Dr. Kenneth W. Witwer is an associate professor of molecular and comparative pathobiology and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. His research focuses on extracellular vesicles, RNA-mediated regulation, biomarker discovery, and therapeutic modulation of innate and intrinsic defenses. His group is particularly interested in neurodegenerative diseases including the HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.

He received his undergraduate degree from Penn State University, where he studied biochemistry and molecular biology, German, and international politics. He earned a doctorate from the Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology Program at Johns Hopkins and received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Dr. Witwer remained at Johns Hopkins to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in microRNA biomarker research, and he joined the faculty in 2011.

Witwer has served as Secretary General and Executive Chair of Science and Meetings for the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV), the leading scientific organization in his field. He has been a scientific advisor to the US National Institutes of Health (Extracellular RNA Communication Consortium, Stage 1) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (FIFRA SAP). He is an associate editor of the Journal of Extracellular Vesicles.