Dr. Thomas Biederer received a PhD in cell biology from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. After postdoctoral training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dr. Biederer became a faculty member at Yale University. He accepted a position at Tufts University in 2013 before returning to Yale in 2019 to join the department of neurology. Dr. Biederer investigates the biology of synapses, the cellular structures that connect neurons and allow for communication in the brain. Trained as a biochemist and cell biologist, he applies interdisciplinary thinking and combines molecular studies with analyses of synaptic connectivity in the brain. His work addresses three questions. First, what mechanisms induce the formation of synapses? Second, how are the properties of synapses maintained? Third, what makes synapses vulnerable - or resilient - to loss in human diseases? His studies address synapse loss in the cortex to understand how cognitive impairments arise in people with Parkinson’s disease.