Michel Goedert, who was born and educated in Luxembourg, obtained an MD degree from the University of Basel in 1980 and a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1984. He has been a Programme Leader at the Medical Research Council Laboratory in Cambridge since 1988. Between 2003 and 2016, he was also Head (joint or sole) of the Laboratory’s Neurobiology Division. Michel has been an Honorary Professor in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences of Cambridge University since 2014.

For his work on the molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative diseases, he received a number awards (shared or sole), including the Metropolitan Life Foundation Award for Medical Research in 1996, the Potamkin Prize for Pick’s, Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders from the American Academy of Neurology in 1998, the European Grand Prix from de Fondation pour la Recherche sur Alzheimer in 2014 and the Brain Prize from the Lundbeck Foundation in 2018.

Michel Goedert has been instrumental in the discovery of the importance of tau protein assembly for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. He also identified the protein alpha-synuclein as the major component of the abnormal filamentous inclusions of Parkinson’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies and multiple system atrophy.