Rachelle Smith Doody is an American neurologist and neuroscientist. She is known for her work on late stage development of drugs for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders.

Rachelle Doody
Alma materRice University
Scientific career
ThesisAphasia: Some neurological, anthropological and postmodern implications of disturbed speech (1992)

Education and career

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Doody holds a B.A. in English in 1978 and M.A./Ph.D. in Cognitive Anthropology in 1992 from Rice University.[1] She did her medical training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, obtaining her M.D. in 1983.[2] After medical school, Doody took a year of internship in internal medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada and then returned to Baylor College of Medicine in Houston she did a residency in Neurology, finishing in 1987. Upon finishing her residency, she began a Ph.D. which she would complete in 1992.[3] At Baylor College of Medicine Doody founded and directed the Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center, was the Effie Marie Cain Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease Research and, as of 2022, she is Distinguished Professor Emeritus.[4] In 2016 she moved to Genentech / Roche where she is the Vice President, Global Head of Neurodegeneration and the Alzheimer's disease and Neurodegeneration Franchise Head in Product Development, Neuroscience at Roche Pharmaceutical Company and its US entity, Genentech.

Doody is primarily known for her work on the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders. For her Ph.D. she worked on cognitive anthropology, which included studying cognition among non-literate Karen hill tribes in Northern Thailand.[3] Some of her early research was on alien hand syndrome[5] where she worked to understand the condition in the brain with people exhibiting the condition.[6] Doody led the phase 2 and 3 development of donepezil, a medication for dementia, and has worked to broaden the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.[3]

Selected publications

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Awards and honors

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Doody received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Rice University in 2009[1] and a Distinguished Faculty Award from Baylor College of Medicine in 2011.[2] In 2018 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease Society.[7][better source needed]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Past Laureates Honorees". The Association of Rice Alumni | Rice University. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  2. ^ a b "Baylor College of Medicine Award recipients" (PDF). Retrieved October 24, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c Williams, Ruth (2011). "Rachelle Doody: an appetite for variety". The Lancet Neurology. 10 (1): 28. doi:10.1016/s1474-4422(10)70317-3. ISSN 1474-4422. PMID 21163443. S2CID 42590673.
  4. ^ "Rachelle Doody". Baylor College of Medicine. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  5. ^ Doody, R S; Jankovic, J (1992-09-01). "The alien hand and related signs". Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 55 (9): 806–810. doi:10.1136/jnnp.55.9.806. ISSN 0022-3050. PMC 1015106. PMID 1402972.
  6. ^ Mough, Thomas H. (1991-04-25). "Researchers attempt to pinpoint 'alien hand syndrome'". The Los Angeles Times. p. 372. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  7. ^ "Rachelle Doody Biography". horizons.health.