Cure Alzheimer's Fund Cure Alzheimer's Fund

William Eimer, Ph.D.

Instructor in Neurology, Harvard Medical School; Faculty, Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health, Massachusetts General Hospital

William Eimer is an instructor in the Neurology Department of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He dual majored in biology and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University.  William earned a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Northwestern University under the guidance of Dr. Robert Vassar where he researched intraneuronal amyloid and the 5XFAD mouse model. He continued in the field of Alzheimer’s disease, working as a postdoc under Dr. Robert Moir and then as a junior faculty member of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit at MGH. His current research focuses on expanding various roles of amyloid’s as an antimicrobial peptide, investigating the potential roles that Herpes viruses play in AD, and exploring how the immune system may be a key component of AD etiology.

Related Research:

Tau and Amyloid Beta are
Innate Immune Antimicrobial Peptides in the Brain William Eimer 2024-02-29 Tau and Amyloid Beta are Innate Immune Antimicrobial Peptides in the Brain William Eimer 2022-02-11 Characterizing Gut Microbiome Synergy With Emphasis on Mycobiome and Its Impact on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Pathology in AD Mouse Models Deepak Kumar Vijaya Kumar Nanda Kumar Navalpur Shanmugam Rudy Tanzi William Eimer 2020-12-18 Microbes and Alzheimer’s Disease: Metagenomics on Saliva, Cerebrospinal Fluid, Blood and Brain Nanda Kumar Navalpur Shanmugam Deepak Kumar Vijaya Kumar Rudy Tanzi William Eimer 2020-08-03 Tau and Amyloid Beta are Innate Immune Antimicrobial Peptides in the Brain William Eimer Deepak Kumar Vijaya Kumar Rudy Tanzi 2020-01-09

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.

Project Description Researchers Funding
Tau and Amyloid Beta are
Innate Immune Antimicrobial Peptides in the Brain		 2024, 2025

$402,500
Tau and Amyloid Beta are Innate Immune Antimicrobial Peptides in the Brain 2021, 2023

$345,000
Characterizing Gut Microbiome Synergy With Emphasis on Mycobiome and Its Impact on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) Pathology in AD Mouse Models 2020, 2021

$500,000
Microbes and Alzheimer’s Disease: Metagenomics on Saliva, Cerebrospinal Fluid, Blood and Brain 2020

$350,000
Tau and Amyloid Beta are Innate Immune Antimicrobial Peptides in the Brain 2019

$350,000

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

Eimer, W. A., Rodriguez, A. S., DeFao, M. T., Ehricke, S., Park, J., Vijaya Kumar, D. K., Navalpur Shanmugam, N. K., Singh, S., Sawhney, T., Moir, R. D., & Tanzi, R. E. Phosphorylated tau exhibits antimicrobial activity capable of neutralizing herpes simplex virus 1 infectivity in human neurons, Nature Neuroscience, December 17, 2025, Read More

Pilat, D. J., Le, H., Prokopenko, D., Lin, C. J., Eimer, W. A., Quinti, L., Gavrilles, E. P., Garcia, S. N., Heitman, S. N., Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), McGinty, D., Cetinbas, M., Sadreyev, R. I., Tanzi, R. E., & Griciuc, A. The gain-of-function TREM2-T96K mutation increases risk for Alzheimer’s disease by impairing microglial function, Neuron, October 17, 2025, Read More

Vijaya Kumar, D. K., Mitchell, T. A., Tailor, B. A., Moir, A. P., Navalpur Shanmugam, N. K., Eimer, W. A., Ghelichi, J., Choi, S. H., Su, C., Rodriguez, A. S., Kim, E., Moir, R. D., & Tanzi, R. E. Human amylin is a potent antimicrobial peptide that exhibits antimicrobial synergism with the amyloid beta protein, Alzheimer's & Dementia, July 29, 2025, Read More

Navalpur Shanmugam, N. K., Zamudio, F., Vijaya Kumar, D. K., Barrett, K. A., VanDoren, R., Chen, M., Barr, O. M., Watson, S., Lin, C. J., Eimer, W. A., Jorfi, M., Choi, S. H., Moir, R. D., & Tanzi, R. E. Acute experimental colitis in 5xFAD Alzheimer’s disease mice leads to enhanced monocyte infiltration into the brain accompanied by reduced β-amyloid deposition, Alzheimer's & Dementia, June 2, 2025, Read More

Kumar, D. K., Choi, S. H., Washicosky, K. J., Eimer, W. A., Tucker, S., Ghofrani, J., Lefkowitz, A., McColl, G., Goldstein, L. E., Tanzi, R. E., & Moir, R. D. Amyloid-beta peptide protects against microbial infection in mouse and worm models of Alzheimer’s disease, Science Translational Medicine, May 25, 2016, Read More

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