Dr. Willayat Yousuf Wani received his PhD in biochemistry from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India. He evaluated the role of PARP1 activation in organophosphate-induced neuronal cell death, and he explored the role of caspase-dependent and caspase-independent cell death pathways in neuronal cell demise. During his postdoctoral research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, he investigated the role of glycosylation (O-GlcNAcylation) in autophagy and alpha-synuclein homeostasis. He showed that excessive O-GlcNAcylation is detrimental to neurons and it inhibits autophagy and increases alpha-synuclein accumulation. Currently at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Dr. Wani studies the role of the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP) and glycosylation (N-glycosylation) in the protein aggregation and misfolding in neurons. He uses patient neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to model neurodegenerative disorders associated with the accumulation of alpha-synuclein, also called synucleinopathies.