Biography

Dr. Huntington Potter is Professor of Neurology, Director of Alzheimer's Disease Program at the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome, and is Director of the CU Alzheimer's and Cognition Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center. Previously, Dr. Potter studied, researched and taught for 30 years at Harvard University. He then designed and directed the Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center & Research Institute. He is currently expanding his discovery that Alzheimer's disease is mechanistically related to Down syndrome, which invariably leads to Alzheimer's by age 30-40, through the development of many cells with trisomy 21 and other aneuploidy. Recently, he and his colleagues have found such cell cycle defects in numerous other neurodegenerative diseases, providing a novel approach to diagnosis and therapy. They are also developing several new treatments for Alzheimer's disease for testing first in animals and soon in humans. One, Leukine, is currently in clinical trials. Dr. Potter is author of over 100 scientific articles, books and patents, has received numerous awards for his work, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Inventors. His electron micrographs of DNA are on permanent exhibit in the National American History Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. Click here to learn more about recent projects going on in Dr. Potter's lab.

Recent Publications

Lucero, E. M., Freund, R. K., Smith, A., Johnson, N. R., Dooling, B., Sullivan, E., Prikhodko, O., Ahmed, M. M., Bennett, D. A., Hohman, T. J., Dell'Acqua, M. L., Chial, H. J., & Potter, H. (2022). Increased KIF11/kinesin-5 expression offsets Alzheimer Aβ-mediated toxicity and cognitive dysfunction. iScience, 25(11), 105288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105288 

Johnson, N. R., Wang, A. C., Coughlan, C., Sillau, S., Lucero, E., Viltz, L., Markham, N., Allen, C., Dhanasekaran, A. R., Chial, H. J., & Potter, H. (2022). Imipramine and olanzapine block apoE4-catalyzed polymerization of Aβ and show evidence of improving Alzheimer's disease cognition. Alzheimer's research & therapy, 14(1), 88. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13195-022-01020-9

Ahmed, M. M., Wang, A. C., Elos, M., Chial, H. J., Sillau, S., Solano, D. A., Coughlan, C., Aghili, L., Anton, P., Markham, N., Adame, V., Gardiner, K. J., Boyd, T. D., & Potter, H. (2022). The innate immune system stimulating cytokine GM-CSF improves learning/memory and interneuron and astrocyte brain pathology in Dp16 Down syndrome mice and improves learning/memory in wild-type mice. Neurobiology of disease, 168, 105694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2022.105694 

Ahmed, M. M., Johnson, N. R., Boyd, T. D., Coughlan, C., Chial, H. J., & Potter, H. (2021). Innate Immune System Activation and Neuroinflammation in Down Syndrome and Neurodegeneration: Therapeutic Targets or Partners?. Frontiers in aging neuroscience, 13, 718426. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2021.718426

Ahmed, M. M., Wang, A. C. J., Elos, M., Chial, H. J., Solano, A., Coughlan, C., Aghili, L., Anton, P., Markham, N., Adame, V., Gardiner, K. J., Boyd, T. D., Potter, H. (2021). Pro-inflammatory cytokine GM-CSF improves learning/memory and brain pathology in Dp16 Down syndrome mice and improves learning/memory in wild-type mice. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2021.07.04.451073.

Johnson, N. R., Wang, A. C. J, Coughlan, C., Sillau, S., Lucero, E., Viltz, L., Markham, N., Allen, C., Dhanasekaran, A. R., Chial, H. J., Potter, H. (2021). Imipramine and olanzapine block apoE4-catalyzed polymerization of Aβ and show evidence of improving Alzheimer’s disease cognition. bioRxiv. doi: 10.1101/2021.03.28.437389.

Potter H, Woodcock JH, Boyd TD, Coughlan CM, O'Shaughnessy JR, Borges MT, Thaker AA, Raj AB, Adamszuk K, Scott D, Adame V, Anton P, Chial HJ, Gray H, Daniels J, Stocker ME, Sillau SH. Safety and efficacy of sargramostim (GM-CSF) in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's Dement. 2021;7:312158. https://doi.org/10.1002/trc2.12158

A list of Dr. Potter's publications can be found on at Colorado PROFILES