Welcome to the Dickerson Lab: People

Brad Dickerson, M.D. (Principal Investigator): brad.dickerson@mgh.harvard.edu

During undergraduate studies in biomedical engineering in the 1980s, I developed a passion for brain function and disorders, working on analysis of evoked potential brain activity signals. I then worked as a medical writer for the Alzheimer's Association in Chicago, where I learned about the devastating effects of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders on patients and families, as well as society. During medical school at University of Illinois, I began doing wet lab research on brain plasticity in rats with Drs. Theresa Jones and Bill Greenough, learning how the brain adapts in many ways to injury or as a result of various types of environmental factors including skill learning. After that, I did research at Rush Medical Center in Chicago with Drs. Frank Morrell and Leyla deToledo-Morrell on the use of MRI to measure brain anatomy in living individuals and identify abnormalities in Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, and changes in brain anatomy associated with normal aging. Working in their lab in the mid 1990s, Irina Goncharova and I developed a new protocol for measuring the volume of the entorhinal cortex which we used to identify atrophy in mild cognitive impairment that predicted a diagnosis of AD. We also investigated the relationship of entorhinal and hippocampal volume to memory performance, demonstrating that the amount of shrinkage of these critical structures is related to the degree of memory impairment in a number of specific ways.

During neurology residency at Mass General Hospital and Brigham & Women's Hospital, I began working with Marilyn Albert, Reisa Sperling, Deborah Blacker, Brad Hyman, Bruce Fischl, and others to investigate brain function in aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer's disease. After neurology training and behavioral neurology fellowship under Kirk Daffner's mentorship, I continued research on brain function and structure with a K23 Career Development Award from the National Institute on Aging, in collaboration with investigators in the MGH Departments of Neurology, Psychiatry, Radiology, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, as well as Harvard University Dept of Psychology.

This foundation enabled me to develop my own laboratory at MGH in 2003, which is closely connected with the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, the Gordon Center for Medical Imaging, and the Center for Genomic Medicine and has been generously supported over the years by funding from the NIA, NINDS, NIMH, NIDCD, Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, and the Krupp Foundation as well as other private philanthropists. Much of this work is focused on understanding aspects of normal brain anatomy and function and how these relate to memory, language, social and emotional function, and other abilities. In addition, some of these efforts are aimed at developing markers that can be used to assist in making a diagnosis of AD, PPA, FTD, and related disorders or in monitoring progression of these diseases over time. This and related work is ongoing as described on other pages.

Since 2005, I have been working intensively on Frontotemporal Dementia, Primary Progressive Aphasia, Posterior Cortical Atrophy, and other less common neurodegenerative diseases, which led me to found the MGH Primary Progressive Aphasia Program in 2007 and the MGH Frontotemporal Disorders Unit in 2008, with the generous collaborative support of the Massachusetts ADRC, the MGH Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology Unit, the MGH Speech and Language Pathology Department, and other affiliated groups.

I was proud to win the American Academy of Neurology's Norman Geschwind Award in Behavioral Neurology in 2013, and to receive an honorable mention for the 2014 Schwartz Center Compassionate Care Award.

I couldn't be prouder to lead a team of more than 30 talented people doing this research and providing clinical care for patients with a variety of neurodegenerative disorders. I am also honored to co-direct multiple collaborative projects at MGH and across MGH and other institutions in Boston and across the country.

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Click below for two more publicity headshots:
Dickerson image one
Dickerson image two

Bio for introductions:
Brad Dickerson, MD, is a behavioral neurologist and neuroscientist dedicated to the sophisticated, compassionate, and multidisciplinary care of patients with neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and Frontotemporal Dementia. He is the Tommy Rickles Endowed Chair in Progressive Aphasia Research, Director of the MGH Frontotemporal Disorders Unit, Leader of the Neuroimaging Core of the MGH Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Dickerson runs a multidisciplinary team of 30 clinicians and scientists using advanced brain imaging and behavioral methods to study how memory, language, emotion, and social behaviors change in normal aging and in patients with neurodegenerative disease. His team also studies new approaches to caregiving. He has published more than 195 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has edited two books on dementia. He is active in mentoring trainees and in teaching, is Chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the Massachusetts Alzheimer's Association and is Chair-Elect of the national Medical Advisory Council of the Association for FTD. He has won a number of awards, including the American Academy of Neurology’s Norman Geschwind Award in Behavioral Neurology.