Jack Rogers, PhD, received his BA and MA in genetics from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively. He then received his PhD in biochemistry from St. Mary's Hospital, Imperial College London, UK. Following his postdoctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he joined the Harvard University faculty in Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. He was appointed as an assistant professor of psychiatry-neuroscience at Harvard Medical School in 2006 and as an associate professor in 2010. Dr. Rogers and his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital were the first to discover the role of iron in regulating the production of the amyloid precursor protein, which is associated with Alzheimer's disease. This led to the identification of iron-response elements (IRE) on several genes associated with neurodegenerative disease, including the amyloid precursor protein, alpha-synuclein and prion genes. Subsequent studies revealed several potentially therapeutic compounds, which are being tested in pre-clinical models. Dr. Rogers and colleagues have recently described lead and manganese as risk factors for neurodegenerative disease. Dr. Rogers has published on the subjects of neurodegenerative disease and the abnormal use of iron in the body. He has been awarded the prestigious Alzheimer's Association Zenith Award and received funding for his research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH R21 and R01 grants).