Professor Wai Haung Yu

(BSc 1991 UC) (MSc 1994 U of T) (PhD 2001 U of T) - 2016 Award Recipient

Wai Haung (Ho) Yu is assistant professor in clinical pathology and cell biology at Columbia University’s Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain. He earned a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Toronto, receiving the Alzheimer Society of Canada’s Pre-Doctoral Award, as well as the T.I. Sherman Award in Neuroscience. He did postdoctoral work at New York University (NYU) and the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and was promoted to clinical instructor and then assistant professor at NYU before joining the Taub Institute in 2006.

His research interests include the role of protein quality control -- in particular, autophagic-lysosomal degradation and its relationship to neurodegeneration. He is associate editor of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry and the founder and past president of the Greater NYC chapter of the Society for Neuroscience (braiNY), which received the Chapter of the Year Award 2013. Yu serves as an advisor for research foundations such as the Alzheimer Drug Discovery Fund and the Weston Brain Institute Canada.