Leslie Thompson, PhD, a UCI faculty member internationally acclaimed for her work on the fight against Huntington’s disease has been awarded the title of Donald Bren Professor.
Professor Thompson serves with the Departments of Neurobiology and Behavior and Psychiatry and Human Behavior. The Bren Fellows Program was established to enhance faculty scholarship, research and creative achievement at UCI.
"Professor Thompson is richly deserving of this honor and is an example of the collaborative spirit that she and other UCI faculty leaders have imbued in our university,” added Dean Stamos. “Her work on translationally impactful research will pay dividends to patients for decades to come.”
Professor Thompson has devoted three decades to researching Huntington’s, a fatal genetic disorder that often first appears in mid-life. The disease breaks down nerve cells in the brain and erodes physical and mental capacities over time. Professor Thompson’s lab is on the forefront of using stem cells to better understand Huntington’s and design new ways to treat it.
She is the founding co-editor of the Journal of Huntington’s Disease and the principal investigator of NeuroLINCS, one of six national centers creating a database of human cellular responses and imaging to speed efforts to develop new therapies for motor neuron diseases including Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS. Professor Thompson is currently part of a team of investigators building the Precision Health through Artificial Intelligence Initiative, a cross-campus multidisciplinary effort.
“The title of Donald Bren Professor is designated for faculty demonstrating exceptional academic merit,” said Dean LaFerla. “Professor Thompson’s groundbreaking work toward finding an answer to Huntington’s is an example of the excellence the Bren Fellows Program encourages and honors.”
Professor Thompson was selected as a Chancellor’s Professor in 2018 and as a Chancellor’s Fellow in 2014. She received her PhD in biology from UCI.