Michela Gallagher

Michela Gallagher is an American cognitive psychologist and neuroscientist. She is the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. Her scientific work has changed the model of neurocognitive aging, and developed new indices for its study. Previously, work had focused on neurodegeneration as a primary cause of memory loss.

Gallagher's research suggests that age-related declines in cognition may also occur in the absence of neurodegeneration, due to malfunctioning rather than dying off. Gallagher is also the founder and CEO of AgeneBio, a company which aims to develop a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

Education and career Gallagher did her first degree at University College London, where she majored in fine art. She transferred to Colgate University in New York in her last year. She graduated from Colgate University in 1969, in its first class to include women.

Gallagher then worked at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, where she was the Kenan Professor of Psychology. She joined Johns Hopkins University in 1997. She became the chair of the Department of Psychological and Brain Science at Johns Hopkins in 2000, holding the position until 2007. She became the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience in 2003. She became Vice Provost of Academic Affairs in 2008, holding the appointment for four years.

Gallagher was the editor-in-chief of Behavioral Neuroscience from 1995 to 2001. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) Beginning in the 1950s, work had focused on neurodegeneration as a primary cause of memory loss. Gallagher's research suggests that brain cells are malfunctioning rather than just dying off. This has led researchers to investigate a wide range of neural mechanisms and different possible interventions. These included "the cumulative search error during learning trials, the average proximity during probe trials, and the spatial learning index to quantify overall learning of the task across days." The impact of these measures in the field is significant. and the "Gallagher-Baker indices".

One of Gallagher's fields of study is hyperactivity in the hippocampus, which occurs in patients with Alzheimer's disease, and may cause amnestic mild cognitive impairment. She found that aging rats with hyperactivity in the hippocampus caused difficulties in completing a memory task. Giving these rats levetiracetam reduced these impairments. One of the therapeutics the company researches is AGB-101, a form of levetiracetam, which targets neuronal hyperactivity in the hippocampus. This drug was developed for use in epilepsy. For this work Gallagher received the Melvin R. Goodes Prize for Excellence in Alzheimer's Drug Discovery from the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation. In 2019 the company received a $3.4m grant for this work. 2014: Mika Salpeter Lifetime Achievement Award 2017: Pavlovian Society Gantt Medal 2018: Melvin R. Goodes Prize for Excellence in Alzheimer's Drug Discovery

Selected publications