RACHELLE
DOODY MD, PHD

Rachelle Doody MD, PhD is the Global Head of Neurodegeneration and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurodegeneration Franchise Head in Product Development, Neuroscience at Roche Pharmaceutical Company and it US entity, Genentech. In this role she oversees late stage development of drugs for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
She holds a BA in English and MA/PhD in Cognitive Anthropology from Rice University (focus on the brain and language), and did her medical training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She is board certified in Neurology and Psychiatry. Fieldwork experience includes studying cognition among non-literate Karen hill tribes in Northern Thailand.
Prior to joining Genentech/Roche in September, 2016, Dr. Doody was the Effie Marie Cain Chair in Alzheimer’s Disease Research at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas where she had founded and directed the Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders Center over a period of 27 years. She is now Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Baylor. While at Baylor, she published over 200 original research articles primarily dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders, served on the steering committees for the National Institutes of Health-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) and Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), and the executive committee for the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI). Dr. Doody was the Principle Investigator for the Phase 2 and 3 development of donepezil (Aricept) which is now the most widely-used AD therapy globally, and worked with numerous biotech and pharma companies over a period of 25 years in the design and execution of treatment trials for cognitive and behavioral treatment of AD. She has contributed to efforts to globalize the diagnosis and treatment of AD, including advising on guidelines in China, Malaysia, South Korea and the Philippines, educating investigators throughout Europe and Asia on study design issues, and training investigators on outcome measures to support global studies.
In her role as a practicing Neurologist, Dr. Doody was elected to Best Doctors in America from 1996-2016. She has received many awards from professional and civic groups, including Distinguished Alumni Award from Rice University in 2009 and Distinguished Faculty Award from Baylor College of Medicine in 2011. In 2018 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Clinical Trials in Alzheimer’s Disease.