Seyed Ahmad Sajjadi
M.D. Ph.D. | Principal Investigator
ssajjadi@hs.uci.edu | Faculty Profile

I graduated from Tehran University of Medical Sciences, the top medical school in Iran, in 2002. Subsequently, I migrated to the United Kingdom to continue my medical training. After completing what would be equivalent to internal medicine residency, I started neurology training at the world-famous University of Cambridge and its affiliated hospitals. Shortly after, I took a 3-year break from clinical training to obtain a PhD in neuroscience studying primary progressive aphasia (PPA). PPA is a fascinating yet complex disorder causing language difficulty due to degeneration of brain language centers. I studied neuropsychological heterogeneity of the disease and used MRI imaging to further characterize the condition to subtypes. After obtaining my PhD from University of Cambridge, I returned to clinical training at Cambridge University hospitals and National Hospital of Neurology and Neurosurgery (Queen Square) in London. I was trained by internationally acclaimed experts in the field of cognitive neurology. After completion of my training in 2016, I accepted a faculty position at the department of neurology at the University of California, Irvine and migrated to the US.
Here at UCI, and in conjunction with my clinical practice as a dementia expert, I have been pursuing few lines of research:

Since arriving at UCI, I became a co-investigator in the 90+ study, an ongoing study of aging and dementia in people aged 90 and older. This world-famous study has provided much insight into dementia and its risk and protective factors in people aged 90 and over. Our lab is focused on MRI and PET imaging studies of the oldest old trying to identify the association between brain atrophy and amyloid and tau accumulation and cognition and brain pathology.

I am on the faculty of MiND institute which is the parent organized research unit (ORU) that hosts UCI Alzheimer’s disease research center (ADRC). Following my interest in primary progressive aphasia, I have established a cohort of patients suffering from this condition at UCI ADRC. We annually assess these patients with comprehensive neuropsychological tests, CSF examination to measure amyloid and tau levels, and brain MRI. The aim is to identify biomarkers that are capable of predicting the natural course and the underlying pathology in these clinically and pathologically heterogeneous conditions.

Our lab has an interest in the cognitive aspects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). We are studying the impact of cognitive impairment in the utility of common clinical outcome measures used in clinical trials of ALS drugs.

Most recently, our lab has been successful in securing an NIH R01 grant to study hippocampal sclerosis of aging, an important yet less studied cause of dementia in the oldest old. We will adopt a multi-faceted approach to enable diagnose of this condition during life and to identify its risk factors. Related projects include identification of new neuropsychological tests that specifically rely on the neural substrate of hippocampal sclerosis i.e. CA1 region of hippocampus.

My hobbies include biking, swimming, spending quality time with my family, thinking of new projects, and inter-continental immigration!