Marc Diamond, M.D.
Director, Center for Alzheimer's and Neurodegenerative Diseases
Professor & Director

Download Curriculum Vitae

Marc Diamond, M.D., is a native of Berkeley, California. He graduated from Princeton University in 1987 with an A.B. in History. He entered the UCSF School of Medicine in 1987, and he carried out research on transcriptional regulation by the glucocorticoid receptor for two years with Keith Yamamoto, Ph.D. as a Howard Hughes Medical Student Research Fellow. Dr. Diamond received his M.D. from UCSF in 1993 where he also completed an internship, residency, and chief residency in Neurology in 1997. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. Yamamoto until 2001, working on two polyglutamine diseases—spinobulbar muscular atrophy and Huntington’s disease.

Dr. Diamond joined the faculty of the Department of Neurology at UCSF from 2002-2009, before moving to Washington University in St. Louis in 2009, as the David Clayson Professor of Neurology. He joined the faculty of UT Southwestern Medical Center in 2014 as the founding director of the Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. He is interested in neurodegenerative diseases linked to protein aggregation, and the role of prion mechanisms in the normal and abnormal physiology of protein amyloids.

Graduate School

Princeton University (1987), History

Medical School

University of California-San F (1993), Medicine

• Cell and Molecular Biology
• Neurodegenerative Diseases
• Neuroscience
• Prion Biology

Featured Publications

A synthetic heparinoid blocks tau aggregate cell uptake and amplification.

Stopschinski BE, Thomas TL, Nadji S, Darvish E, Fan L, Holmes BB, Modi AR, Finnell J, Kashmer OM, Estill-Terpack S, Mirbaha H, Luu HS, Diamond MI, J. Biol. Chem. 2020 Jan

Tau local structure shields an amyloid-forming motif and controls aggregation propensity.

Chen D, Drombosky KW, Hou Z, Sari L, Kashmer OM, Ryder BD, Perez VA, Woodard DR, Lin MM, Diamond MI, Joachimiak LA, Nat Commun 2019 06 10 1 2493

Propagation of Protein Aggregation in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

Vaquer-Alicea J, Diamond MI Annu. Rev. Biochem. 2019 Mar

Profilin reduces aggregation and phase separation of huntingtin N-terminal fragments by preferentially binding to soluble monomers and oligomers.

Posey AE, Ruff KM, Harmon TS, Crick SL, Li A, Diamond MI, Pappu RV J. Biol. Chem. 2018 Jan

Novel human neuronal tau model exhibiting neurofibrillary tangles and transcellular propagation.

Reilly P, Winston CN, Baron KR, Trejo M, Rockenstein EM, Akers JC, Kfoury N, Diamond M, Masliah E, Rissman RA, Yuan SH Neurobiol. Dis. 2017 Oct 106 222-234

The CNS in inbred transgenic models of 4-repeat Tauopathy develops consistent tau seeding capacity yet focal and diverse patterns of protein deposition.

Eskandari-Sedighi G, Daude N, Gapeshina H, Sanders DW, Kamali-Jamil R, Yang J, Shi B, Wille H, Ghetti B, Diamond MI, Janus C, Westaway D Mol Neurodegener 2017 10 12 1 72

Characterization of tau prion seeding activity and strains from formaldehyde-fixed tissue.

Kaufman SK, Thomas TL, Del Tredici K, Braak H, Diamond MI Acta Neuropathol Commun 2017 Jun 5 1 41

FRET and Flow Cytometry Assays to Measure Proteopathic Seeding Activity in Biological Samples.

Furman JL, Diamond MI Methods Mol. Biol. 2017 1523 349-359

Tau Prion Strains Dictate Patterns of Cell Pathology, Progression Rate, and Regional Vulnerability In Vivo.

Kaufman SK, Sanders DW, Thomas TL, Ruchinskas AJ, Vaquer-Alicea J, Sharma AM, Miller TM, Diamond MI Neuron 2016 Nov 92 4 796-812

Neuronal activity enhances tau propagation and tau pathology in vivo.

Wu JW, Hussaini SA, Bastille IM, Rodriguez GA, Mrejeru A, Rilett K, Sanders DW, Cook C, Fu H, Boonen RA, Herman M, Nahmani E, Emrani S, Figueroa YH, Diamond MI, Clelland CL, Wray S, Duff KE Nat. Neurosci. 2016 Jun

• Distinguished Chair
  Brain Injury and Repair (2014)
• Scholar-Innovator Award
  Harrington (2012)
• Foundation Award
  Ruth K. Broad (2010)
• Endowed Chair
  David Clayson Professor of Neurology (2009)
• Leadership Award
  Huntington's Disease Society of America (2007)
• Sandler Opportunity Award
  (2007)