Carsten Culmsee obtained his PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Philipps-University, Marburg, Germany in 1997. He completed his postgraduate pharmaceutical training in the Sanders Brown Research Center on Aging and Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA under the supervision of Professor M. P. Mattson, PhD, and funded by the German Research Foundation. He was appointed lecturer and group leader of “Neuropharmacology” at the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany from 2004-2007. Since 2007 he has served as a professor for Clinical Pharmacy and director of the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the Philipps-University in Marburg, Germany. His research interests focus on molecular and cellular mechanisms of neuronal cell death (apoptosis, necrosis) in model systems of acute and chronic neurological disorders (stroke, brain trauma, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease). Major projects include target identification and validation for novel neuroprotective strategies in vitro and in vivo, lead structures for brain penetrating small molecules for neuroprotective and regenerative therapies, fluorescent microscopic life cell imaging of mitochondrial processes in apoptotic neurons, and development of brain-penetrating siRNA vectors for target validation in neuroprotective strategies.