Research in Dr. Rizzo’s lab focuses on investigating the mechanisms that drive divergence from healthy aging towards inception and progression of Alzheimer’s disease, in order to identify novel pathways and targets that may enable the discovery of new therapeutic agents to treat and prevent disease. Dr. Rizzo is a behavior pharmacologist by training and holds a BS in Animal Sciences from Rutgers University and a PhD in Neuroscience from University College London. She is an internationally recognized expert in behavioral phenotyping and preclinical translational studies in animal models. Dr. Rizzo previously spent 18 years in the pharmaceutical industry in Neuroscience Drug Discovery departments at Wyeth Research, Merck Research Laboratories, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, and Pfizer where she led and contributed to many drug discovery projects across therapeutic areas. Prior to her current appoint, from 2014-2019, Dr. Rizzo served as Director of Mouse Neurobehavioral Phenotyping at The Jackson Laboratory’s Institute for Mammalian Genetics (JAX) and Associate Director of JAX’s Center for Biometric Analysis. Dr. Rizzo’s lab is a critical component of three NIA funded multi-institutional consortiums including the Model Organism Development for Late Onset Alzheimer’s disease (MODEL-AD) consortium where she co-heads the Preclinical Testing Core which evaluates the potential therapeutic efficacy of novel test compounds for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (www.MODEL-AD.org) and the Target Enablement to Accelerate Therapy Development for Alzheimer’s Disease (TREAT-AD) consortium.
- PhD, University College of London, 2012
Education & Training
Sukoff Rizzo, S.J., Masters, A., Onos, K.D., Quinney, S., Sasner, M., Oblak, A., Lamb, B.T., Territo, P.R. Improving preclinical to clinical translation in Alzheimer's disease research. Alzheimers & Dementia (NY). 2020; 6(1)
Oblak, A.L., Cope, Z.A., Quinney, S.K., Biesdorf, C., Masters, A.R., Onos, K.D., Haynes, L., Keezer, K.J., Meyer, J.A., Peters, J., Persohn, S.C., Bedwell, A.A., Eldridge, K., Speedy, R., Little, G., Williams, S-P., Sasner, M., Howell, G., Williams, H., Lamb, B.T., Territo, P.R., Sukoff Rizzo, S.J. Prophylactic Evaluation of Verubecestat on disease and symptom modifying effects in 5XFAD Mice. Alzheimers Dementia Clinical Translation. 2021
Oblak, A.L., Forner, S., Territo, P.R., Sasner, M., Carter, G.W., Howell, G.R., Sukoff-Rizzo, S.J., Logsdon, B.A., Mangravite, L.M., Mortazavi, A., Baglietto-Vargas, D., Green, K.N., MacGregor, G.R., Wood, M.A., Tenner, A.J., LaFerla, F.M., Lamb, B.T. Model organism development and evaluation for late-onset Alzheimer's disease: MODEL-AD. Alzheimers & Dementia (NY). 2020; 6(1)
Oblak, A.L., Lin, P.B., Kotredes, K.P., Pandey, R.S., Garceau, D., Williams, H.M., Uyar, A., O'Rourke, R., O'Rourke, S., Ingraham, C., Bednarczyk, D., Belanger, M., Mangravite, L.M., Sukoff Rizzo, S.J., Territo, P.R., Carter, G.W., Howell, G.R., Sasner, M., Lamb, B.T. Comprehensive Evaluation of the 5XFAD Mouse Model for Preclinical Testing Applications: A MODEL-AD Study. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. 2021; 13
Murai, T., Sukoff Rizzo, S.J. The Importance of Complementary Collaboration of Researchers, Veterinarians, and Husbandry Staff in the Successful Training of Marmoset Behavioral Assays. ILAR Journal. 2021
Kotredes, K.P., Oblak, A., Pandey, R.S., Lin, P.B., Garceau, D., Williams, H., Uyar, A., O'Rourke, R., O'Rourke, S., Ingraham, C., Bednarczyk, D., Belanger, M., Cope, Z., Foley, K.E., Logsdon, B.A., Mangravite, L.M., Sukoff Rizzo, S.J., Territo, P.R., Carter, G.W., Sasner, M., Lamb, B.T., Howell, G.R. Uncovering Disease Mechanisms in a Novel Mouse Model Expressing Humanized APOEe4 and Trem2*R47H. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. 2021; 13
