Sonja Scholz, MD, PhD, FANA
National Institutes of Health
Dr. Sonja W. Scholz is a board-certified neurologist who specializes in neurodegeneration. She is a tenuredĀ Lasker Clinical Research Scholar and leads the Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Furthermore, she is an Adjunct Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University, where she actively participates as a consultant neurologist in specialized clinics. Dr. Scholz is a physician-scientist who is best known for her investigations into the genetic underpinnings of parkinsonism syndromes. She has pioneered the use of advanced genomic methods to uncover genetic risk factors and molecular links in age-related neurodegenerative diseases. A significant achievement includes her leadership of the International Lewy Body Dementia Genomics Consortium, which utilized whole-genome sequencing to discover new genes associated with Lewy body dementia. Remarkably, Dr. Scholz showed that this common form of dementia is part of a disease spectrum that includes Alzheimerās and Parkinsonās diseases, suggesting treatment possibilities that cross disease boundaries