Aleister Saunders, Ph.D.

Dr. Saunders has been a director of the Science Center since 2019. He has served as Executive Vice Provost for Research & Innovation since July 2019, following Drexel’s attainment of R1 research status in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. He leads Drexel’s Office of Research, which also encompasses Drexel Applied Innovation, formerly the Office of Corporate Relations and Economic Development.

Drexel Ventures and the Office of Technology Commercialization are part of Drexel Applied Innovation. Dr. Saunders is a professor of biology at Drexel; his laboratory focuses its research efforts on identifying and characterizing genes and pathways that are involved in pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), in an effort towards identifying novel therapeutic strategies to delay or prevent the onset of AD.

He holds an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and he completed post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School.