Andrew West, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Neurology and holds the John A. and Ruth R. Jurenko Endowed Professorship in Neurology. Dr. West received his undergraduate degree from Alma College and his PhD in Molecular Neuroscience from the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine in Rochester, MN. He then went on to complete a Postdoctoral Fellowship at UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute in Los Angeles in the laboratory of Nigel Maidment and a second postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Ted Dawson at Johns Hopkins, followed by an Instructor faculty position in the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins.

In 2008, the West laboratory opened at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) with a mission to identify critical pathogenic mechanisms underlying neurologic diseases like Parkinson’s disease, develop new and relevant systems that model these mechanisms, and develop new therapeutics that will address the immediate critical needs of those affected with disease. Dr. West co-directs the UAB Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics (CNET). CNET consists of 30 laboratories in 10 different departments with primary and peripheral interests in neurodegenerative disease. The goal of CNET is to facilitate collaborative efforts in translational approaches relevant to neurodegenerative disease.

Dr. West currently serves as co-chair of the Parkinson’s Disease Biomarker Program for the National Institutes of Health and is a member of the NST-2 study section that reviews K99/R00 and F31 MSTP applications for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. In a little over a decade, Dr. West has authored more than 50 publications characterizing biochemical mechanisms underlying Parkinson’s disease.