Dr. Guo is professor of Neurology and Pharmacology. She cares for patients with neurological diseases, and her research lab investigates molecular mechanisms of the two most common neurodegenerative disorders, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Guo has made seminal findings in the area of neurodegeneration. Her lab is one of the first in the world to report that two Parkinson disease genes, Pink1 and Parkin, function in a common pathway to control mitochondrial integrity and quality control. She then demonstrated that the PINK1/parkin pathway regulates mitochondrial fusion. Her lab then identified another key regulator known as MUL1 that plays an essential role in inducing PINK1/parkin mutation-related pathology. MUL1 regulates mitochondrial fusion and serves as an important therapeutic target for mitochondrial defects due to lack of Pink1/Parkin. Her work has wide-range implications for controlling processes in aging, and other aging-related diseases including other neurodegenerative disorders, heart disease and metabolic disorders. Dr. Guo has received many awards. She is an elected member of the American Neurological Association (ANA), an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation fellow, a McKnight Neuroscience Foundation Brain Disorder Awardee, an Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Aging, a Klingenstein-Simon’s Fellow in Neuroscience. Her work is supported by the NIH EUREKA (Exceptional Unconventional Research Enabling Knowledge Acceleration) award. In addition, she was selected to receive the ANA Derek Denny Brown Neurological Scholar Award, and also serves as Chair of the Board of Scientific Counselors at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NIH/NINDS). She serves on the ANA Scientific Program Advisory Committee, the Society of Neuroscience Program Committee, and the Selection Committee of the McKnight Foundation.