Suzanne Pfeffer, PhD, obtained an AB in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and a doctorate in biochemistry and biophysics from the University of California, San Francisco for work on the recycling of synaptic vesicles. In 1984, she moved to Stanford as a Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellow. Dr. Pfeffer joined the Stanford faculty in 1986, where she is currently a professor of biochemistry and the Emma Pfeiffer Merner Professor of Medical Sciences. Dr. Pfeffer is an expert in the molecular basis of membrane trafficking and Rab proteins as key regulators of the process. A past president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2010-12) and the American Society for Cell Biology (2003), Dr. Pfeffer is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Society for Cell Biology. Her research program focuses on LRRK2 phosphorylation of Rab proteins in Parkinson's disease