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Dr Sam Lockhart
Name:
Dr Sam Lockhart
Job title:
Senior Scientific Director (Perceptive); Adjunct Associate Professor (Wake Forest School of Medicine)
Place of work / study:
Perceptive / Wake Forest School of Medicine
Area of Research:
Neuroscientist with 20+ years’ experience investigating brain health using imaging, cognitive, and biomarker data. Have led imaging biomarker efforts in NIH ADRCs and both academic and industry clinical trials, have 90+ publications in aging and neurodegenerative disease, and am Programs Chair of the ISTAART Neuroimaging PIA. At Perceptive, I drive scientific strategy for imaging biomarkers in CNS clinical trials.
How is your work funded:
Primarily work at an Imaging CRO running the (neuro)imaging aspects of sponsored clinical trials funded by pharma/biotech.
Tell us a little about yourself:
Neuroscientist and neuroimager who spent a long time in academia at the imaging cores of NIH-funded Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers before moving to industry to help run neuroimaging in clinical trials of CNS therapeutics.
Tell us a fun fact about yourself:
Once fell off a bike and had to get stiches and thought to myself of the hospital I was in – I want to get a job here. A few months later, was hired as a clinical research coordinator in neurology clinical trials, which led me down the path I’ve taken to get involved in neurotherapeutics trials with brain imaging.
Why did you choose to work in dementia?
First, I saw brain health as the “moonshot” of our time — something critically important that many people needed to dedicate much effort to in order for the benefit to society to happen. Also, I was fascinated by the ability of imaging tools to look under the hood at the “cognitive engine” to help us understand what might be working and not working in the brain.
What single piece of advise would you give to an early career researcher?
Be proactive: build your network and advocate for your work; visibility drives opportunity.
What book are you reading right now? Would you recommend it?
Oh let’s be honest, I rarely read on my own outside the whole-lot I read at work. I do enjoy a podcast here and there during a school carpool or dog walk: The Lonely Island & Seth Meyers podcast, The West Wing Weekly, and science and industry update podcasts (Biospace, Dementia Matters, Dementia Researcher, The Top Line are among my recent downloads).
Favourite film of all time?
I am known for saying after family dinner at the end of a long weekend: “So which Star Wars movie are we watching tonight?”
Favourite ways to unplug and unwind?
Dog walks, playing catch with kids, playing guitar while my spouse plays violin
What’s the best decision you ever made?
Honestly, deciding to take a break from science after college to see if I wanted to get back to it. That’s how I moved to the random job where I met my future spouse, and set me on the course to (see above) fall off my bike and get into neuroimaging research!
What’s your favourite vacation spot?
Every summer we spend a few weeks or more at the family’s house in Upstate NY near one of the Finger Lakes. But only between June and August!
Do you collect anything?
Baseball hats. I probably have a hundred or more. Major leagues, minor leagues, senior citizen leagues, teams that haven’t existed for years.
