Rate My Professor Rosa Rademakers

Rosa Rademakers, Ph.D., is a Professor of Neuroscience at Mayo Clinic. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology, a Master of Arts degree in biochemistry, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in science from the University of Antwerp in Belgium. Dr. Rademakers joined the Mayo Clinic faculty in 2005, was appointed full professor in 2014, and served on the faculty until 2019. She continues to collaborate with Mayo Clinic colleagues as a supplemental consultant in the Department of Neuroscience. Her research centers on molecular genetic analyses of neurodegenerative diseases, including frontotemporal dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and early-onset familial Alzheimer’s disease. Key contributions include the identification of mutations in the GRN gene as a major cause of early-onset dementia and the discovery of a noncoding repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene as the most common genetic cause of ALS and frontotemporal dementia. Additional work has identified genetic risk factors and modifiers, such as variants in TMEM106B and ATXN2, and established international consortia for the study of frontotemporal lobar degeneration subtypes. Dr. Rademakers received the 2016 Potamkin Prize for Research in Pick’s, Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases and the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. She currently serves as scientific director of the VIB-UAntwerp Center for Molecular Neurology and as a full professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.