Sonja W. Scholz MD, PhD

Dr. Scholz is a physician-scientist specialized in neurodegeneration. She received her medical degree from the Medical University Innsbruck, Austria. Following graduation, she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Laboratory of Neurogenetics, National Institute on Aging, under the supervision of Drs. Andrew Singleton and John Hardy. She obtained a Ph.D. in Neurogenomics from the University College London, UK in 2010. She then moved to Baltimore to complete her neurology residency training at Johns Hopkins. She is currently a Lasker Clinical Research Scholar at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and an adjunct Assistant Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University. Her primary area of research is the genetic characterization of atypical parkinsonism syndromes, such as Lewy body dementia, multiple system atrophy, and frontotemporal dementia. She specializes in applying modern genomic techniques and data-driven approaches to assess molecular genetic mechanisms implicated in these complex neurodegenerative disorders and to identify targets that are suitable for disease-modifying, therapeutic interventions.