George Bloom, Ph.D.
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Affiliation(s):
University of Virginia
ORCID URL:
Areas of Interest:
Seminal processes in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease and non-Alzheimer's tauopathies
Biography & Research:
George Bloom is a Professor of Biology, Cell Biology and Neuroscience at the University of Virginia (UVA), where he also served as Chair of the Department of Biology from 2017-2020. Trained as a cell biologist, he has a long track record studying fundamental aspects of cellular behavior, such as how cells move and change shape, and how cells transport materials internally. During the past 15 years, however, his lab has transformed into a research center that emphasizes a cell biological approach to study neurodegeneration, most notably seminal processes that convert healthy neurons into Alzheimer’s disease (AD) neurons. One important outcome of that effort has been the discovery of numerous pathological processes that occur during the earliest, pre-symptomatic stages of AD, and depend on the coordinated activities of two proteins, amyloid-beta and tau, which are the respective building blocks of the plaques and tangles that accumulate in AD brain . Dr. Bloom earned a BA in Biology and History, and a PhD in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania, and then received postdoctoral training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology (since merged with the University of Massachusetts Medical School). Beginning in 1984, he rose through the faculty ranks at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he finally served as a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology before moving to UVA in 2000. Dr. Bloom has been on grant review panels for the NIH, the Alzheimer's Association, the American Cancer Society and the Department of Defense, and he has published more than 100 scientific papers, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and a Zenith Fellow of the Alzheimer’s Association.
