Gregor Bieri, Ph.D.

Gregor Bieri is a postdoctoral fellow in the Bakar Aging Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco in the laboratory of Saul Villeda. He grew up in Switzerland and earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in life sciences and technology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) and a doctorate in neuroscience from Stanford University.

As a graduate student under the mentorship of Aaron Gitler, he investigated progressive mechanisms of alpha-synuclein spread in mouse and human models of Parkinson’s disease. As a postdoctoral fellow, Bieri’s research focuses on how exercise-induced liver-derived factors regulate cerebrovascular function and cognition in aging. Bieri’s overarching goal for his research is to leverage natural variability and resilience as well as lifestyle interventions, such as exercise, to investigate and identify vascular-targeting mechanisms that maintain brain homeostasis and counter cognitive decline late in life.

Bieri has received several awards and honors throughout his career, including the NIA Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA and Larry L. Hillblom Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships, and the Norman Orentreich Award for Young Investigator on Aging.