Ana Maria Cuervo, MD, PhD, is the Robert and Renee Belfer Chair for the Study of Neurodegenerative Diseases, and professor in the Departments of Developmental and Molecular Biology and of Medicine of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is also co-director of the Einstein Institute for Aging Studies. Dr. Cuervo’s group is interested in understanding how altered proteins can be eliminated from the cells. Her group has recently linked alterations in lysosomal protein degradation with different neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease.

Dr. Cuervo is considered a leader in the field of protein degradation and was the recipient of the 2005 P. Benson Award in Cell Biology, the 2005/8 Keith Porter Fellow in Cell Biology, the 2006 Nathan Shock Memorial Lecture Award, the 2008 Vincent Cristofalo Rising Start in Aging Award, the 2010 Bennett J. Cohen Award in Basic Aging Biology and the 2011 Marshall Horwitz Prize for excellence in resesearch. She is currently a member of the NIH Scientific Council of Councils.