Peter Lansbury, Jr., Ph.D.

Peter Lansbury, Jr., Ph.D. (1976) is Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

As a student at South High School, Peter was president of his Junior class, played football, and was a member of the swim team for four years, serving as team captain during his senior season. After graduation, Peter attended Princeton University, graduating with honors in 1980. He then attended graduate school in chemistry at Harvard University, where his mentor was Nobel Laureate Elias J. Corey. Peter received his doctorate in 1985 and went on to Rockefeller University in New York City for a two-year postdoctoral fellowship. He started his independent scientific career at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1988 as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry. His research at MIT was primarily focused on describing the process of protein aggregation that is characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and mad cow disease. In order to pursue the medical implications of his work, Peter joined the Department of Neurology at Harvard Medical School in 1996.

Dr. Lansbury is founder and director of the National Institutes of Health Morris K. Udall Parkinson’s Disease Research Center of Excellence at Brigham and Women's Hospital. In 2005, he founded a biotechnology company called, Link Medicine, to work toward translating his research into new drugs for Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Lou Gehrig’s diseases. He serves as Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer at Link.

Among his many honors, Dr. Lansbury received the Abbott Distinguished Investigator Award in 1993, the Zeneca Pharmaceuticals Excellence in Chemistry Award in 1995, and a Zenith Fellows Award from the Alzheimer's Association in 1999. Dr. Lansbury is on numerous scientific advisory boards including the Parkinson’s Action Network. He resides with his wife, Toni, and two children in Brookline, Massachusetts.