Michael Schlossmacher

Dr. Schlossmacher is a clinician scientist focused on improving the lives of individuals with neurodegenerative diseases. In July 1987, following completion of medical school in Vienna, Austria, he began graduate studies in human biology. A Fulbright Commission scholarship enabled him to visit Harvard University. He subsequently pursed post-doctoral work on the molecular pathology of Alzheimer disease in the laboratory of Dr. Dennis J. Selkoe (1988-1992). This led to his co-discovery of the physiological release of amyloid beta protein by cultured cells into biological fluids (Nature 1992), an essential building block for the ‘amyloid hypothesis’ of Alzheimer disease. 

Following residency training in general medicine in Vienna (1995), Dr. Schlossmacher completed adult neurology training in the Harvard Longwood Neurology Program (1999) and a clinical fellowship in movement disorders at Brigham & Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital (1999-2001). Since 2000, he has focused his research activities on Parkinson disease, initially under the mentorship of Drs. Dennis J. Selkoe, Kenneth S. Kosik and Peter T. Lansbury. In 2003, he became an independent investigator at the Center for Neurologic Diseases at Brigham & Women's Hospital, and was appointed Assistant Professor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School in 2004. 

Recruited by the OHRI and University of Ottawa with support from the Canada Research Chair Program, Dr. Schlossmacher opened a new laboratory as a member of the Parkinson’s Research Consortium Ottawa in early 2007. In October 2012, he was named the Bhargava Research Chair in Neurodegeneration at the OHRI. The appointment was made possible through the generous support from Mrs. Uttra and Mr. Sam Bhargava and their family. In 2015, he was appointed Director of the Neuroscience Program.