Louis, Missouri. He received a Bachelor's degree in Psychology at Boston College and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. His research focuses on metabolic pathways related to amyloid-beta, the protein that accumulates in plaques and initiates Alzheimer's disease. His group pioneered an in vivo microdialysis technique to measure amyloid-beta levels in real time within the brains of living mice. Much of his recent work focuses on the role of brain activity in generation of amyloid-beta and the cellular processes underlying that phenomenon. In addition to the BrightFocus award, Cirrito is funded by the National Institutes of Health. He also directs an In Vivo Microdialysis Core Facility that enables academic and pharmaceutical groups to test the effect of novel therapies on amyloid-beta metabolism in vivo.