Vanderbilt University’s Jerri Rook Honored for Her Work on Drug Therapy for Alzheimer’s Disease Patients

Jerri Rook, an assistant professor of pharmacology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, recently received the Melvin R. Goodes Prize for Excellence from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. The prize recognizes leading researchers who are developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

“I am very honored to receive this recognition from the ADDF,” Dr. Rook said. “The ADDF’s devotion to Alzheimer’s drug discovery research in the search for a cure is relentless. We are making great strides toward this goal, and I look forward to continuing my research and pursuing an effective treatment for Alzheimer’s together.”

As director of in vivo and behavioral pharmacology at the Vanderbilt University Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery , Dr. Rook’s research over the past 10 years has focused on developing treatments for the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer’s disease. “We’re trying to increase the activity of cells with a dimmer switch, to refine the activity of cellular targets in the brain instead of over-activating the system, which has resulted in previous failures by other drug discovery programs,” Dr. Rook explained.

Dr. Rook is a graduate of Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, where she majored in chemistry and biology. She holds a Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas.