Center for Healthy Minds

Sterling Johnson is the Jean R. Finley Professor of Geriatrics and Dementia. He is a clinical neuropsychologist with research interests in brain function in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and related disorders.  

He leads the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP) an National Institutes of Health funded longitudinal observational cohort study of more than 1,500 people, most of whom are adult children of persons with AD. His work focuses on the earliest predictive biological markers of AD, including molecular PET imaging of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles and detecting meaningful cognitive change attributable to AD. 

The impact of this work may be felt in better methods for early detection of AD and more efficient and effective clinical trials that are enriched with persons most likely to benefit from a putative therapy. Students in his NIH-funded lab benefit from a large multi-disciplinary collaborative team across the UW campus.