Michael Donohue, PhD

Professor of Neurology

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Overview

Michael Donohue, PhD is an Associate Professor of Neurology, Associate Director of Biostatistics at the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI), and Co-Lead of the Biostatistics Unit of the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trial Consortium (ACTC).

Since obtaining his PhD in Mathematics in 2005, Dr. Donohue has worked on Alzheimer’s clinical trials and observational studies, such as the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). His primary area of interest is applying novel statistical methods to data from ADNI to better understand the multivariate course of markers of Alzheimer’s progression, and design innovative clinical trials to prevent or slow the progression of disease. He has studied the risk of cognitive decline associated with elevated brain amyloid in cognitively normal individuals; and helped design the first intervention in asymptomatic Alzheimer’s, the Anti-Amyloid Treatment for Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s (the A4 Study; in collaboration with Eli Lilly), and its primary outcome measure, the Preclinical Alzheimer Cognitive Composite. He has been awarded grants to develop innovative statistical approaches for Alzheimer’s from the National Institute on Aging; the Alzheimer’s Association, Michael J. Fox Foundation, and W. Garfield Weston Foundation; and the Clinical and Translation Research Institute of University of California, San Diego

Education and Training

  • University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA — PhD — 05/2005 — Mathematics

Research Funding

  • Building predictive algorithms to identify resilience and resistance to Alzheimer's disease
    NIH · R01AG079142 · Jun 1, 2023 – Feb 29, 2028 · Role: Co-Principal Investigator
  • Estimating Long-Term Disease Trajectories from Short-Term Data
    NIH · R01AG049750 · Feb 1, 2016 – Jan 31, 2021 · Role: Principal Investigator

Publications

  • Concurrent Changes in Plasma Phosphorylated Tau 217, Tau PET, and Cognition in Preclinical Alzheimer Disease. JAMA Neurol. 2025 Oct 01; 82(10):985-993.. View in PubMed
  • Multimodal prognostic modeling of individual cognitive trajectories to enhance trial efficiency in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimers Dement. 2025 09; 21(9):e70702.. View in PubMed
  • Frequency and Clinical Outcomes Associated With Tau Positron Emission Tomography Positivity. JAMA. 2025 07 15; 334(3):229-242.. View in PubMed
  • BrainAge moderates associations between Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers and cognitive decline: a meta-analysis across A4/LEARN, HABS and ADNI cohorts. medRxiv. 2025 Jul 10.. View in PubMed
  • White Matter Abnormalities and Cognition in Aging and Alzheimer Disease. JAMA Neurol. 2025 Aug; 82(8):825-836.. View in PubMed
  • Comments on “Novel Non-Linear Models for Clinical Trial Analysis With Longitudinal Data: A Tutorial Using SAS for Both Frequentist and Bayesian Methods”. Stat Med. 2025 Jun; 44(13-14):e70058.. View in PubMed
  • Changes in Daily Functioning in Association With Tau and Amyloid Among Unimpaired Older Adults With and Without Elevated Amyloid. Neurology. 2025 Jun 24; 104(12):e213775.. View in PubMed
  • Relationship between use of anti-platelet agents, oral anti-coagulants, and Aβ burden with cerebral microhemorrhages in cognitively asymptomatic adults. Alzheimers Dement. 2025 05; 21(5):e70167.. View in PubMed
  • A Machine Learning Approach to Predict Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer Disease Clinical Trials. Neurology. 2025 Apr 22; 104(8):e213490.. View in PubMed
  • Deep learning to quantify the pace of brain aging in relation to neurocognitive changes. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 Mar 11; 122(10):e2413442122.. View in PubMed