Principal Investigator
Dr. Makoto Ishii is a board-certified neurologist and a physician-scientist dedicated to both patient care and biomedical research focusing primarily on neurodegenerative and neuroendocrine disorders. Dr. Ishii was raised in Houston and earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University. He then enrolled in the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD Program in New York City receiving his PhD from Rockefeller University and his MD from Weill Cornell Medical College. He received his clinical training as a neurology resident at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he was also chief resident. After his residency, Dr. Ishii joined the faculty at Weill Cornell Medical College and received a Leon Levy Neuroscience Fellowship to conduct his initial research studies, which were the first to demonstrate that amyloid-beta, a major pathogenic factor in Alzheimer’s disease, can disrupt specific brain cells in the leptin pathway, an essential regulator of body weight, leading to body weight and metabolic deficits prior to any cognitive dysfunction. Based on these early achievements, Dr. Ishii was awarded the Paul B. Beeson Clinical Development Award in Aging, an honor supported by the National Institute on Aging (part of the NIH) and private foundations including the American Federation for Aging Research and The John A. Hartford Foundation, where he joins past recipients who are currently top academic leaders in the field. Ongoing studies continue to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying the body weight and neuroendocrine deficits in Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Ishii moved back to Texas to join the faculty at UTSW in 2023, where he continues to conduct his research and see patients in the Memory Clinic.