Ian Guldner joins Salk Institute to advance foundational research on brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease

Salk News

Ian Guldner joins Salk Institute to advance foundational research on brain aging and Alzheimer's disease

New faculty member brings expertise at the intersection of proteostasis, immune surveillance, and neurodegeneration

• Highlights
• Salk has recruited Ian Guldner as a new assistant professor, bringing fresh momentum to foundational research on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias
• Guldner's lab will identify cellular communication mechanisms that regulate brain aging and disease, and target those interactions to preserve brain health
• His recruitment was enabled by a gift from the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund and will create new opportunities for collaboration across Salk in neurodegeneration, immunobiology, and aging

LA JOLLA-The Salk Institute has recruited Ian Guldner, PhD, as a new assistant professor with foundational research expertise in brain aging and Alzheimer's disease. Guldner's goal is to identify cellular communication mechanisms that regulate brain aging and disease, and target those interactions to preserve brain health. He will launch his new lab at Salk in late 2026.

This faculty recruitment was made possible by a donation from the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund, led by David Dolby, Salk Trustee and CEO of Dolby Family Ventures.

"At Salk, we believe the most meaningful advances in medicine begin with fundamental questions about how life works," says Salk President Gerald Joyce. "We are grateful to David Dolby and the Dolby Family Fund for sharing this belief and for enabling Ian to join our collaborative community, bringing an inventive approach to understanding how our brains change as we age. By revealing the earliest cellular shifts that precede disease, his work will help build the scientific foundation for future strategies to protect cognitive health."

Guldner's research centers on proteostasis, the cellular processes that build, fold, recycle, and dispose of proteins. These processes are essential for keeping neurons healthy over decades. His lab will also investigate immune surveillance in the brain, including how microglia, the brain's resident immune cells, interact with neurons and respond to age-related molecular stress.

Earlier this year, Guldner published a first-author study in Nature describing how aging promotes the accumulation of certain neuron-derived synaptic proteins inside microglia. These findings point to a new way to think about how proteins move between brain cells over time, and how that exchange may intersect with cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. In addition to his work on brain aging, he has published research examining how immune responses shape cancer brain metastases, giving him a broad perspective on how the immune system influences brain health across diseases.

"Salk is a place where big, fundamental questions are taken seriously, and where collaboration is part of the daily rhythm," says Guldner. "I'm excited to join a community that values curiosity and creativity, and to work with colleagues across the Institute to understand how brain cells change with age and what that means for Alzheimer's disease and related disorders."

At Salk, Guldner's research program will open new opportunities for collaboration across the Institute, including with scientists studying neurodegeneration, immunobiology, cancer, and the cellular mechanisms of aging. By developing and applying new tools to track protein dynamics and cell-to-cell communication in the brain, his lab aims to uncover the systems that regulate brain aging and disease and to target these interactions to preserve brain health.

"The complexity of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias requires new tools that let scientists see biology with greater precision," Dolby says. "We need even more early-stage research to discover the next generation of therapies. My family and I are proud to support Salk's foundational approach to discovery, and to help make it possible to recruit Ian Guldner to the faculty, accelerating the kind of work that can ultimately improve lives."

Guldner earned his BS in biology at Moravian College and his PhD in biology from the University of Notre Dame, and then completed his postdoctoral studies at Stanford University. In 2024, he was awarded a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health.