Dr. Anna Orr is an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at the Helen and Robert Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute and the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Stephen Traynelis at Emory University, where she unraveled the signaling mechanisms regulating microglial motility and glial responses to brain injury. She completed postdoctoral training under the guidance of Dr. Lennart Mucke at the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and the University of California, San Francisco, where she investigated how astrocytes affect memory and neurodegenerative disease. The Orr lab focuses on the mechanisms and roles of glial-neuronal communication and mitochondrial signaling in normal and pathophysiological processes of the brain. The lab is currently examining whether neurotransmitter receptors and proteins linked to disease regulate the functions of glial cells and affect glial-neuronal interactions that are critical for normal brain function and resilience to disease. Dr. Orr is a recipient of the NIH Pathway to Independence Award, the Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant, and the Kellen Junior Faculty Fellowship.
