Thomas P. Sakmar, M.D. is a physician-scientist and the Richard M. & Isabel P. Furlaud Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Chemical Biology & Signal Transduction at The Rockefeller University in New York. He is also a guest professor at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. Dr. Sakmar received his A.B. degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago and his M.D. degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, and conducted post-doctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Sakmar has been an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in their Neuroscience Program and a Senior Scholar of the Ellison Medical Foundation. He is also a Senior Physician in The Rockefeller University Hospital and Director of the Human Subjects Protection Program. He was Acting President of Rockefeller University in 2002–2003. He has served on numerous academic, institutional, and governmental committees and panels and has consulted widely for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Dr. Sakmar primary research interest is to innovate drug discovery technology with a special focus on visual disorders and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease.