC), and the MGH postdoctoral training program in Multicultural Neuropsychology.

Research
The research activities and funding listed below are automatically derived from NIH ExPORTER and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing items. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
  1. RM1NS132996 (QUIROZ, YAKEEL T.) Aug 15, 2023 - Jul 31, 2026
    NIH
    Resilience to cognitive decline and resistance to Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative diseases in individuals from Colombia with autosomal dominant dementias
    Role: Principal Investigator
  2. AARG-D (QUIROZ, YAKEEL T.) Mar 1, 2022 - Feb 28, 2025
    Alzheimer's Association
    Rare genetic variants and their protective effects in individuals with familial Alzheimer's disease
    Role: Principal Investigator
  3. R01AG066823 (QUIROZ, YAKEEL T.) Jan 1, 2021 - Dec 31, 2025
    NIH
    Boston Latino Aging Study (BLAST): Understanding Alzheimer's risk and biomarkers in older Latinos
  4. R01AG054671 (QUIROZ, YAKEEL T.) Sep 1, 2017 - May 31, 2022
    NIH
    Relationship between tau pathology and cognitive impairment in autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease
    Role: Principal Investigator
  5. DP5OD019833 (QUIROZ, YAKEEL T.) Sep 19, 2014 - Aug 31, 2019
    NIH
    Memory network dysfunction as an early marker of preclinical Alzheimer's Disease
    Role: Principal Investigator

Featured Content

Bibliographic
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Funded by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through its Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program, grant number UL1TR002541.