Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Boston University	MA	2006	Brain, Behavior and Cognition
Boston University	PhD	2013	Clinical Psychology
Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School	Post-Doctoral	2015	Clinical Neuropsychology and Neuroimaging

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 received her master’s degree in cognitive neuroscience and her PhD in clinical psychology from Boston University. She went on to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology and brain imaging of Alzheimer’s disease at MGH. Her research bridges brain imaging, genomics, and the identification of preclinical biomarkers to better understand the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

Dr. Quiroz’s research explores the early biological and physiological changes that may increase an individual's vulnerability to memory loss and dementia later in life. Her work has revealed brain abnormalities in cognitively healthy individuals who are at elevated risk for Alzheimer’s disease—often decades before symptoms emerge. These insights have helped shift the field’s understanding of Alzheimer’s, reframing it as a long, progressive process that begins well before clinical signs of decline. By identifying these early changes, her research supports the development of interventions aimed at slowing disease progression during its most treatable phase. Her findings have led to widely discussed publications and earned her recognition from peers both nationally and internationally. 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.