Randall Bateman, MD

Dr. Randall Bateman is the Charles F. and Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Director of the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN), and Director of the DIAN Trials Unit (DIAN-TU). Dr. Bateman’s research focuses on the pathophysiology and development of improved diagnostics and treatments of Alzheimer’s disease.  Dr. Bateman treats patients with dementia at the Memory Diagnostic Center of Washington University.

Dr. Bateman launched the DIAN-TU Pharma Consortium in 2011 with ten major pharmaceutical companies joining to support and assist in the development of trials for autosomal dominant Alzheimer’s disease.  Dr. Bateman directs the DIAN-TU, which launched prevention trials in families with dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s disease in 2012.  The DIAN-TU trial is an advanced worldwide adaptive trial platform that tests therapeutics targeting the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease with the goal to slow, stop or reverse Alzheimer’s disease.  The DIAN-TU has launched three Phase 2/3 drug arms with a range of amyloid-beta targets and has now launched tau-directed drugs in combination with amyloid drugs and a primary prevention trial to prevent amyloid plaques from forming.

Dr. Bateman’s lab accomplishments include pioneering the central nervous system Stable Isotope Labeling Kinetics (SILK) measurements in humans, which utilizes sub-atomic labeling with stable isotopes to track in vivo protein production and clearance, leading to understanding of the time and kinetic basis of proteins leading to neurodegeneration.  His lab has made major contributions to the understanding of the structures and functions of neurodegenerative proteins in pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases.  His lab has furthered insights of human circadian patterns of amyloid-beta and soluble amyloid precursor protein, and human in vivo control of the alpha-secretase, beta-secretase, and gamma-secretase processing of amyloid-beta. Utilizing SILK techniques, his lab also demonstrated that tau production is increased in Alzheimer’s disease, and that novel forms of tau in the cerebrospinal fluid and blood can diagnose and stage the disease.

His lab discovered the first high-precision blood test for Alzheimer’s disease amyloid plaques in 2017, which is now available to doctors and patients as the first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.  His lab has generated the most accurate blood tests for Alzheimer’s disease in head-to-head comparisons, rivaling that of PET and CSF tests, promising to provide accurate diagnosis and the potential for treatment of millions of patients who otherwise would not have access to accurate diagnosis.

Dr. Bateman is a productive innovator with 47 active or pending patents, and co-founder of C2N Diagnostics, which now provides the first high-accuracy blood test for Alzheimer’s disease based on Dr. Bateman’s discoveries at Washington University.  Dr. Bateman has established multiple research consortiums, including the DIAN-TU Pharma Consortium, Tau SILK Consortium and the NfL Consortium, which are joint academic and industry collaborations to develop biomarkers useful for tracking and staging disease.  Dr. Bateman has established the SILQ Center to further advances in neurodegeneration and aging by utilizing precise measures of neurodegenerative proteins and their production, transport, and clearance in health and disease.

Dr. Bateman has received a number of awards including the Beeson Award for Aging Research, Alzheimer’s Association Zenith Fellow’s Award, Scientific American top innovator, the Glenn Award for Aging Research, the Washington University Chancellor’s Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the MetLife Foundation Award for Medical Research, and the Potamkin Prize. He is a member of the American Neurological Association, the American Society for Clinical Investigation Council, and the American Academy of Neurology. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Inventors.