Matthew S. Goldberg, PhD, graduated with a BS in physics from the University of Michigan, where he conducted research on the structure of proteins using nuclear magnetic resonance in the laboratory of Dr. Gerhard Wagner. He earned his PhD in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University, working in the laboratories of Dr. Arthur L. Horwich and Dr. Robert O. Fox. He received his postdoctoral training in neurodegenerative diseases at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, working in the laboratories of Dr. Peter T. Lansbury and Dr. Jie Shen. Using gene targeting while in the laboratory of Dr. Shen, Dr. Goldberg generated models with loss-of-function mutations in the Parkin and DJ-1 genes linked to parkinsonism in humans.

Dr. Goldberg served on the faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas from 2005 to 2014 and joined the Department of Neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in September 2014. His research is focused on identifying the mechanisms of neuronal degeneration in Parkinson's disease and investigating the roles of mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and genetic mutations in Parkin, DJ-1, PINK1, alpha-synuclein and LRRK2 linked to Parkinson’s disease.