Robert Cohen, PhD, MD Director of Research, Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences Director, Memory Disorders Center
Email: robert.cohen@cshs.org Phone: (310) 423-4070 Fax: (310) 423-0888

Academic Appointments

Awards and Activities

Research Focus

Laboratory focus is on Alzheimer's disease (AD) translational research using a unique transgenic rat model of AD to understand how amyloid affects brain function, aging, and the immune system. Current clinical studies are aimed at facilitating translation of findings from animal to human trials by developing imaging methods that can identify those individuals at risk for AD, determine when disease begins and provide a quantitative measure of progression.

Research Contributions

Spearheaded the use of PET (positron emission tomography) to study psychiatric and developmental disorders and their treatment. With systematic twin study established that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the age of onset of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD). Accrued data to support that abnormalities in brain function are present in subjects at risk for AD many decades prior to the age of onset.

Current investigations include:

Characterizing a transgenic rat model of Alzheimer's disease as the animals age involving the study of behavior, measures of amyloid load and of immune response. Studying the effect of statins, a class of drugs believed to forestall the onset of Alzheimer's disease, on regional MRI perfusion.

Selected Publications

1. Filbey FM, Slack KJ, Sunderland TP, Cohen RM: Functional magnetic resonance imaging and magnetoencephalography differences associated with APOEepsilon4 in young healthy adults. Neuroreport, 17(15): 1585-90, 2006
2. Cohen RM, Carson RE, Filbey F, Szczepanik J, Sunderland T: Age and APOE-epsilon4 genotype influence the effect of physostigmine infusion on the in-vivo distribution volume of the muscarinic-2-receptor dependent tracer [18F]FP-TZTP. Synapse, 60(1): 86-92, 2006
3. Sunderland T, Linker G, Mirza N, Putnam KT, Friedman DL, Kimmel LH, Bergeson J, Manetti GJ, Zimmermann M, Tang B, Bartko JJ, Cohen RM: Decreased beta-amyloid1-42 and increased tau levels in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer disease. JAMA, 289(16): 2094-103, 2003
4. Cohen RM, Small C, Lalonde F, Friz J, Sunderland T: Effect of apolipoprotein E genotype on hippocampal volume loss in aging healthy women. Neurology, 57(12): 2223-8, 2001
5. Ernst M, Zametkin AJ, Matochik JA, Pascualvaca D, Jons PH, Hardy K, Hankerson JG, Doudet DJ, Cohen RM: Presynaptic dopaminergic deficits in Lesch-Nyhan disease. N. Engl. J. Med., 334(24): 1568-72, 1996
6. Zametkin AJ, Nordahl TE, Gross M, King AC, Semple WE, Rumsey J, Hamburger S, Cohen RM: Cerebral glucose metabolism in adults with hyperactivity of childhood onset. N. Engl. J. Med., 323(20): 1361-6, 1990