Dongming Cai, MD, PhD, joined the University of Minnesota in August 2023 as Director of the N. Bud Grossman Center for Memory Research and Care. A Professor in the Department of Neurology at the U of M, she holds a joint appointment as a Physician Scientist at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, where she sees patients in the clinic and conducts clinical and translational research in her lab. Cai also sees patients in the Memory Clinic in St. Louis Park and serves as principal investigator on many research projects in her lab at the N. Bud Grossman Center for Memory Care and Research.
Dr. Cai trained in Neuroscience with Marie Filbin, PhD, at Hunter College of The City University of New York, and in Molecular and Cellular Neurobiology during postdoctoral research with Nobel Laureate Paul Greengard, PhD, at The Rockefeller University. She completed Neurology residency training at Yale School of Medicine.
By combining expertise in basic neuroscience and clinical neurology, her laboratory studies focus on translating current understanding of disease mechanisms into the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, and other neurodegenerative disorders.
Education
1995 M.D.
Tongji Medical University, Wuhan, China
2001 Ph.D. (Neuroscience) The City University of New York, New York
2001-2006 Postdoctoral fellowship in Neuroscience, The Rockefeller University, New York, Primary Mentor: Dr. Paul Greengard
2006-2010 Residency in Neurology
Yale School of Medicine, Connecticut
About Dongming
- 1990-1995 Scholarship, Tongji Medical University, China
- 2000 Mina Rees Award for Excellence in Research and Teaching, The City University of New York, New York
- 2001 Harold Amos Award for Excellence in Graduate Research, The City University of New York, New York
- 2003-2006 Investigator Initiated Research Grant (co-PI) Alzheimer’s Association
- 2003-2006 The Kirschstein-NRSA F32 fellowship NIH, National Institute on Aging
- 2010-2015 Career Development Award, Department of Veteran Affairs Medical System, BLRD
- 2010 NIH Paul Beeson Career Development Award (KO8) (declined to accept VA CDA)
- 2014-2016 New Investigator Research Grant Award, Alzheimer’s Association
- 2014-2016 Small Projects in Rehabilitation Research (SPiRE) award
Department of Veterans Affair Medical Center, R&D - 2014 SFN Oral Presentation selected as one of “2014 SFN Hot Topics”
- 2014 America’s Top Physicians, honors of Distinction and Excellence by Consumers Research Council of America
- 2015 Early Career Investigator, invited to present at The 3rd Annual Charleston Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (CCAD), SC
- 2015 Junior Faculty Award,The 12th International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease, Nice, France
- 2015 Chair of 2015 SFN Nano-symposium: Alzheimer's Disease: Risk Factors
- 2015 PNAS paper featured in Nature Review Neurology as one of the research highlights
- 2016 Chair of 2016 Precision Medicine Symposia, Session V: Alzheimer Disease Pathology & Optogenetics in Sleep and Memory
- 2016 Travel Award, 141st Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association
- 2017 Travel Award and Poster presentation award, 142nd Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association
- 2017 Chair of 2017 SFN Nano-symposium: Risk Factors for Disease of the CNS Oral Presentation selected as one of “2017 SFN hot topics”
- 2018 Co-Chair of the Traumatic Brain Injury Special Interest Group for 143 rd Annual Meeting of the ANA
- 2019 Moderator of the “Animal Models and iPSC Models” Discussion, The M2OVE-AD and The Resilience-AD consortia NIH, Bethesda
- 2019 Chair of the Traumatic Brain Injury Special Interest Group for 144th Annual Meeting of the ANA
- 2020 Chair of the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) Molecular & Cell Biology (MCB): Endolysosomal/Trafficking Dysfunction Session
- 2021 The Friedman Brain Institute Research Scholars Award, ISSMS
- 1999- Society for Neuroscience (SFN)
- 1999- International Society of Neurochemistry
- 1999- American Society of Neurochemistry
- 2001- The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS)
- 2003- The Alzheimer’s Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART)
- 2006- American Academy of Neurology (AAN)
- 2013-The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)
- 2015- American Neurological Association (ANA)
- 2019- Chinese American Neurologist Association (CANA)
- 2023- American Chinese Association of Physicians (ACAP)
- 2023- Association of Minnesota Chinese Physicians (AMCP)
- 2011- Journal of Neurophysiology and Neurological Disorders
- 2013- Symbiosis Open Access Journal of Neurology
- 2013- Austin Journal of Clinical Neurology
- 2017- Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease
- 2017- Journal of Neuroinflammation and Neurodegenerative Diseases
- 2017-2018 Guest Editor of Special Issue “Alzheimer Disease: Advances in Molecular Pathogenesis” in Neuroscience Letters
- 2018- Associate Editor of Neuroscience Letters
- 2018-2021 Executive Editor of the Journal of Neuroscience Research
- 2019- Commentator on Editorial Board of The Neuroscientists
- 2020- Review Editor of Frontiers in Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration section
- 2022- Associate Editor of Frontiers in Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration section
- 2023 Guest Editor of Special Issue “Animal Models for the Research of Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurodegeneration” In Cells
Internal
Research or Clinical
- 2011-2013 James J Peters VA Medical Center R&D Safety Committee member
- 2012-2017 James J Peters VA Medical Center IACUC committee member
- 2017 James J Peters VA Medical Center IACUC committee Vice Chair
- 2018- James J Peters VA Medical Center R&D committee member
Teaching
- 2019-2023 ISMMS MD/PhD Admission Committee
- 2023- UMN Neuroscience PhD Admission Committee
External
- 2015 Society for Neuroscience Chair for Nano-symposium Session
- 2016 Precision Medicine Symposia Chair
- 2017 Society for Neuroscience Chair for Nano-symposium Session
- 2018-2020 ANA Annual Meeting Chair for the TBI Special Interest Group
- 2019 Moderator for the NIH M2OVE-AD and Resilience-AD consortia
- 2020 AAIC meeting Chair for Molecular and Cellular Biology session
- 2022 CANA 7th Annual Meeting Organizing Committee
Co-Chair of CANA Travel Scholarship Committee
Moderator of Neurology Resident and Fellow Presentation Session - 2022 Chair of the NIH/NIA Study Section Special Emphasis Panel Review Committee for “Lipids and Brain Aging and AD/ADRD”
- 2023 Chair of the NIH/NIA Study Section Review Committee ZAG1 ZIJ-R
- 2023 Alternate Chair of the VA Study Section Review SubCommittee
NURD (spring of 2023) - 2023 Chair of the VA Study Section Review SubCommittee NURD (fall of 2023)
- May 2024- Chair the VA Study Section Review SubCommittee
- June 2028 NURD
