Celeste Karch

Additional Titles & Roles

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• Scientific Director, Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network
• Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center Biomarker Core Leader

Education & Training

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• Ph.D.: University of Florida, 2009

Major Awards

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• Alzheimer’s Association Zenith Fellows Award, 2026
• McAlpine Foundation Award, 2024
• Neuroscience Community Award for Excellence in Mentoring, 2022
• Rainwater Prize for Innovative Early-Career Scientist, 2021
• Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Neurodegeneration Challenge Network Investigator, 2019
• Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Disease Young Investigator Award, 2017
• Charleston Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease Early Career Investigator, 2015
• NIH Early Career Reviewer, 2014
• Butler-Williams Scholar, 2013

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Research Interests

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The Karch laboratory investigates the genetic and cellular mechanisms that drive Alzheimer’s disease (AD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and related neurodegenerative disorders. The laboratory integrates human genetics with induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-based models to define how disease-associated genetic variants alter neuronal and glial function and to identify pathways that can be targeted therapeutically.

A major focus of the laboratory is understanding how genetic risk and protective variants influence proteostasis, lysosomal and autophagic function, neuroimmune responses, and tau biology. This work has identified lysosomal dysfunction as an important feature of genetically driven neurodegeneration and has defined roles for AD-associated genes, including the MS4A gene family, in regulating microglial responses to disease pathology. Studies of FTD-associated MAPT mutations further demonstrate that disease-causing variants can directly alter microglial function, providing insight into how tau biology and innate immune pathways contribute to neurodegeneration.

The laboratory also develops and shares deeply characterized human cellular resources for the study of neurodegenerative disease. These collections include patient-derived and genetically engineered cell lines representing disease-causing mutations, common risk alleles, protective variants, and diverse genetic backgrounds. By linking human genetics, stem cell models, and molecular phenotypes, the Karch laboratory seeks to identify mechanisms of disease vulnerability and resilience and translate these discoveries into new therapeutic strategies for AD and FTD.

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Recent Publications

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• Lactate metabolism links reactive microglia, amyloid pathology, and Aβ dynamics

  Ashley, C. C., Constantino, N. J., Pettit-Mee, R. J., Snipes, J. A., Saito, K., Irmen, R. E., Zhang, R., Neary, E. M., Lanning, M. J., Karch, C. M., Johnson, L. A., Morganti, J. M. & Macauley, S. L., Dec 2026, In: Journal of Neuroinflammation. 23, 1, 201.

• A pathogenic Tau mutation drives autophagy-lysosome dysfunction that limits Tau degradation in a model of frontotemporal dementia

  Mirfakhar, F. S., Marsh, J. A., Sato, C., Schache, K. J., Minaya, M. A., Dolle, R. E., Pak, S. C., Silverman, G. A., Perlmutter, D. H., Macauley, S. L. & Karch, C. M., Dec 2026, In: Nature communications. 17, 1, 2699.

• Retraction notice to “Generation of a gene-corrected human isogenic iPSC line from an Alzheimer’s disease iPSC line carrying thePSEN1 H163Rmutation” [Stem Cell Res. 79 (2024) 103495]

  Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network DIAN, Jun 2026, In: Stem Cell Research. 93, 103956.

• Integrative genomic and functional analyses reveal NINL as a modulator of tau aggregation

  Swift, S. K., Huang, G., Cochran, J. N., D’Oliveira Albanus, R., Minaya, M. A., Castruita, P. A., Zhang, R., Miller, K. J., Starr, E., Galasso, G., Marsh, J. A., Kao, A. W., Harari, O., Yokoyama, J. S. & Karch, C. M., Apr 2026, In: Alzheimer’s and Dementia. 22, 4, e71352.

• Longitudinal subcortical volume changes and their correlations with multiple PET and fluid biomarkers in dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s disease

  Choo, I. H., Park, H., Gordon, B. A., Bateman, R. J., Bateman, R., Daniels, A. J., Courtney, L., Ziegemeier, A., Skrbec, K., Hellm, C., Martin, M., Ziegemeier, E., Bartzel, J., McDade, E., Libre-Guerra, J. J., Supnet-Bell, C., Xiong, C., Xu, X., Lu, R. & Wang, G. & 106 others, Li, Y., Nie, Y., Gremminger, E., Perrin, R. J., Franklin, E., Ibanez, L., Jerome, G., Stauber, J., Baker, B., Minton, M., Cruchaga, C., Goate, A. M., Renton, A. E., Picarello, D. M., Fulton-Howard, B., Benzinger, T. L. S., Gordon, B. A., Banks, J., Hornbeck, R., Chen, A., Chen, C., Flores, S., Goyal, M., Hobbs, D., Joseph-Mathurin, N., Jackson, K., Keefe, S., Koudelis, D., Massoumzadeh, P., McCullough, A., McKay, N., Nicklaus, J., Pulizos, C., Wang, Q., Sabaredzovic, E., Scott, J., Simmons, A., Rizzo, J., Vlassenko, A., Wang, Y., Hassenstab, J., Smith, J., Stout, S., Aschenbrenner, A. J., Karch, C. M., Marsh, J., Morris, J. C., Holzman, D. M., Barthélemy, N. R., Xu, J., Berman, S. B., Ikonomovic, S., Day, G. S., Graff-Radford, N. R., Farlow, M., Chhatwal, J. P., Ikeuchi, T., Kasuga, K., Ishiguro, T., Ishii, K., Senda, M., Niimi, Y., Huey, E. D., Salloway, S., Devenney, E., Schofield, P. R., Brooks, W. S., Bechara, J. A., Martins, R., Fox, N. C., Cash, D. M., Ryan, N. S., Jucker, M., Laske, C., Timofejavaite, R., Kuder-Buletta, E., Graber-Sultan, S., la Fougère, C., Reischl, G., Obermueller, U., Levin, J., Rödenbeck, Y., Vöglein, J., Lee, J. H., Roh, J. H., Vitali, P., Allegri, R. F., Mendez, P. C., Surace, E., Vazquez, S., Aguillon, D., Leon, Y. M., Ramirez, L., Serna, L., Baena, A., Bocanegra, Y., Levey, A. I., Johnson, E. C. B., Seyfried, N. T., Ringman, J., Fagan, A. M., Mori, H., Masters, C., Nobles, J. M., Sanchez-Valle, R. & Lopera, F., Apr 2026, In: Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease. 13, 4, 100513.

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Funded Research Projects

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